An Afternoon at the Races

Every year at the end of June the Laura Amateur Turf Club holds the Laura Races.  People come from many kilometres to spend the weekend here and to attend the race meeting on Saturday afternoon.  There is also a rodeo on Sunday but we're not going to that - we've been to a few and have decided that we're not really rodeo people.

There are several thousand people in attendance from all over Australia.  Some have flown in on small planes and helicopters - we've heard them flying around.  Many more are camped near the racetrack.  There's also an opportunity to party on Friday and Saturday night - we went in to the "cabaret" on Friday and stayed for a couple of hours.

The afternoon at the races was a lot of fun.  The "Fashion on the Field" was entertaining.  Many racegoers (male and female) were dressed in their race going finery even though we're many kms from anywhere, it's an opportunity to get dressed up.

And the punters certainly take things seriously.

More Quinkan Rock Art

About 15km south of Laura on the Peninsula Developmental Road is the turn off to the Split Rock self-guided rock art tour.  The information board says "allow 30 minutes".  We spent well over an hour visiting the decorated overhangs.

Although it's not very far it's a steep walk up the escarpment to the "caves" with quite a few rock steps, so we were glad that we're doing this hike about 9am before it gets too hot.

Split Rock is a series of overhangs near the top of the escarpment with plenty of decoration.  The paintings are not as bright as the ones we saw yesterday; nevertheless they are still impressive and well worth the effort to visit.







Some of the paintings are similar to ones nearby that have been dated to 13,000 years old.

It's a very popular place (only $5pp honour system entry fee) and as we were leaving a bus tour arrived, led by Roy, our guide from yesterday.

Quinkan Rock Art

Day one in Laura, at the end of the sealed road northwards and the starting point for those wanting to drive to the top of the Cape York Peninsula (it's on our list but not this trip).  We're devoting today to exploring the Quinkan Cultural Centre, attached to our caravan park and we've booked into a tour of the Quinkan Rock Art caves.  At $160pp it's not cheap, but if the photos in the Cultural Centre are anything to go by, it will be worth every cent.





The Quinkan Information and Cultural Centre haas very good displays of life and times on the Peninsula.  There are all aspects of life in Laura - indigenous, festivals, mining, exploration etc etc.  Very well done and with good interpretations.










Every 2 years there's an indigenous Dance Festival here - unfortunately we're in the off-year (another good reason to come back).

About 9.30am we set off with Roy, our guide, and another couple to view the rock art.  We drove along a sandy track through the bush for about 15kms and parked in a clearing for the short walk to the decorated overhangs.

It was certainly worth the dollars we paid to see these magnificent artworks.  As we approached each gallery Roy let the spirits know we were coming.  The paintings were multi-layered with paintings over paintings.  As we looked into them we could see more and more.

Most of the painting were "signed" with stencils of the artists' hands.  We were not able to see all of the paintings - only the ones the indigenous people will allow us to see.  Some areas are too sacred for those who do not have the cultural learnings.

We saw paintings of animals including kangaroo, emu, bats, snake, platypus, crocodile and dingo as well as people and spirits.  Roy told us that this area was rich in food and people would live in these higher areas on the escarpment during the wet season.

A dingo had been through earlier in the morning marking out his territory by scratching in the dirt.








What can we say but WOW!!! A morning very well spent.  While we're here we'll wander through the self-guided Split Rock Gallery which is just a few kms south.  So watch out for more photos.

More from Lake Tinaroo

There's a lot to see here on the Atherton Tablelands and we're glad that we're able to stay a while and see it at a leisurely pace.




Not far from Atherton, just off the Gilles Highway (the road between Cairns and Atherton), is the Curtain Fig Tree.  This magnificent attraction is really the aerial roots of parasitic fig tree that has strangled and killed its host tree.  The curtain of roots falls from a second tree that has fallen onto the upright tree.  We walked along the boardwalk through the rainforest to see the tree.






On our way back to Tinaroo we stopped off at Yungaburra on the opposite side of Lake Tinaroo to where we are staying.  On the lake is the Afghanistan Avenue of Honour, a commemorative place honouring the soldiers who have died while fighting in Afghanistan.  This is a lovely and peaceful place to visit with a plaque for each soldier who died.  A nice touch is the plaque for the Explosive Detection Dogs.






On Saturday we spent the day in Kuranda - the Village in the Rainforest - about 40km from Mareeba and at the top of the range overlooking Cairns.  This village can be reached by road from Mareeba and Cairns or by gondola from the bottom of the range a few kms from Cairns.  The markets here are a colourful attraction.  As well as arts and crafts, there's plenty of clothing and souvenirs on sale.  There are also some excellent art galleries to while away the hours.







We walked through the Heritage Markets to the Historic Plane Crash.  This plane was built by the US Air Force in 1942 and was sold to Australian National Airlines (remember Ansett ANA) and later to Trans Australian Airlines (TAA, now Qantas) before being sold to a film production company.  The plane did not actually crash, but was used in a film as a plane crash.  It was later brought to Kuranda where it's on display.

Near Kuranda is the Barron Falls.  We had a pleasant walk through the rainforest, under the hanging and twisted vines to see the falls.  Along the way were interpretive panels with information about the flora and fauna of the rainforest.  There were also sculptures of insects like this praying mantis.

Back at Tinaroo we had a drive into the nearby National Park to check out some of the campgrounds and stopped off at the Tinaroo Falls Dam wall.

Our time on the banks of Lake Tinaroo has come to an end and we're back on the road again.  We've made our way 250km north-west to Laura, at the end of the sealed road, where we'll spend a few days camped at the Quinkan Aboriginal Community Campground.  This weekend is the Laura Festival, with dances, races, campdraft and a rodeo.  It's also the starting point for tours to the Quinkan Aboriginal Rock Art Galleries, so watch this space.