Qualla: Paronella Park

Paronella Park: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven Penton from Bakers Beach, Tasmania Australia, CC BY 2.0. José Paronella arrived in Queensland in 1913 with almost nothing and a picture in his head: the castles of his native Catalonia, rising out of the green. It took him until the 1930s, and a fortune made and spent on cane farms, to find the place that matched the picture — a patch of rainforest beside a waterfall at Mena Creek, two hours south of Cairns. There, with picks, shovels, a wheelbarrow, and an extraordinary stubbornness, he built a castle. Not a real one — a pleasure garden dressed as one, with turrets and a grand staircase, a ballroom and a fountain, all poured by hand from sand he carried up from the creek. Today the jungle is taking it back, and the ruins are more romantic than the castle ever was.

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Image: Steven Penton from Bakers Beach, Tasmania Australia | CC BY 2.0

Paronella Park: The Dreamer from Catalonia

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neegzistuoja, CC BY-SA 4.0. He was born José Pedro Enrique Paronella on 26 February 1887 in La Vall de Santa Creu, a hamlet in the province of Girona in north-eastern Catalonia. He sailed for Australia in 1913, became a naturalised citizen in 1921, and spent eleven years in the brutal arithmetic of the fron...

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Image: Neegzistuoja | CC BY-SA 4.0

Paronella Park: Built by Hand, Stair by Stair

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Neegzistuoja, CC BY-SA 4.0. By 1929 he had bought the land at Mena Creek, waterfall included. He built a stone house for his family first, then a pavilion at the head of the falls that served as both cinema and ballroom. The centrepiece was the Grand Staircase — forty-seven steps cut into the slope, which h...

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Image: Neegzistuoja | CC BY-SA 4.0

Paronella Park: Power from the Falls

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Paronella refused to depend on the outside world for so much as a light bulb. In 1934 he built what is regarded as Queensland's first privately owned hydroelectric plant, harnessing Mena Creek Falls. He had no engineering training; he simply walked up to the engineers at the near...

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Image: Public domain

Paronella Park: What the Jungle Reclaimed

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 名古屋太郎, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tropical Queensland is hard on dreams. In 1946 a cyclone sent logs tumbling down the falls and into the refreshment rooms; Paronella repaired, replanted, and reopened within six months. He died in 1948, leaving the park to Margarita and their children. The family held it until 19...

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Image: 名古屋太郎 | CC BY-SA 3.0