This month's World Heritage Site

Kuranda Scenic Railway
A ride through an ancient Australian rainforest

Australia is so big that even its comparatively small rainforests seem to go on forever. Although they covered only 9% of the continent’s 3 million square miles when English colonization began, they seemed endless to Australia’s early settlers. That belief inspired a pattern of exploitation that led to the felling of 40% of the nation’s rainforests over the next 200 years. Forests that had once covered an area about the size of Texas were reduced in extent by an area about the size of Colorado.

What’s left is still being exploited – lumbering in Australia is a $10 billion-a-year industry – but at a much less frantic pace. As Australians increasingly discover and protect the depth of their natural patrimony, they are setting aside large areas of rainforest in permanent preserves. At stake is not only the preservation of great natural beauty and variety, but also some of the oldest rainforests on earth. In some parts of Australia, rainforests have continuously existed for 10 million years.

This is especially true in Queensland, Australia’s vast northeastern state that is home to much of the country’s remaining tropical woodlands. By themselves, the state’s green Edens would create awe and wonder – in 1988 UNESCO established the “Wet Tropics of Queensland” World Heritage Area, an almost 600-square-mile expanse of parks, preserves estuaries and coastline.

But Queensland also has some of Australia’s boldest relief. Though it is the flattest and lowest of the seven continents, and the mind-numbing flatness of parts of the Outback often come to people’s minds when they think of Australia, its northeastern edge boasts forested mountains that rise almost directly from the sea.

They’re not as mighty as New Zealand or British Columbia’s seaside peaks, but they match in drama almost any seaside height you can find in the warmer parts of the Pacific. In one stretch, 32 miles inland from the ocean, the mountains rear high enough to create the 1,000-foot-high Wallaman Falls, Australia’s highest waterfall and one that would be impressive on any continent.

Exploring on the Kuranda Railway 

Much of UNESCO’s heritage area’s boundaries were already under state protection. But the heritage designation gave added impetus to Queensland’s efforts to draw eco-tourists. One of the most popular draws for travelers who want to sample the state’s heritage forests is the Kuranda Scenic Railway, a 21-mile trip from Cairns up the Barron River. The train journey climbs 1,000 feet along the way – a sharp gain in altitude by Australian standards – threading its way through climax rainforest, rolling through 15 tunnels, crossing over deep gorges and passing by several waterfalls.

The train’s eventual destination of Kuranda, dubbed "The Village in the Rainforest," is the locus of several eco-related destinations. They include the Rainforestation Natural Park, a 100-acre tropical grove, as well as an aboriginal cultural park, a butterfly sanctuary, several aviaries and various for-hire auto and boat tours.

The rise is one of Queensland’s most popular day trips and is a good way to acquaint yourself with the look and feel of the state’s tropical forests.

— Patrick Totty