Lync-Haven Rainforest Retreat

Local Townships...

Cairns

Captain Cook discovered "Trinity Bay" on Trinity Sunday 1770, but Cairns was not settled until after Captain Phillip Parker King sailed here and found Trinity Inlet on his way north. An official party then arrived and Cairns was established on the Western side of Trinity Inlet.

In 1876 Cairns was proclaimed a port to serve the inland goldfields and the miners, but the miners discovered that Port Douglas provided easier access. Cairns quickly regained its place though, as the main coastal town when it was connected by rail to the inland in 1885 to become a major railhead and sugar port.

As gold became scarce, sugar took over as the economic base. The town's early settlers included men of vision and wealth. Thomas Swallow, who built Hambledon Sugar Mill and Richard Ash Kingsford, grandfather of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, (who became first mayor) built his home on a hill above Cairns almost a century ago. Known as the "House on the Hill" it became WWII headquarters of the top secret Z Force.

Australians and U.S, regular troops trained here in the war years, the relics of their camps remain sign posted on the Tablelands. The Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, which turned the war, was launched from Trinity Bay.

Cairns has developed into a major sugar growing area, with harvesting and milling from August to November. Cairns has Queenslands third biggest sugar terminal at Smiths Creek on Trinity Bay. In addition to sugar, the regions industries include dairying, tobacco, mining, shipbuilding and tourism. Cairns is the fastest developing tourist destination in Australia and has a growing number of hotels and fleets of game and fishing boats which chase record Marlin catches every September to December.

The average Summer day is around 32oC and 24oC overnight. In winter, the average range is 25 - 18oC. Summer is the North's "wet season", when some roads North become near impassable, but when the Cairns region is at its greenest. The average Cairns rainfall is 2000mm during the wet, but the sun still shines an average 6.2 hours every day. The sunniest month of October has 8.4 hours of sun per day, while the average for winter is 7.3 hours.

The Cairns Botanical Gardens were established in 1886 and are open daily from Sunrise to sunset. Munro Martin fernery (open weekdays from 8am to 4.45pm) covers 319 hectares (6.5 hectares are gardens and parklands). Apart from the collection of 200 species of Palms, more than is grown by the Sydney Botanical Gardens, here you will find magnificent Orchids, Bromeliaeds, Ferns and Gingers.

Chillagoe

Chillagoe is located 215 kilometres West of Cairns. From Cairns travel through Kuranda, Mareeba, Dimbulah, Petford and Almaden to get to this unique place. There is 120 kilometres of bitumen and the rest is dirt road. From Cairns this takes approximately three and a half hours.

Chillagoe's history is as a copper mining town. One and a half kilometres by road from the town are the "State Smelters", which were made part of a reserve. There are over 150 old copper and lead mines known here.

Chillagoe has become synonymous with high quality marble produced at the local mines. Chillagoe marble is of export quality and is seen in foyers of some of Australia's top hotels. The limestone caves here are also unique.

Limestone is a sedimentary rock. Falling rain combines with carbon dioxide in the air to form carbonic acid. The acid and limestone react forming calcium bicarbonate, which is soluble. Limestone can be eroded by water at the surface and underground in a way that results in a set of distinct landforms called "Karst". 400 million years ago limestone was deposited as calcareous mud. Major earth movements resulted in the limestone and other interbedded sediments being folded and tilted to a vertical position, since deposition. These towers appear, today, above the ground as gaunt pinnacles. These towers are massive at Chillagoe, Mungana and Rookwood. Chillagoe Karst results from heavy rainfall.

Over long periods of time, a mild acid solution has seeped through cracks dissolving the limestone to form underground caverns and tunnels, forming underground decorations.

Caves providing a stable environment as temperature and humidity remain constant. Only a few animals have been able to adapt to the darkness in caves. Bats have a sonic guidance system, which they use in these caves stable and protected conditions. A major predator for the bats here is the Children's Python and the Brown Tree Snake. Feral Cats are also predators in some bat colonies. Chillagoe is one of five Australian nesting sites of the Grey Swiftlet that have an echo location system for flying in caves.

A small few galleries of Aboriginal paintings occur in the area but are only accessible on foot. They are located near the Ryan Imperial Cave at Mungana.

There are nine separate areas of National Park in a 161-kilometre radius of Chillagoe. The largest are the Royal Arch and Donna Parks, 1514 and 178.1 hectare respectively.

Cooktown

Captain Cook established the first European settlement here in Australia in 1770. He found refuge here for 48 days, while repairing the Endeavour. There are beautiful empty white beaches, mountains, Botanic Gardens and picnic spots, great fishing, swimming holes and more. Since 1770 Cooktown has survived many events. The Gold Rush boom, devastating fire (the buildings were mainly timber) and several cyclones are all part of the history of Cooktown.

There are two great Museums. The James Cook Museum (in the Sir Joseph Banks Gardens) was erected in 1887 as the Convent of St Mary but is now run by the Queensland National Trust. The Cooktown Sea Museum is also very informative with interesting displays of items found in and around the Coral Reef.

The Grassy Hill Lighthouse and lookout is another popular place, and was recently saved from demolition by the town's people. It was from here that Captain James Cook plotted the course to get the Endeavour safely.

Cooktown is spread under a canopy of tropical trees, bright with many Bougainvilleas, Scarlet Poincianas and white and pink Frangipanni in the early summer. The Endeavour River is here, where 22,000 Chinese landed during the gold rush days and made Cooktown the busiest port in Queensland. Ships from the United States, England, China and Singapore bought thousands of Gold Prospectors.

Cooktown suddenly became a seaport for the Goldfields, becoming for a time the wealthiest town in Australia and the second busiest port in Australia. The population grew to over 30,000 including 18,000 Chinese. Cooktown was at the brink of extinction after the devastating cyclone of February 1949, and only a handful of people stayed on. It now has a population of about 1200, greater than at any time since 1920.

The Captain James Cook Museum is full of the history of the town and the relics of early Cooktown. The Sea Museum is also very informative, showing the creatures that are found in and around the Coral Reef. The Banks of New South Wales and North Queensland are over a century old; with wide counters constructed mostly of beautiful timbers. There is also a Reef and Rainforest display at Hillcrest Lodge, with butterflies, birds and a aquarium.

Black Mountain is a remarkable sight. The soil is richly volcanic near the creeks, but only a few trees grow here. The mountains themselves have some boulders as large as a house. It has been called the Mountain of Death.

The Great Barrier Reef is only 10 kilometres off shore and the Marlin fishing is the best in the world. Also off Cooktown is Lizard Island Resort.

Mossman

Mossman is the centre of commerce and the outpost of the sugar industry here and an area of great scenic beauty and incredible visual contrasts. The highly fertile cane land is bordered by towering Mountains with lush Rainforest covering and cut by beautiful mountain streams, which reach a coastline of beaches.

Mossman Mill was the first Australian mill to crush over 100,000 tons of cane in a season. The mill conducts tours for visitors during the five months of the crushing season. After burning, the cane is cut and transported to Mossman Mill in tram trucks, during winter, which is harvest time. Traffic comes to a halt is the town Centre when the locomotive is heard and eighty or more cane carts rattle past. The mill is then crushing and cane fires are brilliant at night. Mossman Mill, handles around 100,000 tonnes of cane each season. During the season the sweet smell of molasses fills the air.

The district has a history of contrasts and changes. More than 100 years ago, sugar cane was grown here, but had little value when the nearest mill was 200 miles away. Wealthy Victorian investors bought the much-needed machinery to mill the cane but through ignorance and mismanagement the anticipated prosperity turned to despair.

Success came when the Government provided the necessary capital to let local farmers built their own mill. Self-management provided the salvation, (of the district) and the independent Mossman Farmers capitalised on the new opportunities and for 10 years the area leaped ahead. But prosperity suffered with the sudden unexpected changeover of labour, from Asian and Melanesian to expensive European labour.

Mossman Gorge

The World Heritage Daintree Rainforest of Mossman Gorge is a ten-minute drive from Mossman. A scenic walking track follows the Mossman River banks upstream from the public picnic and BBQ area providing access to swimming holes and an opportunity to view the river, rapids, wildlife and the Rainforest. This is a beautiful place to cool off with the cold clear mountain water tumbling over rocks from the Rainforest Mountains. There are numerous deep clear rock pools which are very popular to relax or swim in.

Mossman River Gorge is situated at the southern end of the Daintree National Park. The Queensland Government dedicated this 56,500-hectare park in 1966 to permanently protect the prominent Main Coast Range - part of Australia's Great Dividing Range - and the headwaters and the creeks, which flow from it, and the remote plateau tablelands further West. In its 20 kilometres rush to the sea, the Mossman River has created a deep, steep sided Gorge through these dense mountains.

Except to experienced bushwalkers most of the gorge is inaccessible, but a 3-kilometre loop track allows visitors to experience inside of the Rainforest without discomfort. Along the track giant fig trees can be seen and birds are often abundant in their canopies.

Quiet observation for a short time, will often be rewarded by seeing some of the many birds, which live here. The brilliant Blue Ulysses and the Cairns Birdwing can be seen tracing an erratic path through the air. The male Birdwing is the brightest, with beautiful green, black and yellow wings. His mate is larger and coloured in soft shades of brown. Also living here is the Hercules moth, the world's largest moth with a wingspan of 25 centimetres. Platypus and Tortoise may be seen surfacing to breath in the calmer sections of the river.

The startling blue of the Ulysses Butterfly has a wingspan of more than 12 centimetres. One of the largest and most beautiful butterflies in Australia, the Ulysses or Mountain Blue Butterfly, is found in Rainforests areas only where the food-plant of the Corkwood tree grows. Also popular is the pink flowered Euodia Eleryana.

Each butterfly or moth species has its own trees, vines and plants upon which they feed and need to pollinate. The best time to see them is immediately after rain, when the butterflies emerge from the shelters and converge on flowers, making up for lost time.

The accessible lower reaches of the Gorge give you an opportunity to explore the fascinating lowland Rainforest. Tree trunks crowd each other and their dense canopies block all but the occasional ray of sunlight from penetrating the forest interior. High in the branches of tall trees, ferns and orchids have found a way of getting closer to the essential sunlight without the need for massive trunks of their own.

Port Douglas

Port Douglas is situated nearly 70 klms North of Cairns and is wedged between towering forest covered mountains and the sparkling Coral Sea. The town was settled in 1877 as the main port for the Palmer Goldfields, because it was a safe place to anchor. Railroads were established in Cairns, and Port Douglas gradually diminished in size. But over the last decade, Port Douglas has emerged from the sleepy seaside fishing port to being an atmospheric destination for all types of visitors.

Port Douglas has Four Mile Beach. At the northern end there is a small headland, which is well worth the climb or drive for the fabulous views back over the beach, the town and seawards towards Low Isles. With the Outer Barrier Reef closer here than any other major town, Port Douglas is fast becoming the best departure point to see this underwater wonderland.

Enjoying the swimming, fishing or diving among the simply stunning coral of the Great Barrier Reef is very popular; otherwise the expansive white-sanded beaches offer a variety of activities. Tennis, Golf and Horse riding facilities are all available here.

Low Isles

Low Isles off Port Douglas is hard to beat. It's only 14klms from the mainland and one of the few undeveloped Reef Islands accessible to all.

Captain James Cook, sailing past Low Isles in HMS Endeavour on June 10 1770, made a note in his log describing a "Small low island". For the last century the caretakers of Low Isles have been the red and white lighthouse keepers. The historic lighthouse is almost hidden be towering palms and vast coral gardens grow right to the shoreline. One of the few remaining manned lights on coastal Australia is here at Low Isles.

Low Isles is actually two islands; a true coral cay built up by wave action to 1.5 metres above sea level and a larger, mangrove-studded island, which protects the lagoon and coral gardens. Reef flats that are exposed at low tide and allow visitors to experience this beauty join them. The mangrove island is uninhabited and is a rich breeding ground for marine life.

Low Isles has created a safe and sheltered lagoon, with coral gardens growing to the edge of the beach. The wide clean beach is strewn with coral and shells and criss-crossed with strands of purple flowering vine.

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