Rainforest Refuge
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday June 6, 1990
RAILWAY buffs should note that it's 12 months short of the centenary of the Cairns-Kuranda railway line, and one suspects that a suitable flurry of celebrations will take place in 1991.
Opened in June 1891, the historic railway snakes its way up from Cairns to rainforest-edged Kuranda. For the 90-minute journey, passengers perched on stiff-backed red bench seats in the old wooden carriages rock and sway across gorges and through glossy scenery ribboned with waterfalls and slashed by the Barron River.
At the end of the line, Kuranda station is a gem of its genre - colonial fretwork, deep awnings and masses of potted and hanging ferns. Be sure to pick up a booklet from the ticket office on the history of the railway; it contains a certificate verifying you've undertaken "an exciting and breathtaking adventure".
A journey on this time-warp railway is an integral part of a visit to Kuranda, the breezy hill-top town of the Atherton Tablelands that still has the flowers-in-the-hair feel of a hippie commune. There are few "feral hippies" - as the locals like to call them - left these days, but the alternative lifestylers are busy weaving and growing organic vegetables, and there's a sprinkling of Cairns workers who prefer the 30-minute road journey to living in "town".
Those who remember Kuranda as a Nimbin-style drop-out zone will find things have become much more commercial. Daytrippers rush about with the shiny-eyed urgency of tourists determined to notch up all available attractions in the space of a few hours.
Bull's-eye target on the list is the open-air market which opens Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and consists of some 100 stalls selling everything from hand-worked puppets and silk-screened T-shirts to jars of local honey and sweet-smelling tropical fruit.
Kuranda succeeds in delivering one-hit Australiana but such palpable nostalgia rarely comes cheap. A visit to the Wildlife Noctarium, for example, costs $7 for adults or $4 for children 4-14. I consider this poor value for viewing sugar gliders and flying foxes in a three-level cage which smells unpleasantly like my teenage sons' bedrooms.
The nearby Butterfly Sanctuary charges $8.50 for adults or $5 for kids but it's infinitely more fun. Electric-blue Ulysses butterflies flit about like scraps of shiny silk on the breeze, landing gently on one's shoulders or hair. Some 350 butterflies representing 35 species live in a huge, light-filled aviary in which a rainforest environment of waterfalls, pools and lush vegetation has been created. If nothing else, the size of the place has to impress - it's been endorsed by The Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest butterfly farm.
At the Tjapukai Dance Theatre, a talented troupe of Aboriginal performers play the didgeridoo, sing, dance and recreate the mystical Dreamtime. It's stirring stuff but unfortunately not quite thrilling enough to keep the Japanese tour group sitting in front of me awake. Who knows how they could sleep through an hour of full-on didgeridoo but at least they rallied in time to rush the stage for group photos with the dancers at the end of the show.
If you go to Kuranda for no other reason than to see this marvellous piece of theatre it will be a day well spent. Some members of the troupe are on a world tour and the Tjapukai Dance Theatre took out the 1989 Pacific Asia Travel Association's gold award for cultural development. Tickets are a most reasonable $12 for adults and $6 for children.
When one has done the major attractions there are cleansing Fourex ales to be had at The Bottom Pub or The Top Pub, named for their locations at either end of hilly Coondoo Street, and villagey shops to explore.
The cottage-style Kuranda Gallery features three rooms thick with works by Australian artists and craftspeople, while the Jilli Binna Aboriginal Co-operative is the place to go for native artefacts.
Although Kuranda can be easily managed as a daytrip from either Port Douglas or Cairns, there's plenty of accommodation available for an overnight or weekend stay.
Pick of the bunch must surely be Kuranda Rainforest Resort. It's about two kilometres from Kuranda Station and consists of red cedar cabins built in pole style, some with loft-like bedrooms on an upper level, plus a dormitory-type lodge for budget travellers.
A regular shuttle bus service operates down to Kuranda proper and there's a courtesy coach from Cairns airport or the city coach terminal.
With a delicious touch of whimsy, guests at this rainforest resort are urged to try the special house cocktail. It's called - wait for it - a Carmen Kuranda.
Drink one or 100 and you, too, may be tempted to stick flowers in your hair and drop out in this all-Aussie tropical hill station.
FACT FILE
FOR details of packages, tours and accommodation in Cairns, contact the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau, phone (02)2321788.
Kuranda Rainforest Resort features a variety of accommodation, ranging from multi-share hostel style at $15 a person overnight to two-bedroom pole cabins sleeping up to four persons at $75 a cabin overnight ($90 with kitchen facilities). For details phone (070)937555.
© 1990 Sydney Morning Herald
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