Paronella Park is now operating off electricity generated by the waterfall using a 1933 hydro electric system!

The Hydro Restoration Project of 2009/10 got the Park's original hydro electric system back in action.

The hydro-electric system utilised in Paronella Park was the earliest application of hydro-electric technology in North Queensland, and as such is both rare and significant as an example of creative and technical achievement, and has the potential to reveal further information about the development and application of this technology.

In 1933 Paronella installed a hydro-electric system which harnessed the waterfall. The system used an aqueduct from the top of the falls across to an inlet pit.

The water then fell 30 feet, and was within the capacity of the turbine, an English model with variable pitch inlet valves to control the flow, which was directly coupled to a DC generator which was ex-army stock and which Paronella acquired cheaply.

Engineers from the South Johnstone Sugar Mill helped to design and install the system.