Places to See South of Cairns

If you are planing to travel south of Cairns there are many places you should visit such as, waterfall, swim holes, creeks and parks. Tourism Cairns has put together a list of beautiful places you should visit while travelling south from Cairns. See the list below:

Babinda Boulders

Babinda Boulders is the first location you should stop and visit while travelling south. Babinda Boulders is located about 65 kilometres from Cairns or 50 min by car, and it is a famous swim hole surrounded by lush rainforest.

Babinda Boulders creek is full of boulders of different sizes, some of them quite big. At the bottom of the creek forms a big swimming pool where visitors enjoy the water safely. The water is crystal clear and the rainforest surrounding is gorgeous, making the location quite a special place.

There are barbecue facilities all around the area and also toilet facilities.

Babinda Boulders is definitely a great place to spend the day with family and friends. Very popular place amongst the locals on the weekends.

Josephine Falls

The second place to visit and not very far from Babinda Boulder is Josephine Falls. Josephine Falls is a waterfall and swimming hole located about 75 kilometres from Cairns or 1 hour drive by car.

To get to the main swimming hole area, visitors need to walk about 1.2 kilometres through the rainforest. The walk is easy, without much difficulty.

At Josephine Falls there is a big rock which is used as a natural water slide. Visitors have the best time. It is great fun guaranteed.

Paronella Park

Paronella Park is a heritage-listed tourist attraction located at Mena Creek, 120 kilometres south of Cairns.

Paronella Park is known for its natural beauty but also for an interesting story behind it.

Paronella Park was built by a Spanish immigrant called Jose Paronella who bought the property in 1929 with his fiancee Margarita. His dream was to build cattle inspired by the Catalan cattles back in Spain. Him and his workers worked really hard to build the cattle and their fingerprints are still in the cement foundations proving their extraordinary effort.

Over 7000 trees were planted around Paronellas' castle turning the area into an amazing garden.

It is known that the Paronellas family used to invite neighbours and friends to their home to enjoy the movie theatre he built, to play tennis on his tennis court and to have tea at his refreshment room.

José Paronella died in 1948 and his wife Margarita died in 1967 leaving the castle with their son and daughter. In 1977 the park was sold but in 1879 a fire swept through the castle, leaving only the walls and the turret as a reminder of what had been.

The park has been in the hands of many owners until the present owners bought the property in 1993. The couple have made lots of effort to keep Paronella park still going, restoring and preserving the property and specially keeping Paronellas´ story and dream alive.

Mission Beach

Mission Beach is a coastal town located in the Cassowary Coast Region. Cairns is about 139 kilometres from Mission Beach, close to 2 hours by car.

The beaches at Mission Beach are considered quite beautiful and the town is quite small giving that nice tropical relaxing feeling to the place. Mission Beach is also well known for its native giant cassowaries. Cassowaries are commonly seen near roads and parks.

Mission Beach is popular for locals and tourists who are after a place to relax by the beach. There are some holiday apartments, hotel and caravans parks around the area.

There is a popular market every Sunday at the centre of town.