Lava tunnels a fair dinkum treasure
David McGonigal discovers that a ‘tube’ trip in Queensland is like no other.
Standing in darkness, I feel and hear, rather than see, hundreds of microbats flapping past my face. With unerring accuracy, they fly centimetres from me without touching. Bram Collins, our guide speaks quietly. ‘‘Of course, with this much flying food there are predators . . . when I turn on my torch you’ll see snakes hanging from the trees just above us.’’ He does. There are.
We’ve come to spend 24 hours exploring the world’s longest lava flow from a single volcanic vent in modern geological times, but it turns out that there’s more to Undara than that.
The afternoon game drive that leads us to the bat encounter, also introduces us to pretty-faced wallabies that certainly live up to their hype among the dour, shaggy, common wallaroos.
At the summit of Sunset Bluff, we see to the distant horizon and the region’s geology comes into sharp relief. It’s scrubby, dry savannah woodland and, though we’re almost directly west of Mission Beach and about 260 kilometres from Cairns, it feels a long way from the reef. Indeed, the geological activity that has brought me here seems quite un-Australian. Volcanoes in Queensland?
The Undara volcano erupted 190,000 years ago, as part of a cluster of volcanoes that included the Boomerang and Mt Razorback volcanoes.
Molten rock poured out of it at a rate of up to 1000 cubic metres a second flowing along the course of existing riverbeds, filling one creek for a distance of 90km and another for more than 160km.
In Australia, rock is something you walk on, drive on, or throw.
The remarkable beauty of a faceted lava tube is a symphony in stone. We’re on a morning guided tour inside a lava tube. The roof of the tube collapsed eons ago and we descend stairs to the floor through vegetation thriving in the volcanic soil.
Another section of roof has collapsed leaving the Archway, perhaps Undara’s best-known feature. During the tube tour, we venture into Stephenson Cave and Ewamian Cave, named after the original people of this land.
Bram is owner of the attraction known as the Undara Experience, which also provides the accommodation in which we stay. Four generations of the Collins family ran Rosella Plains Station where Undara is situated.
In 1987, Bram’s father, Gerry, proposed Undara be proclaimed a national park, with access by tours from a lodge operated by the family as the tubes and their occupants could be harmed by unsupervised visitor access.
Bram is also closely involved with the conservation-orientated Savannah Guides network across northern Australia.
At the Undara Experience, you can stay in repurposed and restored Queensland Railway carriages that Gerry found decommissioned on a siding in Mareeba. Each unit has a lounge and a double bedroom with ensuite and the original luggage racks. Dinner is in the Lava Lodge’s vast amphitheatre and breakfast is a bush barbecue.
Undara is worth visiting to see the lava tubes, the wildlife, or for the opportunity to sleep in a rail carriage. Together, it’s a great experience. The approach through Gulf Country scenery, so far removed from the coastal palm trees and rainforests, is a bonus.