Skyrail Rainforest Cableway - Cairns, QLD., Australia

January 2011 is the beginning of the wet season in the tropics of Australia.  It is not your usual time to go on a far north Queensland holiday but on the other hand it is a lot less crowded with tourists and the major attractions are still in full swing as the economy up there is very tourism oriented.

One must do adventure is the trip to and from Kuranda, a small village set atop the rainforest escarpment just west of Cairns.  The traditional way in and out for the last 100 years has been on the railway.  More recently a gondola style cable way opened and combined with the railway to make a great day’s return trip between Cairns and Kuranda, that railfans and non-railfans will love.

Okay it’s not a railway as such but the Skyrail is an engineering feat and well worth the ticket to ride.  The Skyrail company picks you up from your hotel and drives you to the starting point for your day.  Some choose to do the Kuranda Scenic Railway in the morning and return by SkyRail in the afternoon.  We chose the other direction: to travel to Kuranda by SkyRail and return by the KSR in the afternoon.

The day started with a pickup from our hotel and shuttle out to the SkyRail terminus about 6kms outside of Cairns.  The terminus is at the base of the escarpment and the route starts by climbing straight up the hillside with great views back to the coast as you climb steadily.  All the way you are just a few metres above the rainforest canopy.  The only sound in your gondola car other than quiet conversation is the hum of the steel cable as you glide along between towers.

The view back towards Cairns and the Coral Sea.

The cableway is just 7.5kms long and your trip is broken into three sections.  The first is the climb up the escarpment.  Second takes you out along the ridge tops deeper into the rainforest and the third takes you along the side of the Barron Gorge and then gently down to the SkyRail terminus at Kuranda.

Barron Falls view from Skyrail

The views along the journey are great and you get a perspective of the forest that you never see from below.  I never realized the wide variety of foliage and colour amongst the treetops.  Not just shades of green through yellow but also vibrant reds of the most intriguing flowers.  It reminded me a bit of the flora from the movie Avatar.

Rainforest canopy from above - a different perspective

There are two way stations where you get out of the gondola and take a stroll along an elevated boardwalk in the rain-forest.  A forest guide takes tours every 20 minutes or so at each of these way stations.  We caught up with the tour as we wandered the boardwalk and learned a few interesting things about the plant life and animal life.

A Tour Guide explains some of the natural properties of native plants.

Kauri Tree's live more than 1,000 years but are not as big as their New Zealand brothers.

The journey takes about an hour and a half to two hours to complete.  You arrive in Kuranda and a free bus takes you the 1km to the top of the village where you can grab a late morning coffee. 1km may not be a long walk – but it is all up hill and it is the tropics – so take the bus!

Kuranda is full of tourist markets but almost all the quality goods are local or at least Australian made.  There is also the butterfly house and natural history museum to visit.  And everyone is very friendly – especially the guy who ran the museum who recognised my daughter from an outback archaeology survey he had done during 2007 way west in the outback where Jessica works.

Coming Soon

A rundown on our ride on the Sky Train and the Kunandra Scenic Railway.

First Post

Well it is 2011 and this is something I have intended to start doing for a few years now.  I plan to add posts here relating to my hobby of Model Railroading along with a bit of following the Prototype aka Railfanning.