Photos of Gordonvale - A sugar town south of Cairns, Australia

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Around Gordonvale - A sugar town south of Cairns

24 kilometres south of Cairns, in north Queensland, is the town of Gordonvale, a sugar milling town since 1896 and still dominated by its sugar mill, servicing the farms around it. It is a quiet town, with a population of around 6,000 people. Its big event is "The Great Pyramid Race", held every year in August, in which enthusiasts run (or attempt to run) to the top of Walsh's Pyramid, the landmark conical hill, 922 metres high, and back. The distance of 12 kilometres, including the almost 1 kilometre climb, has been completed in 80 minutes! The traditional Aboriginal owners of the Pyramid are the Yidinyji-Malanbarra clan who refer to it as "Djarrugan": the mound of Djarruga, the scrub hen. This gave its name to Djarragun College, an indigenous school with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students situated just north of the town.

Gordonvale Pub
 
 
From Heale's Lookout
 
Gordonvale Post Office
 
Riverstone Hotel
 
War Memorial
 
Norman Street
 
Dempsey Street
 
Sugar pioneer
 
Pyramid Estate
 
Central Hotel
 
Gordonvale view
 
View of the cane fields
 
Gordonvale from the Pyramid
 
Gordonvale panorama
 
Sikh temple
 
Old railway station
 
Mulgrave River
 
Gordonvale Rail station
 
The sugar mill
 
Gordon Street
 
Sugar cane
 
Little Mulgrave River
 
In Behana Gorge
 
Behana Creek
 
Behana Falls
 
Behana Creek Falls
 
Swimming in Behana Creek
 
Athletics day
 
Pyramid Estate
 
Gordonvale view
 
Along the Gillies Highway
 
From the Gillies Highway
 
Mushrooms growing
 
Across the Mulgrave River
 
Mulgrave sugar mill
 
Sugar cane train
 
View to Walsh's Pyramid
 
View with low clouds
 
Painted frog on rock
 
Rapids below Pete's Falls
 
Lower Pete's Falls
 
Picnic at the Falls
 
Gnarled tree
 
Below Pete's Falls
 
Start
 
Hotel veranda
 
Waiting on the street
 

The area of Gordonvale was first settled in 1877 by white families on the tribal lands of the Yidinyji-Malanbarra; it was previously called Mulgrave and then Nelson and finally Gordonvale, named after the local pioneer John Gordon. The Mulgrave Central sugar mill near the centre of town started as far back as 1896 and operates six months of the year. Sugar production is declining: in recent years large stretches of sugar fields have been converted to new suburbs. Gordonvale presently has a population of around 4,500.

There are many scenic spots around the town, like Behana Gorge near Aloomba, and, along the Gillies Highway leading up to the Atherton Tablelands, great views to Walsh's Pyramid; there are waterholes along the Mulgrave River, the Goldsborough and Wooroonooran National Park, stretching all the way south to the Palmerston Highway