A Spanish Castle and a romantic story.
Our latest adventure took us on a road trip south of Cairns to visit a very special place. Welcome to Paronella Park, home to the remains of a castle and the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen. It's hard to know where to start with describing this unique place. With the beauty I see, or the history? A bit of both I guess.
Paronella castle ruins sit on 5 hectares of land with a running stream, a waterfall, a working hydroelectric plant and an amazing array of trees and gardens.
There is a lovers lane lined with towering kauri trees and trails that wind through huge bamboo plants. There's a beautiful 15 metre waterfall that cascades into the pool below. Above it spans a suspension bridge where you can take in the majesty of the castle and tea gardens around the pool. They have a turtle breeding area further downstream where you can also feed the fish.
Everything was built by hand and is of concrete. Being that the tropics are hot, wet and humid, there is moss growing on so many of the ornate features of these gardens that just add more character rather than look unloved.
The history goes something like this:
Josè Paronella came to Australia from Spain in 1913, worked hard in the cane fields, bought and sold farms and returned to Spain to marry his fianceè, only to find she'd married someone else. What the! So what to do now? Why, he married her sister Margarita instead and brought his bride back to Australia. In 1929 he started building her a castle. And oh what a castle it was.
Over many years they laboured together to build a theatre which also doubled as a ball room and wedding venue, a projector room, tearooms, tennis courts and a small museum, all of which opened in 1935.
original projector and films
Now Josè was a very clever man and a man of vision. He used the permanent stream and waterfall to create a hydroelectric plant to provide power to the property. This was the second hydroelectric system in Queensland, and the only privately owned one. This power plant meant he could power his theatre/ball room and have an ice-creamery, what a treat! Back in 1935 very few people had power yet, here was Paronella Castle with electric lights, flushing toilets and deliciously cold ice creams. And in the North Queensland tropics you can't go past an ice cream to cool you down on the inside. If that didn't work then a swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall would certainly do it. Josè even installed diving boards to give you options as to how you'd get in the water.
Josè went on to plant over 7000 trees, lined pathways with concrete planters, built small ornamental bridges over little creeks and created a lovers lane of kauri trees. Thanks to a combination of disastrous wet seasons, floods, the death of Josè, a fire that destroyed the theatre and damaging cyclones, the park was sold then left in ruins and nature started to take back the land.
Fast forward to 1993 when the current owners fell in love with the property and the history of it and started the mammoth effort to uncover and preserve the ruins and restore the gardens to their former glory.
the kauri trees down lovers lane
What an amazing job Mark and Judy Evans have done to bring this property back to life. They offer guided informative tours, evening tours where the whole place looks magical under lights and have a delightful Cafe with delicious homebaked scones. And yes, we did indeed indulge in the scones.
We've been here once before, several years ago, and were thrilled at the chance to return and be delighted all over again at this wonderful, very special, park.
Until next time, Watusi Woman - feeling romantic, out. 💗
https://www.tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au/articles/12-things-you-didnt-know-about-paronella-park/
