Anny Chih

Paronella Park Castle

On my last night at Undara, I got to talking around the campfire with a woman named Vineeta. We ended up talking for a while, and her kids showed me their scrapbooks of all the places they had travelled so far on their year long journey around Australia. Of the places they’d been to so far, Paronella Park was Vineeta’s favourite. I remembered hearing about it before on Queensland’s 150 Must-Do list, but I also remembered thinking “well that doesn’t look that interesting. I don’t get why it’s rated #1.”

But, I figured since it was rated the #1 tourist attraction in all of Queensland and Vineeta liked it so much, I really ought to visit it. Going there would mean driving up North again (counter-productive since I was already on my way down South), and also missing Charters Towers. “Yeah, alright. Let’s go to Paronella Park and see what all the hype is about” I thought. Man alive, I CANNOT believe I almost missed Paronella Park!! Seriously, I just kept repeating in my head as I left the place “I cannot believe I almost missed this!”

Now, I’m hesitant to continue raving about Paronella Park because I don’t want you to go expecting this grand spectacular castle and being disappointed. The castle is very small and so is the park itself. There’s not much going on around the area either. It’s the story behind it and the feeling that you get from being there that makes it special.

Paronella Park

Paronella Park Swimming Pool

As you drive towards Paronella Park from the interior (West to East), you get a whiff of something that reminds you of sweet corn (it’s a sugar cane processing factory), a couple of tiny little streets with a cafe or grocery store here and there, and some dirt roads. I wondered if I was going the right way since it didn’t seem like I was going anywhere that would accommodate large numbers of tourists, and I’m notorious for getting lost. The signs led me in the right direction though and soon enough I was in a little parking lot outside the entrance.

As soon as I walked in the door at the admissions office / gift shop I felt this happy vibe. Everyone was friendly and it just felt like the place to be. I paid the woman at the reception desk the $32 admission fee and she gave me a handful of stuff: directions to the caravan lot for the night (the admission fee includes a powered caravan site for the night), a pamphlet with a map of the park and history of the place, a booklet about the different trees in the area, and a little packet of food to feed the fish. She then put a sticker on my jacket, told me when the next day tours were and signed me up for the night tour as well (all included in the admission fee). I already felt like I was getting my money’s worth.

I drove to my caravan site and had a cup of instant noodles because I was absolutely starving. I joined the 3:30pm tour (it’s about an hour long), and my love affair with the place began.

Day Tour: Jose’s Story

The Entrance to The Tunnel from Lovers Lane

The day tours (length: 45 minutes to an hour) take you around the park and the guide goes through the history of the place. He’ll tell you about how Jose Paronella was a baker from Spain who dreamed of having his own castle one day and how he came to Australia and made a fortune buying and renovating land for resale. Once he made his fortune (a millionaire by today’s standards), he began building his castle. He built 70-80% of the main castle himself and you can actually see his hand and fingerprints in the walls! He also employed the help of men during the great depression in exchange for food and lodging.

Not only did Jose build his castle, but he also built a cottage for his family to live in, installed North Queensland’s first hydro electric plant to power the park, built a second castle that served as a refreshment house, and made all the surrounding walkways, tennis courts, and even a tunnel which was originally intended to be Queensland’s first underwater aquarium featuring exotic fish. He may have skimped a bit by using the steel beams from railway lines as support for his buildings (aka being resourceful), but he spared no expense when it came to getting a disco ball! LOL Yup, in the 1930’s Jose Paronella was 40 years ahead of his time and spent nearly a third of the cost of building his castles on a disco ball for the main hall. He was definitely a forward thinker and a little off the rocker.

Sadly, due to a series of floods and a fire, the disco ball is no longer around for viewing. Instead, the buildings are now decorated with soft green moss that gives a dreamy look to what remains.

In addition to an incredibly inspiring story, the tour included some wildlife viewing that I didn’t expect. The guide took us through a section of The Tunnel (the part that was originally built to be an aquarium) where we got to see dozens of little microbats who had made the tunnel their home and were huddled in tight groups trying to keep warm during the day. Remember when I told you I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to see much of the microbats at Undara? Well, this totally made up for it! They’re so tiny and cute!! We couldn’t take pictures because the flash disturbs them, but our guide shone a light on a group of bats so we could get a close look. By close look, I mean less than half a meter away from our noses! Seriously cool.

All the dark spots in front are turtles and all the dark patches behind are fish

After the tour, our guide told us where we could go to feed some turtles and off I went with my little bag of fish / turtle / eel food. Again, I was surprised at how much wildlife there is at this place! I counted over 20 turtles just in my immediate line of vision all swimming around trying to get some of the food. There were also dozens of fish fighting for the same food.

After that, I wandered back to the camp site and barely had time to stuff my face with a paddle pop and granola bar before it was time for the night tour (also about an hour long). There was only about a dozen people on the day tour, but this tour had about 40 people. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to hear the guide or have a decent tour with this many people but everyone heard just fine (the guide was very loud) and had a great time.

Night Tour: Laputa

Before leaving on the tour, our guide gave everyone a flashlight and took attendance. It gets dark quickly and the flashlights were very handy. Though we visited the same places as the day tour and I happened to get the same tour guide for both tours, they were very different and the information never overlapped. While the day tour focuses on the story and history of Paronella Park, the night tour is about enjoying it’s beauty. And it is beautiful.

Look at how many there are!

And once again, I was surprised by the wildlife! During the day you can see the odd eel here or there in the water. At night though, it looks like the water is completely made out of eels! We stopped at the steps to the swimming area where our guide gave us bags of food to throw in to the eels. They just went nuts! Several eels looked like they were ready to squirm right up the steps for food! And to think, people went (and still go) swimming in there! :O

We also stopped at an area where there were little fireflies blinking above us. Our guide caught one to show us what they look like and let it fly off into the night when it decided it had enough of sitting on his hand.

The best part of the night tour though was when the smaller castle was lit up. There was a private tour going on at the same time with tourists from Japan, and when the lights went on they all “OoOOoohh”ed in unison. They played a lovely tune as we stared at the castle that made me feel as if we were in a giant open music box far far away. I wondered what the song was.

The picture looks spooky but it's really pretty in real life

Our guide then told us that about 30,000 Japanese tourists visit Paronella Park each year and the reason why they play that particular song is because it’s the theme song to Hayao Miyazaki’s film ‘Castle in the Sky‘ (in case you don’t know, Miyazaki is a very well known creator of many famous Japanese animated films). My jaw just about dropped to the floor. THIS castle was the inspiration for Laputa!!! Oh. My. God. I CANNOT believe I almost missed this!!! I’m a big fan of Miyazaki’s work so this just gave me a whole other bunch of reasons to love this place!

I just stared in amazement and a feeling welled up inside. It was neither happy nor sad, but longing. Thinking about how much conviction and motivation Jose Paronella had to realize his dream, and being reminded of what Miyazaki has been able to accomplish in his life made me wish I could do something great too (very Shizuku of me from ‘Whisper of the Heart‘ ). It was an extraordinary feeling that I never want to forget.

The next morning before leaving, I took another stroll around the park to try to keep it all in my memory and I made a wish at the wishing well.

If you’re ever around North Queensland, I hope you’ll take a detour and visit Paronella Park. It may just be a small castle in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

[View with PicLens]

12►

Thank you so much to Vineeta and her family for convincing me to go! <3