Blog 3 – Karanda Scenic Rail & SkyRail

Hello .. & you got your wish .. less typing & LOTS of photos. Enjoy!!!!

From my last blog I managed just a few minutes with the family that surprised me with a birthday muffin & scotch (thanked them again) & of course the Down Under Tours by Meagan was right on time at 7.50am at my Ramada Wyndham Resort Port Douglas & dropped off at Freshwater Station for the Karanda Scenic Rail. A historical rail line that involves 15 man-made tunnels by picks, mattocks & occasional dynamite, etc & 50+ cross bridges leading up the Karanda Range taking about 90mins. With Down Under Tours you can have a few options like, SkyRail first & come back by train using different time frames for return. I chose the train first & made a full day tour.

At the Freshwater Station, the Railways Workers Cottage sited here was relocated from Redlynch in 1984 & was amazing in its presentation with pressed metal ceilings & exposed stud work in the walls. Early Qld construction & not many people would really notice the construction details I have grown up with being in the construction industry all my life.

The rail line was established to meet the needs of the large gold rush where horse transport was inadequate up the mountain range but who would even envisage such a proposal in this steep range. I suppose gold will make man do amazing things. The rail line has a 1m rise:15m length steepness which is quite significant. The train engines from early 1950s or so are 1,000 horsepower engines & I suspect that is what is absolutely needed. 

Tunnel 15 (last tunnel) is the longest & took 2yrs to build & 4 workers injured delaying the project (Above photo). Workers then started to dig 8 tunnel faces simultaneously to catchup to the timeframe. Very hard work & most workers slept in tents & had to supply their own tools too. Some had families that camped with them as well. Tough times by all.

I had a Gold Upgrade ticket @ $325 that provided nibblies, beer, etc with 2 rail staff waitresses plus it incorporated the SkyRail ticket later in the day (cost included the pickup & drop off to my Port Douglas Resort .. 55mins each way) which was a bonus. 

The antique carriage was amazing with pressed metal ceilings & Spotted Gum hardwood interior. I sat with an aged, retired couple Ian & Janet from Canada. Ian took some sneaky photos of me when we disembarked for a few minutes so hopefully they contact me to swap photos. He was a professional photographer & he had a twitchy finger taking numerous photos. I suspect it would take him years to go through all is library photos.

The famous photo shot of the rail line is the Jungara Loop (below) where you can see a good length of the train doing the circular bridge climb over the metal bridge. A great bit of engineering & has your heart pumping knowing the height & span of this crossing.

The waterfall (above) appears in the centre of this trainline loop & continues falling under the bridging section. A few more minutes up the line the train stops at Stoney Creek Station & everyone can alight for 15mins to take photos of the magnificent Barron Falls adjacent of some force & 200m+ fall which is as old as the dinosaur era. This Barron River also has a hydro power installation. At the rear of the photo, you can see a viewing platform on the other side, so obviously there must be some method of getting to it. With the sight & sound of this huge waterfall & meeting a young Netherlands lady yesterday (Anouk) on our waterfalls tour I thought I would share my Barren Falls video with her & show her what I’m doing today on a much larger waterfall. OMG!! She immediately textd me back, stating she I was in carriage 12 & I was telling her I was in carriage 8. What are the chances of that? Such a coincidence!

This Stoney Creek Station has the only bypass line setup to allow trains to cross each other on this single line network. Records show in 1944 (WW2) this line played a huge part; the station recorded 43 train crosses in a single day. WOW!!

With 90mins done, we were finally in Karanda at 350m above sea level where the station opened 1891 when the rail line was completed. The station is a 400m walk to the main street which has numerous shops, cafes, etc plus huge Strangler Fig trees within the main street. 

I was lucky to catchup with the Netherlands lady, Anouk for lunch (my shout) & we talked about a lot of subjects & then she had to run to meet her return train whereas I’ll be taking the SkyRail gondolas, later in the day.

In the main street (Coondoo St) there is a sign showing the direction & distances of the world’s major cities, some I’ve been to & other soon this October. In this township you can venture to Birdworld & Butterfly enclosures, Koalas Gardens, local markets where you could spend around 40mins each for around $20 or so. 

One of the gift shops in the main street has a small bird nesting off a chain in his roof awning. Such a sight to see & most people don’t notice it which is probably a safety factor for it. Nature is everywhere.

After a few hours meandering it was time for the SkyRail back to my starting point of Smithfield. The SkyRail is 7.5klms in length with Barron Falls 1.7klms from Karanda (3hrs walk by road) & 5.8klms from Barron Falls to Smithfield (sea level) via a changeover at Red Peak. 

I took a video & some photos after alighting at Barron Falls to the platform mentioned earlier to see the Barron Falls directly below over a glass floor platform. Yikes!! I sent this video to the Netherlands lady as she would have missed this closeness by only doing the train journey. She was thrilled to see my video. The bottom right photo above shows you the train in the distance.

Another stop to alight is Red Peak where you can do a quick platform walk loop to see the nature & flora/ fauna of the region like the huge 400yr old magnificent Qld Kauri tree (bottom photo below). In the tree tops you can see large ferns, etc creating large baskets & this is one area where Australia’s largest snake, the Scrub Python or real name, amethystine python, measuring up to 8m & weighing 25kgs. Another yikes!! Not a snake fan.

At Red Peak is where you change Gondolas for the line down to sea level/ Cairns direction.

From the SkyRail you come very close to the tree canopies & you’d be hard pressed to actually see the forest floor, such is the density. Truly a wonderous area. James Cameron used the SkyRail viewing to inspire the movie Avatar. The tree in question was quite different from the rest above the canopy & through admiring it I forgot to take a photo, so my apologies. Bummer!!

Alighting from the gondolas the crew take a photo which you can purchase at the adjacent gift shop. Now to wait for our tour pickup back to Port Douglas arriving at 6.15pm in the dark. The pickup was rather late so a couple of us were starting to worry, as the café, shop, etc was starting to close for the day.

Suffice to say, I managed a great restaurant meal at my resort, the started on my Polarstep blog & more red wine, gifted to me. Cheers. The next day (Wednesday, 30/04/25) I spent the day around the Wyndham Resort via the pool, relaxing after 2 full on days of nature. Caught up on my laundry duties & later in the day I have an Owner Sales Update session & then an Owner’s Meet & Greet Session where quite a few owners turned up for the drinks & nibblies & to share their life & travel stories. One person I did not want to see was the local ranger with his bloody python snake! Can’t I just have a moment without snakes? LOL!  

The next day, Thursday, I have another easy day & will use my MG rental car more on sightseeing, so I’ll end my Blog #3 here & many thanks for reading them. Stay safe, happy & healthy.