Floating Above The Canopy Of Rainforest

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday May 29, 1996

NORMAN NORTH

Skyrail, the world's longest gondola cableway, offers a unique way to experience Cairns's natural wonders, writes NORMAN NORTH .

ONE of the joys of visiting Cairns has been the final minutes before landing. The Qantas 767 flies just off the coast, giving a view of the white city and the water maze of Trinity Inlet, richly green with mangroves.

The Boeing wheels into its flight-path above cane fields and luxuriant tropical gardens, all bounded by the darker green of the mountains curving to the sea.

Skyrail does not repeat that view, but it does give a panorama of the whole coastal plain and islands on a distant Coral Sea as you "float" in relative silence over the rainforest canopy of the mountain, rising from Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands. It gives a lot more time to enjoy the view, too.

Skyrail is the latest way to taste the natural attractions of Far North Queensland. At 7.5 kilometres, it is the world's longest gondola cableway, using 36 towers set in 10-metre squares already being reclaimed by the vigorous growth of the rainforest. Passengers in the six-seater, glass-sided cabins are carried to a height of 545 metres at Red Peak station, then on to Kuranda in the tablelands, at 336 metres.

It took 7< years to get permission to build Skyrail, involving 23 Government agencies and the opposition of "greenies", led by a protester who spent 280 days up a tree along its planned route. It then took just over a year to build, every part and worker being lifted in by helicopter to keep damage to the rainforest to a minimum.

Apart from Red Peak station, which has a boardwalk for visitors to venture among the rainforest trees, there is a station at Barron Falls. It has good views of the gorge and a rainforest interpretative centre developed in conjunction with the CSIRO.

The one-way trip costs $23 (child $11.50), the round trip $39 (child $19.50). Tour operators are offering day outings travelling to or from Kuranda by the well-known mountain railway with the opposite journey by cableway. My tip is to go up by train and back in the afternoon by cable car to get the best of that view.

A 10-minute flight in a Jayrow helicopter gave me an aerial view of FNQ's other outstanding natural attraction, the Great Barrier Reef, including Norman Reef over Green Island and other reefs popular with divers.

Anchored at the reef is one of two big pontoons on the outer Barrier Reef operated by Great Adventures, a cruise company with a fleet of 40 vessels and part of the Daikyo group, which also operates - on Green Island - the only five-star resort on a coral cay in the reef.

After enjoying the colourful coral and fish through snorkeling and use of the pontoon's underwater observatory, my party returned to shore in one of Great Adventures' two new catamarans that carry up to 350 passengers each at speeds of up to 30 knots.

Jayrow Helicopters charges $85 for a joy-flight to Norman Reef and operates flights to the pontoons with return by catamaran, and rainforest flights. Great Adventures' day on the outer reef, with lunch and use of snorkel gear, costs $130, child $65.

For more information on these and other pursuits in Far North Queensland, contact the FNQ Promotion Bureau, PO Box 865, Cairns, Qld 4870, tel (070) 51 3588, fax (070) 51 0127; or Skyrail, PO Box 839, Smithfield, Qld 4870, tel (070) 381 999, fax (070) 381 888; Jayrow Helicopters, PO Box 2, North Cairns, Qld 4870, tel (070) 314 214, fax (070) 314 210; Great Adventures, PO Box 898, Cairns, Qld 4870, tel (070) 51 5644, fax (070) 51 7556.