Author Archives: ouraussiehome

Look! A cassowary crossing roadsign!!  Southern cassowaries live in a very small region of the Queensland coast, so this was pretty much my only chance to get this one.  We weren’t lucky enough to spot any cassowaries in the wild but we did get to see (and feed!) some when we visited Townsville (post to come!). In Kuranda is a placed called BatReach.  We were really hoping to visit but they were closed when we arrived.  Their website (which has … Read More

While we were in Cairns we drove up to Kuranda.  Actually I should say we drove back up to Kuranda, since we’d driven by on our way into town.  It’s up in the mountains and it’s a gorgeous little tourist town.  The big attraction is taking a skyrail or train up to the town, but unfortunately that was too pricey for us.  (We decided to spend our money on visiting the Great Barrier Reef instead!)  Because of the skyrail, Kuranda … Read More

Cairns was lovely.  The weather was perfect.  A tropical paradise to us Victorians.  They even have a free swimming lagoon which we had to visit.  We started all the way at one end of the esplanade.  Because we also had to visit the fig tree playground.  A playground built around a huge tree?  Definitely worth a visit. Some perspective.  See that bit of yellow and red and blue?  That’s my kids. There.  There they are. Heaps of playing and climbing … Read More

Our first view of Cairns was from a lookout on the Kennedy Highway.  It may have been love at first sight.  We felt like we were back in Tassie on this road!  Mountainous and curvy.  Towing a caravan is never more fun. 🙂 We stayed at the best caravan park near the Crystal Cascades.  Cairns is in tropical far north Queensland.  These stats are amazing! We walked up to see the Crystal Cascades waterfall first. We took in the view … Read More

After Cooktown our plan is to make our way down the coast as far as Mackay and then head inland.  After we saw the rock art in Laura we went to Mareeba for a few days.  We had spent a night here on our way north.  The town has a rodeo grounds you can camp at and these usually charge less than caravan parks which is good for our family.  The amenities are never as nice at show grounds but … Read More

Before we started on our trip around Australia I heard about the Mon Repos Turtle Centre, where you can go to watch sea turtles laying eggs on the beach.  That sounds absolutely magical!  It made my list of things we had to see on our trip.  I was so glad we ended up nearby and could visit.  Mon Repos is near Bundaberg, and we stayed in nearby Elliott Heads.  Unfortunately for us, it was the wrong time of year to … Read More