A natural wet ’n’ wild park in the trees
VISIT inland Queensland in the wet season and you’ll see why locals call it “waterfalls season”; it’s a magical time.
Josephine Falls is a series of tiered granite rock pools and waterfalls just south of Cairns in Wooroonooran National Park.
This lush mountainous land, right on the coast, covers 75,000ha of the Bellenden Ker Range and forms part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.
The range includes Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest mountain (1622m).
Josephine Falls sits at the base, with a constant flow from streams cascading down the mountain creating some of the world’s cleanest waterways.
From the carpark, a paved path (about 700m) takes you through green vine forest of large leaves, buttressed tree roots, robust woody vines and basket ferns.
Green spotted triangle butterflies flutter past iridescent blue ulysses, while king parrots and rainbow lorikeets sit higher overhead, singing love songs to each other.
It’s a romantic place and totally seducing.
There are three spots to stop along this boardwalk.
The first is where you get in to swim.
You’ll find people sitting and chatting in crystal clear shallow pools, while others laze on big boulders in the dappled light.
The biggest rock pool has a sandy bottom and is bordered by a giant piece of slippery granite that people are queueing up at to slide down.
Scrambling further up takes you to more rocky slides into smaller pools, and families splashing about and fishing for yabbies.
The second stop is a deck that looks over the rock pools on to swimmers below.
Continuing along the rainforest walk takes you to the third stop, a large viewing platform looking up to a flowing waterfall with a deep plunge pool.
It’s probably the most impressive of them all but, unfortunately, is not open to public swimming.