Cardwell surprised us – it was totally unknown. But we really enjoyed it, good van site, nice town with great broad-walk, and plenty to do.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting there
South Mission Beach > El Arish > Tully > Cardwell (70km)
It’s a beautiful morning and we get to see South Mission Beach in the sunshine just as we leave. Now we can see what attracts so many people. We drive towards El Arish, and on the way enjoy the Chocolate farm – see the Mission Beach blog.
It is nice to be going through Tully knowing that floodwaters have receded. But as we drive south we can see how close the waters are, and what a massive expanse of water is still trying to drain away.
From Tully it is around 45km to Cardwell.
The town
Cardwell is a tropical coastal town in the Cassowary Coast Region. The relationship between the Aboriginal people and the early white settlers does not paint a pretty picture.
The Warrgamay people in the area and on nearby Hinchinbrook Island were described as numerous and having some of the largest spears, shields and wooden swords ever recorded in Australia.
The first Europeans came to settle the area in 1864, led by George Dalrymple, in order to create a port initially called “Port Hinchinbrook”. There is an impressive cairn, near the Rainforest and Reef Centre, which records “Near to this cairn landed in January 1864 the first settlers of Cardwell – the oldest town in Queensland north of Bowen”. Subsequently, the town was renamed after an English Viscount.
A few miles inland from the landing site was a very beautiful aboriginal village and bora ground surrounded by native banana plantations. Dalrymple is reported to have said to the Aborigines: “I then said to [the natives] that they must clear out..as we wished to occupy the land and would shoot any who approached, that we were strong and that another party would soon follow”. Soon after a group of Aboriginals “were set upon suddenly by Dalrymple’s men and rather cut up”.
There followed continuing battles between the white settlers and the Aboriginal people of the area. In March 1865, Lieutenant Blakeney and seven troopers of the Native Police spent two days clearing the area around Cardwell of Aboriginal presence by “burning camps and dispersing the natives.”
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Cardwell became a transport hub for prospectors heading to the Etheridge Shire goldfields 200 km inland. Captain John Moresby visited Cardwell in 1871 and wrote that “various tribes of aborigines roam about the vicinity, and not unnaturally regard the white men, who are rapidly dispossessing them of their homes, as mortal enemies. They…suffer terrible retaliation at the hands of our countrymen, who employ native troopers, commanded by white men to hunt down and destroy the offenders when the opportunity offers“.
Often the police took Aboriginal children and gave them away in Cardwell to be domesticated.
By 1884 there were 25 houses and 50 people living in Cardwell, any by 1921 this had only grown to 70 people. In the 2011 census, Cardwell had a population of 1,176 people.
But due to the difficulty of the terrain (mountains on one side, mangroves on the other side), Cardwell is the only town on the Bruce Highway between Townsville and Cairns that is located on the coast. The Highway runs through the centre of the town.
The van park
We are at the Beachcomber Cardwell which is right across the road from the ocean. This is a very good park and we have a large drive-through site for $38 a night. It is Easter so we are not sure if that is the Easter rate or not.
There is plenty of room for Mobi and the awning with privacy/shade screen attached. Also for parking The Cruiser.
The pool is really good although a tad small, but is shaded and has just that hint of a chill to make it ever so inviting. All facilities are pretty good and there is a dump point. There is also a restaurant and bar.
It does feel a bit crowded as it fills up but that is also partly because some people are idiots in terms of where they park their cars.
Day 0 (arrival)
We get to the van park by mid afternoon, set up and have a look around town. Its long and narrow with shops, cafes, restaurants variously scattered along the Highway. There is an IAG close to the Park.
We drove out to look at Port Hinchinbrook, a massive residential, retail, port and bar/restaurants development that was started but seems to have run out of steam. There are some very large modern houses here set around the canal development, but there are also many empty blocks of land.
We are there at low tide and the main boat harbour does not seem to have a navigable channel – its all mud flats. Further around is a very modern dual boat launching ramp. Its a strange place – does it have a future?
That evening we hit the Park bar/restaurant and have pizzas, which made a nice change. We also got some excellent moon-rise photos as the near-full moon hung brilliantly over the ocean.
Day 1
It’s a lovely day, wth clear skies. I am up early and get a few really good sunrise photos.
We got ourselves going early and walked the foreshore through the town. In 2011 Cyclone Yasi not only destroyed the foreshore but it also destroyed half of the main road running through the town (the Bruce Highway).
The entire foreshore was restored in 2013 with an excellent collection of memorials, sculptures and sand blasted images.
Amazingly the town’s long jetty survived the ravages of Cyclone Yasi.
It a really good walk. But it is hot and we don’t make it to the southern end. Instead we walk back through the town looking for iced chocolates and coffees – not that we were desperate!
Later we went back into town to get some seafood. Kerry wanted to try a crab sandwich but the shop was out of crabs. Well it was Easter. So she bought a lobster, which in my view is a poor substitute.
The lady offered to cut the “tropical lobster” rather than a “southern lobster” in half for us, making it so much easier to eat. We had lobster sandwiches for lunch with some of my special cocktail sauce and saved the rest for tomorrow. We also bought a kilo of prawns – which were (supposedly) a mix of tiger and banana varieties.
Next door to the seafood market was a hairdresser who was, amazingly, open on Easter Friday. I made an appointment for 1.30pm as my hair was getting pretty desperate by this stage (about 8 weeks since a visit). When I arrived for my appointment, the salon was extremely busy. The hairdresser said she had been in Townsville on holidays and couldn’t get back to Cardwell due to the flooding and had to drive around the “long way” – over the ranges via Ravenshoe.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, being tempted into the pool, and watching the Park fill up for Easter. By that evening there are few empty sites.
In the late afternoon we took the drone down to the waterfront and gave it a whirl. Got some good video of the approaching twilight (see video link below).
Day 2
Today we wanted to get out there and see something. We had thought of the Wallaman Falls, but then realised that it was about 100km each way. Blencoe Falls were about 90km each way. So we settled on the Murray Falls.
On the way out of town we stopped at the Saturday Market. I had high hopes for a country market day, but alas, there were a lot of stalls, but not that great content. I did however, find some Rosella Chutney which made it worth while.
The turnoff to the falls is about 25km heading north and then we turned west. But as we do, we see a sign saying the Girramay National Park, and the falls, are closed. Bugger!
But it looks nice country so we drive up to the park anyway, and it is indeed a pretty drive. Close to the park we go through an Aboriginal Community. But at the entrance to the NP, there is a locked gate.
We are disappointed as we also know that the Edmund Kennedy NP is also flooded and out of bounds for now.
So it is another quiet afternoon. Followed by the prawns for dinner. Not so many banana prawns as has become our preferred nibble, but very yummy just the same.
Day 3
Lovely morning again, but there is talk of some heavy rain from the ex-cyclone Iris. Through the morning we watch people packing up and leaving. Most are worried about the heavy rain and more road closures as they have to get for work after the long weekend. By lunchtime the Park is only a quarter full. I spoke to one family from Cairns who were in a camper trailer and just wanted to pack it up while it was dry. An unfortunate way to end their Easter.
I had to go back to the supermarket to get a few things and popped into the cafe for another of their delightful iced chocolates …. decadent, I know, but so very nice.
After lunch we drove the Cardwell Forest Drive. I had not heard of this but was talking to a neighbour who had done the drive that morning.
There is a really lovely drive which heads west along Brasenose Street from the Bruce Highway. We followed this onto the dirt road and at the next cross-roads we went to the left up to the Cardwell Lookout. This offers excellent views of both Cardwell and Hinchinbrook Island, but on cloudy old today, this was not ideal.
Back at the dirt road cross-roads we followed the signs to Attie Creek. This led us to a carpark with lots of people already there. It’s a 700m walk up – yes again up, is there any other way – to the falls. I am so sick of climbing up to get to every water hole – although I shouldn’t be surprised any more.
As we get closer we see the lower falls cascading down the creek, and then a hint of what is to come.
Attie Falls are stunning, especially after all the rain we have had. There is an approx. 25m fall, which is booming, into a large circular swimming pool. There were a few people there, including some youths that were climbing about halfway up and then jumping in.
We had a wonderful refreshing swim – glorious to totally immerse yourself in such cooling waters.
Back on the dirt road we followed the signs for the Spa Pool, which was only 3.5km away. There were 3 or 4 rough floodways on the road but we quickly arrived at the carpark
The Spa Pool was brilliant, I could have stayed there all afternoon, and the swimming hole just so refreshing. There were quite a few people there, but plenty of room for everyone.
So for a day when we thought we had nothing on, we had a really wonderful afternoon swimming in naturally chilled water pools. How good is that!
To see some photos related to this blog, click here
To see some video related to this blog, click here