Cairns Skyrail, Kuranda, & Kuranda Rail

Today we took the cable car from Cairns up into the mountains, into the rainforest village of Kuranda. This smaller town has a population of roughly 3k people, and is primarily filled with markets/shops/restaurants/etc. The land of the village and surrounding area has been home to the Djabugay Aboriginal people for over 10,000 years, and the sights throughout the area are hugely significant to their religion and culture.

On the cable car up we saw beautiful views of the rainforest canopy and then Barron Gorge and Barron Falls. These were hugely impressive and it was clear why they were featured so heavily in Aboriginal culture.

We did an informative tour with a ranger at the top of the cable car, before heading into the town of Kuranda. We did a bit of walking through the markets in Kuranda and tried some vegan Latin American food. Following this we grabbed the Kuranda Scenic Railway line home.

The railway line has been in operation since 1891, and had over 15 tunnels, many long bridges, and fantastic views of the gorge and falls. Apparently it was a strategic supply line during world war 2, and it was initially built to curtail famine in the more centrally located towns during the gold rush(there was no line from the ocean inland before this one)

We ended the night with dinner at an Australian restaurant with the largest indoor restaurant aquarium in Australia(the restaurant was built into the Cairns aquarium). Chris was excited to try both Kangaroo and Crocodile!Read more