We followed the old Bruce Hwy to Paronella Park. Several people had recommended it to us. In 1913 Jose Paronella came from Spain and made his fortune in sugar cane and land. He returned to Spain in the 20s, married and came back to Queensland to build his dream castle by Mena Falls. He built a castle and charged people to see it. It ended up being a big complex with 2 castles; a ballroom where he provided entertainment, a place to swim and play tennis, walking trails, and a tunnel to a small waterfall. His wife made and sold ice cream to the tourists. It was an impressive undertaking, but a series of floods and cyclones and a fire had damaged it and the new highway bypassed it. By the 1970s it was deserted. It needs lots of work. The concrete is crumbling, but the new owners hope to revive it all.
The guide showed us the buildings and the tunnel, and the bats that live there now. The falls were pretty and there were some turtles and eels in the water. The museum had pictures of the castles in their glory and it must have been quite a place.
South of there we stopped at the Tully info center and the lady there told us about their Golden Gumboot Festival. At one time there was a gold Gumboot that was passed to the town that got the most rain. Tully won it for good in 1950 with the Australian record for annual annual rainfall. They erected a giant gumboot that is as high as the total, 26 feet tall!
We decided to stop and go to the festival. It was a fairly small affair. There was a stage with a few acts, some carnival rides, food vendors and craft booths. We wandered around, then sat in the grandstands to listen to a good country music band. We watched the parade go around the ring, twice. And I tried my hand at the Gumboot Throw. At 39 feet, it was better than the little kids.
We were walking around again, when someone came up to us and said, "I know you!". It was a couple we had met watching the sunset at Uluru! They were from Innisfail and come to Tully for the festival. It's a big country, but not all that big, I guess.
We had parked the camper at a rest area near town, so we decided to stay there overnight. We were having a drink when a lot of people parked in the lot. They were dressed up and we found out they were going to some entertainment in another town by bus. The daughter of one man started talking to us about the area and Camping. We told her we were going to some falls south of town and she said she lived near them. And she invited us to stop by after the falls "for a cuppa".
We decided to have pizza for supper. They didn't get the order right, they put pineapple on it and I've decided I'm definitely not a fan of that on pizza.
Pictures - Memorial to Italian cane cutters, Catholic Church in Innisfail, Church interior, Innisfail, Paronella Park, Turtles and an eel, Golden Gumboot, Parade float, Jeanne throwing gumboot
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