Our travel park is nicely located on the Wheelbarrow Way between Mareeba and Chillagoe, surrounded by a region full of geological and historical interest. It’s all bitumen from Mareeba to Petford. This makes us a comfortable and accessible place to use as a base while you can day-visit nearby points of interest.
Much of the history is down dirt roads that are inaccessible to caravans.
Leave your van with us and explore all day, then come home to a prepared dinner.
Local places of interest include:
- Chillagoe (62kms/45 minutes drive; NW) – spectacular limestone caves, marble quarries and mining history.
- Irvinebank (44kms/60 minutes drive; SE) – historical mining town and the oldest wooden dam in Australia.
- Herberton (66kms/82 minutes drive; E) – historical mining town with a living museum – the Herberton Historical Village.
- Emu Creek (1km; E) – Great place for a picnic and to view the old 110-year-old railway bridge.
- Emuford battery (18kms; SE).
- Montalbion ruins (33kms; SE) – now a ghost town, it used to be a busy mining town until its closure in 1906.
- Stannary Hills (49kms; SE) – remnants remain of this once thriving mining town. At its peak it had a population of 800 people of whom half were employed in mining and woodcutting.
- Almaden (32kms; W).
- Dimbulah (33kms/24 minutes; NE) – proud little town on the edge of the Tinaroo Dam irrigation system.
- Thornborough/Kingsborough (54kms/46 minutes; NE) – historical gold fields.
- Mount Mulligan (82km/80 minutes drive via Dimbula; N). A historical coal mine at the base of a beautiful sandstone escarpment. Disaster struck in 1921 when 75 miners were killed in a blast. Now you can visit the remnants of a town that was, and a cemetery full of stories.
Petford is on the railway line from Cairns to Forsyth. Every Wednesday the train comes past our park and returns on Saturday – a real treat for train enthusiasts.
For mountain-bike cyclists, we are on the popular Far North Queensland Pioneer Bike trail, a 5-7 day cycling circuit. For more information about their adventure ride, visit their website https://fnqpioneerbiketrails.com.au
