1Paronella Park is one of those interesting places that you find dotted around the world.
2 Originally created in the 1930's by José Paronella it resides on 5 hectares (13 acres) an hour or so out of Cairns.
3 José Paronella arrived in Australia from Catalonia in Spain, in 1913.
4 For the next 11 years he worked, cutting sugar cane initially, then purchasing, improving, and reselling cane farms.
5 In 1924 he returned to Spain and married Margarita in 1925. The trip back to Australia was their honeymoon.
6 José first saw this 13 acres of virgin scrub along Mena Creek in 1914.
7 This is where José installed his Hydro Electric generating plant. It was commissioned in 1933 and was the earliest in North Queensland. It supplied power to the entire Park
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10 The earliest structure, the Grand Staircase, was built to facilitate the carrying of the river sand to make the concrete.
See the two light colored markers? The are flood markers.
11 12 steps at an average height of about 20 centimeters (8 inches) would mark this water level at about 2.5 meters (8 feet)
12 Using the same kind of bush arithmetic this higher second level is at roughly 5 meters (16 feet). Man that's a flood.
