Tuesday – Falls, Hot Springs and Fire

Tuesday 1st June 2021

We had a good night sleep. No roosters waking us up, but they could be heard in the distance.

We got ourselves together and left for Ravenshoe Info Centre. It is pronounced Ravens-hoe.

The Information centre had a wonderful exhibit and display on the possums found in Ravenshoe. Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland.

There was also a collection of items from the Aboriginal Tribes that were in the area prior to European settlement.

The area in Ravenshoe was an army training and recouping area. They trained in conditions very similar to that seen in South-East Asia and New Guinea. That trained in jungle warfare within the terrain. The info centre had a area dedicated to the men and women who trained here and later fought in the Second World War.

Little Millstream Falls

We drove a few kilometres outside of Ravenshoe to the National Park. Here we took a walk down a steep and what became muddy path to see the falls. We made it most of the way but stopped as it started getting dangerous.

The falls run over ancient layers of Rhyolite covered in basalt following volcanic eruption at a place nearby called Windy Hill.

The Millstream River has carved out waterfalls, gorges and rock pools over time to create what we see today.

Millstream Falls

We jumped back in the car are drove west to Millstream Falls in another section of the National Park. Both falls occur along the Millstream River.

The Millstream Falls is known as the widest single drop waterfall in Australia.

Innot Hot Springs

After lunch at the caravan we drove further west to Innot Hot Springs.

Here a natural phenomenon is taking place. Sandy sediment and fractured rocks combine 10s of kilometres underground with large fault lines.

Water filters down through the fractures until it comes in close proximity to the magma chamber, some 600m below the surface.

Here the water becomes heated, expands and now under pressure is forced back up along the large faults under the town. It is then forced onto the surface creating the Hot Springs. the temperature at the discharge point is around 80 degrees celsius. It discharges at a rate of around 3L per second.

When mixed with flowing rain water from the creek, it can make for a pleasant warm bath. Too close to the discharge point and you’ll likely get burnt.