Yungaburra Day Trip

Carmen Friend
Jun 17, 2018
2 min read

After arriving into Cairns from our trip down from the Cape via Cooktown, we spent a few days at Lake Placid Caravan Park tucked into the Barron Gorge and just above the river. Lovely park but they do have some unusual rules when you are travelling with a dog. Dogs must be taken outside the caravan park grounds to do their business and if caught having an 'accident' inside the gate then the owner will be given a warning and maybe kicked out if caught again!

Any way, having put Georgia into the dog groomer, we decided to head up to the wee town of Yungaburra to see if we could finally see a platypus as it has been evading us! We took the Gillies Highway up to Yungaburra - a very windy road which if you are thinking of towing a caravan up it will be a very long and winding tow. Really nice drive up the hill with great views into the various valley's you pass through.

Just before coming into Yungaburra, there was a sign for the Cathedral Fig Tree. It is about 6km off the highway and a nice drive skirting the Denbulla National Park. It is a 100m walk into the rainforest to see this amazing tree. This tree is 500 years old and stands tall and proud within the rainforest.

Further on we stopped into Yungaburra - gorgeous wee town with some lovely ladies in the information centre who were happy to give us lots of information and help on where the best place was to find a platypus or also see a Tree Kangaroo. We headed for the platypus viewing platform about 500m from the Yungaburra town centre and within minutes of looking through the holes, there he was!! This wee guy was flitting through the water, diving down and popping back up again in the sun. We were both mesmerized by this little creature. We followed the map the ladies had given us along the river banks to try and find some more platypus. Unfortunately we did not see any more but we saw turtles and also Tree Kangaroos. The walk along the river was really lovely with lots of grassy areas and picnic tables as well as seats for people to just sit and wait!

We also wanted to see the Curtain Fig Tree. The curtain affect is created by one tree leaning against the other at a 45 degree angle. The strangler vine then grows along he oblique angle of the leaning tree, dangling down to the ground. Again this is a 500 year old tree which is much more spectacular than the Cathedral Fig Tree - really beautiful light trying to come through the rain forest makes it stand out.