Paronella Park

What an amazing place..., what an amazing story!

This would be one of my most favourite spots out of our whole trip!

For $98.00 we had a nights accomodation at their Caravan Park, as well as a daytime guided tour, and a night time tour - including different features and lighting effects.

The facade of the Paronella Castle lit up at night

On 5 hectares of rainforest covered land adjacent to a waterfall, on the Mena Creek, Jose Paronella built his "dream" - a castle, and an amusement park, including magnificent features and gardens. This he shared with his family and the local community.

Hydro electricity allowed a refrigerator and hence
the supply of icecream, from the cafe, as well
as Jose and Margarita's baked goodies.

The Picnic Ground by the lake

Jose was a conscientious Spanish canecutter, who came to the far north of Qld in the early 1920's to make the most of his opportunities. He worked hard, didn't squander his earnings as many of his counterparts did, and was very proud of himself when he was able to buy his own cane farm. Although he hadn't completed a lot of schooling, there was no doubt about his ingenuity and business acumen. He bought and sold a few blocks of land and became very wealthy in his own right (even able to lend other migrants money, at a lower interest rate than the banks, and give them a chance to 'get ahead!'). This enabled him to purchase land in the precise area he wanted and with the water access nearby (a permanently running waterfall), he was able to fulfil another part of his dream - putting in a hydro electric power plant - operated by the power of the waterfall. Also containing a fresh water spring, this locality enabled Jose to have a constant source of water for his use.

This tower structure houses the turbine  hydro
 electric power supply

 


Jose had the only electricity in rural Queensland for a number of years in the 1930's, and to this day, with a renovated hydro turbine, the tourist park and attached accomodation area receives all of it's power and water from the foresight of Jose, and it actually feeds excess power into the grid.



Jose constructed all of  the buildings and features out of rocks and sand from the river bed, mixed with cement. Unfortunately, the natural materials contain a lot of micah, which oxidises quickly and so the buildings are being ravaged by rust etc. Between that, and the climatic nature of the tropics with huge rainfall and cyclones there is a constant need for renovation.The current owners are investigating ways to treat the building structures so that deterioration acts more slowly.

The "Castle", used as a cafe, and the rear structure was a huge
ballroom, come dining room/cinema.

Jose, returned to Spain, once he had had become wealthy, to marry the Spanish girl that had been betrothed to him 11 years earlier. He had not maintained contact with her,... and she had not waited!! She was now married to someone else. While visiting with her family, he met the youngest sister of the family, Margarita. It was by mutual agreement, to fulfill the arrangement that had gone awry, that he and Margarita were married, honey-mooned all around Europe, examining designs of castles, ballrooms, cinemas, cafes ...etc, all designs to be enjoyed by people and then made the long journey back to Australia to begin building their 'dream' alongside the Mena River Waterfall.

Mena Creek Waterfall

Now, the museum, Jose and Margarita's house was the second
 structure at Paronella Park

Hardworking, and talented, Jose and Margarita, built a house, a "castle", a cafe, a ballroom which doubled as a cinema, tennis courts, a number of water features, a picnic area, walkways and bridges throughout the gardens, tennis courts, a diving board into the pool under the waterfall, change rooms and a tunnnel, through the hillside to enable people to go through the hill, rather than around it, to access further areas of the garden! This became known as the Tunnel of Love, with courting couples making the most of the situation (chaste, I'm sure in the 1930's and 40's)!?? People came from all over the region during the ensuing years to partake of the amusements that the Paronella Family establishment offerred.



Jose, firstly built the Grand Staircase, so that he could cart rocks and sand for his construction
 up to the higher level above the waterfall

 During the years of the Second World War, Paronella Park became one of the most popular sites for  soldiers to have their R & R leave.

Jose and Maria had two children and when Jose died in his early 60's, Maria and her young adult children struggled on with the park for a time, but neither of them were really keen to carry on with the park. The daughter had married and lived in Brisbane and the son died suddenly, very young, from a heart condition. A downward spiral began for a beautiful place. Neglect and the growth of tropical vegetation, are two very quick acting forces and soon the park could hardly been seen.

Jose made individual mouldings of the fence 'posts' and planters for
 metresand metres of fences throughout the park.

 












The Castle structure however, remained visible from the nearby road, which is the 'Old Bruce Highway'. Eleven years ago, the current owners were driving past, looking for a tourism opportunity and a new community in which to live - Paronella Park grabbed their attention, and their imagination, and the rest as they say, 'is history'.

The 'new' cafe area, with reticulated water feature in front and viewing platforms on top for watching tennis
 matches one way, or swimming and boating on the lake, to the rear.

Much hard work, quite a few dollars and an affinity for the original Paronella vision, has seen Jose's Dream be revitalised, even despite a couple of cyclones in recent years. The public can again visit Paronella, which now has the added benefit of a great story to accompany the spectacular images.

The Avenue of Kauri Pines. It's a bit difficult to tell, but these were planted
so that the waterfall, some 200m away could be viewed through the end of the tunnel of trees!

 There were so many other features, too many to mention, as well as abundant wildlife. Turtles, fish and eels in the creek. Bent-wing bats in the tunnel, frogs, butterflies, brush turkeys and fire flies to name a few. (The turtles have even found a way to dispatch cane toads, which everyone is very pleased about!)

Nature is an incredible thing, and although a serious flood and Cyclones Larry and Yasi, have done some damage, regeneration has happened and the consequences have been natural changes to the unique environment.

A truly magical place!