MORE than half the land mass of the Cardwell Shire is World Heritage National Park. This area is a natural jewel, with its mountainous western region, fertile coastal flatlands and numerous tropical islands.
The 33 per cent of land that is not World Heritage listed, national park, State forest or Crown land, is populated with 10,000 people and is used for the shire’s major industries which include sugarcane, large banana plantations and tropical and rare exotic fruit orchards.
Tully, at the heart of the Cardwell Shire, is the whitewater rafting capital of Australia. It has another reputation concerning water, too. It receives some of the highest annual rainfall of any town in Australia. Rain mainly falls from November to March.
The shire is one of the main sugar regions of Queensland, with more than 22,000ha of cane extending from the Kennedy Valley in the south to Feluga in the north. From mid-June to mid-November, about 1.8 million tonnes of cane are crushed at the Tully Sugar Mill. The mill operates for 24 hours a day at this time. Tours can be arranged through the Tully Visitor and Heritage Centre during the harvesting season.
Other areas within the shire include the beachside town of Cardwell on the edge of the Hinchinbrook Channel, the palm-fringed beaches of Mission Beach, Hull Heads and Tully Heads.
Visit the world’s largest island national park, Hinchinbrook Island. It has rugged mountains, mangrove everglades and long sandy beaches and can be accessed by ferry or charter boat from Cardwell. This is the home of the famous Thorsborne Trail.
Back on the mainland, enthusiastic hikers may like to take the 8km Dalrymple Gap Walking Track and visit Edmund Kennedy National Park, Murray Falls, Tully Gorge, the Licuala Forest, Lacey Creek and Misty Mountains.
Misty Mountains is Australia’s first network of long distance walking trails in a high altitude rainforest environment.
Several of the Misty Mountains walking tracks follow the ridgelines historically used by the traditional owners, the Jirrbal and Ma:Mu people.
The Elizabeth Grant Falls walk starts with a 45-minute drive from Tully to Cochable Creek. It is then a 10.4km return walk to the Elizabeth Grant Falls. The trail is an easy walk and follows an old forestry road. The return walk takes approximately four hours.
Is Tully the wettest? Try this for size!
NORTH Queensland areas like Tully, Innisfail and Babinda have often been considered in competition about which town gets the most rainfall in a year.
At last, Tully has put its foot down (or rather its gumboot) and done something concrete about claiming the title of one of the wettest towns in Australia. It has an average annual rainfall of 4490mm, and that’s enough for any town to deserve some kind of award!
So while you’re there, visit the town’s Golden Gumboot and find out a little more about why it rains so much in Tully.
