Lookout a great sight to see after upgrade
IT BOASTED one of the most spectacular views in Queensland, offset by a litter-strewn, disorganised mess by the roadside.
Now the Henry Ross Lookout on the Kuranda Range has been reopened after a $300,000 upgrade and its former unseemly centrepiece is tucked neatly out of obvious view.
“The main feature here was the green rubbish bin which overflowed all the time,” Barron River MP Craig Crawford said.
“It had a typical old Main Roads fence around it that looked pretty shabby and no roof structure.”
The upgrade extended the lookout, installed a cement disabled ramp, built a new roofed shelter and established a bench seat and new black fencing.
Most importantly, the rubbish bin was moved.
“It was probably the best located lookout in Cairns, but it was probably the worst looking,” Mr Crawford said.
An old feature has also returned after decades in the wilderness — the brass disc of an old Rotary memorial installed in 1952.
“I think it’s the first memorial to the Battle of the Coral Sea in Queensland,” Mr Crawford said.
“It was a really big deal at the time.
“The disc went missing in the ’70s or ’80s, it was recovered and put back in, then it went missing again.
“When we announced we were going to do up this lookout, I got a call from a priest in Kuranda who said he had the disc. “It was found in the tip.” The current bolted-down disc pointing visitors to notable landmarks is a replica of the original, which is secreted away in Kuranda for future use as a museum piece.
Interpretative signage with educational material about the Wet Tropics is yet to be installed, as well as low-growing native plants to cover the weed-prone hillside.
“There was always a huge amount of rubbish thrown over the edge and a massive pile of weeds growing up,” Mr Crawford said.
The State Government funded the upgrade through its $3.2 million Scenic Lookout Upgrade Program which works with local councils to fix up dilapidated vantage points.