It had been raining for 10 days on our sunny Qld caravan trip.  The beaches did not beckon and a brochure mentioned a back road with an old castle on it. Didn't sound too exciting but with nothing to lose we headed out and,..
ended up at the most unique and amazing place--Paronella Park.

Over the next few hours we took a guided tour which told us how this amazing castle came into being from the tenacious dreams of it's owner. We heard how it was a unique and "stately pleasure dome" way ahead of it's time and certainly there was in Aussie Queensland remotely like it, then OR now and how true love, a little unusual perhaps, won out in the end.

Quite apart from the castle itself, there was the whole gardens area by the waterfall, the old moss covered picnic tables, the rainforest, the walking tracks, the bids, tiny bats and fish to discover.  And the Hydro scheme, albeit small scale, was yet another flash of genius.

Next was an aboriginal dance display, very professional and interesting followed by again, a very educational and well presented tour of the gardens learning about the medicinal qualities of many plants from an indigenous person from the area.

We were lucky enough to find a caravan site available on-site but there are also many other places to stay close by and after a meal at the Paronella cafe we were ready for another site tour.  We did wonder at the need for this Night Tour but to our surprise it was the best part of the whole experience! Unbelievably it showed us yet another perspective of the park and the hosts had cleverly kept special extra treasures, lighting and sights to make it a totally new and special time.

Next morning we found it hard to tear ourselves away from Paronella and walked all around the whole area again, viewing it from across the river as well.  We spent seven fantastic weeks in Queensland seeing many and varied treasures but Paronella Park was the surprise Jewel in the Crown.

Doug and Frances