Sunday we left August Moon Caravan Park and went to
Paronella Park.
The Story of a Spaniards Dream
Everyone has a dream but not everyone`s dreams are
fulfilled.
Jose Paronella`s dream was to build a castle.
He chose a
special part of Australia and created Paronella Park.
On 13 acres beside Mena
Creek Falls he built his castle, picnic areas at the lakeside, tennis courts,
tunnels and bridges, and wrapped it up in an amazing range of 7000 tropical
plants and trees.
North Queensland’s first Hydro Electric Plant was built in
1933 to power the 5 ha (13 acre) park, and the castle grounds were ready to
welcome the public in 1935.
The lush growth of all the plants and trees with moss and
ground covers are beautiful. There is so much to see one could spend all day
looking and soaking up the atmosphere with the waterfalls creating a background
sound.
It is wonderful to see what is left of the buildings just
amazing.
What remains today is a skeleton of the original. You can
visualise what it was like by what is left today.
The gardens have all grown and the paths remade with the
tall trees and water ways and the main water fall sounding in the back ground
it is easy to find your way to the entrance from anywhere in the park.
The Grand Staircase
The Falls
Feeding the fish
Kauri Avenue
Electric Fern
The Cottage when first built.
Not knowing what sand and stone to use in his cement
mixtures, has resulted in salts coming out and as a result concrete cancer and rust has
made all of the buildings unstable and dangerous, as some photos will show. A
lot are propped up with jacks (acrow jacks) and are only to be viewed from
outside.
For all that it was well worth the visit to see it all; we
would recommend it to anyone. Go see for yourself.
http://www.paronellapark.com.au/about/brief-history
I remember seeing some of this place on one of the TV holiday shows. Glad you enjoyed your visit.
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