EXERPT FROM "THE BULLETIN WITH NEWSWEEK". BY JOSHUA GLIDDON. "No one would be surprised at PARONELLA PARK if a hapless swashbuckler leapt out of the trees and declared "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to DIE!" With its waterfall, decaying castle and dripping foliage, it's a very Princess Bride kind of place. Jose Paronella created his park in the 1930s using profits from speculating on sugar cane.
He built the castle, which houses a cinema, laid tennis courts, surfaced and crushed termite mounds and constructed changing sheds so that people could swim in the waterfall's pool. He also planted an avenue of kauri pines which now tower from the base of the property, and carved a 100 metre tunnel - The Tunnel of Love - out of the soft clay. He had the vision of a 5 ha property located inland from Cairns on the Atherton Tablelands, as a day tripper's paradise, and for a long time it was. Locals came every Saturday to watch movies and marvel at the electric lights - a first for the region - powered by a waterfall driven generator. The generator, though not functional today still exists in a mysterious building tucked up beside the falls. Obscured by the waterfall mist, all it needed was a princess waving from the window. When Paronella died in 1948, the park fell into disrepair.
Eleven years ago, Mark & Judy Evans bought it with the idea of bringing it back to life. Since then they have worked as hard as Jose did to reclaim it from the jungle and keep it from rotting away in the Wet or blowing away in a cyclone, such as Larry. Paronella Park is like a childhood fantasy. It's no wonder we were imagining swashbucklers, and though there were no giant rodents, there were microbats sleeping out the day in the Tunnel of Love, waiting for the darkness to cover their aeronautical intrigues."
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