AUSTRALIA: A list of things you may like to do

Milaa Milaa Falls

Google Maps • Wikipedia

The Milaa Milla Falls is a waterfall in the town of Milaa Milaa. They are pretty impressive looking, and have been used in many different advertising campaigns, generally with women flicking their hair in a nice fibonacci spiral. This leads to a lot of people trying to recreate similar pictures with either their hair or beard.

Nearby is The Falls Teahouse, which is an excellent place to get lunch.

Lake Eacham

Google Maps • Wikipedia • QLD National Parks info page

Lake Eacham is an isolated lake in an extinct volcano — a lake that has an average depth of over 60 metres. Another interesting thing about the lake is that there are no known streams either going in or out… this fact, combined with the rocks that make up the local environment makes for the clearest water that I have ever swum in.

Aboriginal Legend

The local Aboriginal peoples have a legend of how the lake was formed. Geological evidence dates the volcanic activity to 12,000 years ago, making this an oral account of an event six times as deep into the past as Julius “I was stabbed 23 times and then field-promoted to god” Caesar:

Two young fellas were trying to spear that wallaby. But they missed and hit a flame tree.

That’s a sacred tree.

The young fellas not supposed to be out hunting. They weren’t initiated. Their elders told them to stay put, not go out hunting. But they didn’t listen. When they pulled their spear out, part of a grub came out with the spear, which was a witchetty grub. They started cutting down that tree to get more grubs. When they cut down that tree, the ground began to shake.

Those two fellas had made Yamini [the Rainbow Serpent] angry. Then the sky turned orange, then all these people back at the camp, the earth went from underneath them, sucked them in, whoosh, they all got drowned.

Where they were camped became Bana Wiingina [Lake Eacham].

Josephine Falls

Google Maps • Wikipedia • QLD National Parks info page

Josephine Falls is a super cool waterfall, because as one of the several cascades that makes up the waterfall is effectively a natural waterslide — and it is really, really fun!

Babinda Boulders

Google Maps • Wikipedia

WARNING: Deaths in the waterfalls downstream are common. Exercise extreme caution.

Babinda Boulders is a warm and crystal clear pool in the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area. As well as being one of the best swimming holes I’ve ever visited, the surrounding rainforest is some of the oldest species of plant on earth.

There are also some great boulders that you can jump off of and into the swimming hole.

Dating to the earliest days of life outside the ocean, these plants don’t flower, or even have the vascular leaves of later species.

Aboriginal Legend

The local Aboriginals have a legend as to the origins of the dangerous part of the creek downstream from the swimming hole:

A beautiful girl named Oolana, from the Yidinji people, married a respected elder from her tribe named Waroonoo. Shortly after their union another tribe moved into the area and a handsome young man came into her life.

His name was Dyga and the pair soon fell in love. Realising the adulterous crime they were committing, the young lovers escaped their tribes and fled into the valleys. The elders captured them, but Oolana broke free from her captors and threw herself into the still waters of what is now known as Babinda Boulders, calling for Dyga to follow her.

As Dyga hit the waters, her anguished cries for her lost lover turned the still waters into a rushing torrent and the land shook with sorrow. Huge boulders were scattered around the creek and the crying Oolana disappeared among them.

According to the legend, her spirit still guards the boulders and that her calls for her lost lover can still be heard.