Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Mareeba - definitely worth a day trip up from Cairns




One of the advantages of being a Cairns photographer is that there is so much to see and do in a small area. One place I love to get out to on a spare day is Mareeba - up on the northern end of the Atherton Tablelands.

It's full of amazing places like the Mareeba Wetlands bird sanctuary, Granite Gorge with its cute rock wallabies and this place. Beck's Military Museum. I have to admit I'd driven past this place a zillion times and never knew what it was.

On assignment for Qantas, this place was on my list to photograph and I got the shock of my life. A giant hangar full of military planes, helicopters, jeeps. You name it, they've got it! The owner, Sid Beck, even let me get up on the roof of one of the bombers to take some shots.

"Don't fall off though, the bloody public liability wouldn't cover it!"

Good ol' far north Queensland humour. If you some spare time next time you're up this way definitely pop up for a look. It's only an hour or so from Cairns and a world away. To see more of what Mareeba has to offer take a look at my Mareeba photos.

3 comments:

Neal said...

About 20 mins north of Mareeba is Skybury's Australian Coffee Centre. It's one of my favourite restaurant/cafe's in the area.

You have sweeping views of the landscape from the huge decks not to mention the architecture itself.

The food and coffee is great and they have some old fashioned coffee roasters and such on display.

Well worth the trip, here is a photo I shot while last there .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nealthorley/4928829357/in/photostream

Cheers!

Unknown said...

Nice shot Neal,

I've never actually been up to Skybury but based on your recommendation I'll have to pop up and have a look. Do you get up this way often?

Neal said...

Not as often as I'd like, but we have family and friends in cairns so from time to time we drop in for a weekend.

We were just there for a few days after easter.