In Scenic Public Toilet world, where I humbly claim to be an Australian expert (I HAVE written a book – Aussie Loos with Views after all), I thought I’d seen it all!

From the vast, sweeping plains of the Queensland Outback; the spectacular ‘Bali Hai’ backdrop of Lord Howe Island; the magnificent Southern Yorke Peninsula coastline; the RED rocky ranges of the Northern Territory; the high country of Victoria; and the drama of plunging cliffs and blowholes in Western Australia, I’ve been privileged to discover – and use for their intended purpose – some of the most amazingly scenic amenities on earth!

But I never thought it’d be my pleasure to do my business in a coffin!

We extended our July 2011 stay in the excellent Millaa Millaa Tourist Park on the outskirts of this tiny Atherton Tablelands town in the shadow of Mt Bartle Frere (Queensland’s highest mountain) and Mt Bellenden Ker (Queensland’s 2nd highest mountain) several times.

That’s because it’s an excellent and superbly scenic base from which to explore the whole tablelands region. Most of which can be seen from the Millaa Millaa Lookout, starting with Mt Bartle Frere’s bulk and sweeping around over the superb green panorama that makes up this cool – both literally AND figuratively – tropical paradise.

Just down the road are the archetypal Millaa Millaa Falls – so named (by me) because the word ‘waterfall’ probably conjures up an image something like the falls in the photo below, right??

Further afield past magnificent rainforest and one of the more picturesque landscapes in OZ is the excellent Train to Tumoulin; the plunging Crater at Mt Hypipamee, and the marvellous Mungalli Creek Dairy and Organic Cafe!

And that’s just what’s REALLY close!!

Somehow, in the midst of all this traveller’s fantasy world, I missed the unique coffin-shaped public toilet in the Millaa Millaa cemetery.

Don’t ask me how I missed the Millaa Millaa Coffin Loo. Although I’d like to think it’s because it hadn’t been built back then …

But now, however, after a disturbing report from readers Cheryl and Franciscus, it looks like I’ll NEVER have the chance to do my business in a coffin!

Because according to an article from on Cairns.com.au*, the Millaa Millaa Coffin Loo was recently condemned!

Awhile back, the local chamber of commerce asked the shire council for an amenities block in the cemetery to make it easier for residents to attend funerals.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but my experience tells me that: 1) a higher number of older than younger people die; and 2) a higher number of older than younger people experience body malfunctions requiring a quick trip to the conveniences.

Ergo: the profile of a funeral attendee is an older person requiring the conveniences to be … well … convenient!

The factors making Millaa Millaa a tropical anomaly – single digit winter temperatures and high incidence of mist and fog – already make standing in the cemetery for any length of time an uncomfortable experience for a funeral goer (as profiled above). But factor in the effects of the cold and distance of the cemetery from the town, and it’d hardly be a surprise if funeral attendance dropped off!

While I don’t have the benefit of council research and statistics, the Cairns Post article indicates that the council refused the request for cemetery conveniences on the grounds that it didn’t have the $80,000+ required for such a building.

So what’s a chamber of commerce with initiative, drive and the support of the majority of the community to do?

Build their own, of course!!

And while it’s bizarre, but possible that the chamber of commerce has never heard of the Red Nomad OZ penchant for public potties, their Millaa Millaa Coffin Loo – using volunteers and donated materials – immediately captured my attention!

At a cost of only $1200 – more than 66 times cheaper than the council’s own cost estimate!  Perhaps they should become consultants and on-sell their innovative budget approach around the country, or even the world!

But I digress …

While this solidly constructed septic system loo on council land doesn’t a) have council planning approval, or b) meet all council planning requirements, it’s difficult for me to understand how it would cost another $75,000+ to ensure that it does.

But … I’m not a tradie, so maybe I just don’t get it.

Weirdly, letting the Millaa Millaa community keep its toilet apparently means others could – would – do the same thing according to the council, a strangely embarrassing indictment in my opinion. For if the council truly believes that other communities would build their own amenities once they’d tacitly green-lighted the Millaa Millaa Coffin Loo, surely this is an acknowledgement that there aren’t enough?!

While keeping the toilet operational until such time as the Council has funds for a ‘proper’ one might seem a logical compromise to laypeople such as I, apparently the dangers of a well-built septic toilet (albeit one not complying with council specifications) are too great.

So, last rites have been held and the loo removed to protect the Millaa Millaa residents from its dastardly dangers.  AND any errant tourists who might find it amazingly, awesomely Australian.

Today.

So the ABC News website tells me.

Naturally, there are more than two sides to this tragic tale. I’m sure the council really DIDN’T have the money to spend on a cemetery toilet, given there’s already a public toilet in the fine picnic and barbecue area in main street.

Graced, incidentally, by the fine artwork in the previous photo.

And unlike me, there are those who find a coffin-shaped toilet in a cemetery offensive – SO offensive that they spray it with graffiti, even though according to my sources, over 300 (around 90%) of the townspeople have signed a petition in support of maintaining their gloriously gothic loo.

The final tragedy is that even though the Millaa Millaa Coffin Loo has just been moved down the road, it’s lost the location that made it unique so I’ll never be able to give it the full benefits of the Red Nomad OZ treatment.

I’ve never actually seen the conveniences for myself, and photos are via Cheryl and Franciscus (blessings to you both); Pat Reynolds (Chamber of Commerce president) and the Cairns Post.

And although the devastating irony of such un-Australian treatment of something so quintessentially Australian on the eve of Australia Day means I’ll never see it in its rightful place, I’m not letting Australia’s Scenic Public Toilet #30 get away!

Visit the Millaa Millaa Cemetery Loo Facebook Page HERE and show your support!!

The post The Cemetery, the Council and the Coffin-shaped Conveniences! Australia’s Scenic Public Toilet #30 appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

‘I would NOT like to fall down there,’ the backpacker remarked to his mates with that peculiarly British mixture of overconfident understatement and blinding obvious as he stared down into the depths of the crater.

They nodded wisely, unsure whether or not they’d heard something profound, but deciding to play it safe.

Banal though his utterance was, however, he was right. 58 metres (193 feet) WAS a long way down to the green water-weed infested pool at the bottom of the crater. And I didn’t want to fall down there either.

Acrophobics* like me clung to the heavy duty railing to peer over the edge. Mt Hypipamee’s famous crater was giving me the heebie-jeebies. I wondered how long it would take a falling object – say, a human sacrifice – to hit the green depths far below the crater rim.

I didn’t have to wonder for too long.

The backpacker’s girlfriend picked up a stick and casually twirled it like a baton as she glanced at me sideways. Come to think of it, they were ALL glancing at me sideways as they hogged the railing, showing none of the usual tourist hot-spot etiquette whereby each gets an equal turn at the best photo vantage point.

It was pretty obvious I was the only one not of their kind with my tan, thongs and 20+ year head start.  What were they looking at? My hair-dye job wasn’t THAT bad, was it?

After shooting around them without using my elbows for their god-given purpose as they continued to take up most of the viewing space at the railing, I’d taken as many photos as I could. Their glances were really starting to creep me out.

What were they waiting for? A human sacrifice??

Approximately 5.918 seconds later the stick hit the water, trailing greenly through the native waterweed on its surface.

Judging by the number of similar trails in the water, I guessed she wasn’t alone in ‘testing’ the depth of the water.

What we couldn’t see, however, was the depth of the pool beneath the protective waterweed layer. Estimated at around 82 metres (273 feet) deep, the pool lay still and silent, or would have but for the stick-and-stone-throwing tourists.

Managers of the stunning Millaa Millaa caravan park where we’d based ourselves in July 2011 on the Tablelands above Cairns in Far North Queensland had given us a list of local attractions. One of several was Mt Hypipamee National Park on the southern Evelyn Tableland and within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Although due to a little flirtation with the facts its technically incorrect colloquial name – ‘The Crater’ – is pure Aussie overstatement. More accurately known as a diatreme or volcanic pipe, it’s thought to have been formed by gas from an underground explosion that expanded to form this deep, cylindrical hole.**

The fact sheet suggested the we look out for platypi*** in the pool and I’d assumed them to be the cause of the waterweed trails. But now I knew the REAL explanation, I wondered if it were possible for platypi – or indeed any creature that couldn’t escape the pool’s closed ecosystem – to survive.

Where was a Platypus Whisperer when you needed one?

On a previous trip to the area, we’d discovered Pilchard’s remarkable talent for spotting platypi, as like the Pied Piper of Yungaburra, he’d seen them at every turn along a river walk. After a while, I and the delighted Swiss family trailing in his wake gave up looking for them ourselves, and just waited for him to point them out.

But Pilchard, the only Platypus Whisperer I know, was busy at the forest edge (aka ‘carpark’) with a couple of other twitchers**** spotting North Queensland endemic Golden Bowerbird (Prionodura newtoniana) high in the trees above.

Later we would go to a TOP SECRET location through leech-dripping rainforest to see the Bowerbird’s bower – with only one use, the avian equivalent of a teenage boy’s chick-magnet hot-rod (I’ve included a mediocre picture of it to satisfy your prurient curiousity) (oh, and you’re now one of not very many people in the world who’ve seen a Golden Bowerbird’s bower)(albeit virtually).

But a more than passing knowledge of the mating habits of bowerbirds wasn’t going to help me with the platypi question. And neither were the backpackers who, having confirmed the depth of the diatreme wasn’t an illusion with their scientific stick, left in a gaggle, speaking loudly of their impending pub-crawl.

And now, gazing into the green waterweed down the green, green vegetation clinging to the granite wall 70 metres (233 feet) away on the other side was making my eyes go funny. If there WERE platypi, they hadn’t made an appearance yet.

I peered more closely into the depths. Was there a movement?

Forget the platypi.  Could there be a Ness-like monster lurking in the depths, trapped by time and a prehistoric explosion?

I wondered whether the Mt Hypipamee Crater had ever claimed a victim. A little introspection goes a long way in a place like this Or maybe I just needed to get back to normality.

That is, if a group of twitchers intent on hunting down a (feathered) bird’s love nest was normal. But it says a lot for the Mt Hypipamee Heebie-Jeebies that as I emerged from the rainforest into the relative sanity of the car park, it was!!

* Acrophobia = fear of heights

** According to the Tablelands Parks and Forests brochure produced by Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service

*** Platypi = more than one platypus

**** twitcher = birdwatcher

Want MORE?

• Mt Hypipamee National Park (The Crater)
• Millaa Millaa Tourist Park
• Atherton Tablelands, Far North QueenslandC

The post The Hypipamee Heebie-jeebies … appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

1925 D17 Class Steam Locomotive ‘Capella’ in Tumoulin, Queensland

Crossing the trestle bridge, Tumoulin to Ravenshoe



Tumoulin Railway Station sign

Creatures en route to Tumoulin

Spot Paris!

No 268 – Capella

No, not a bushfire!  It’s a Steam train!





Emergency!

Centenary re-enactment – cutting the ribbon





Ravenshoe Station, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland



Harry’s Dunny … no, not a real person inside!!

• More photos on Flickr!
• Where is it?
• Ravenshoe Steam Railway
• Ravenshoe Railway Company
• Atherton Tablelands

The post Random Adventure #7 – Taking the Train to Tumoulin appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

The spectacular Gouldian finches* caged for the breeding program at the Mareeba Wetlands Visitor Centre are great, but there’s WAAAAAY more birds to be seen out and about around the lagoon or on one of the walks in the 5000 acre reserve.

So, bins** in hand, we took the Pandanus walk, its varied habitats promising – and delivering – a cross-section of local birds including Black-necked stork (amateur birdwatchers like me prefer the more poetic common name – Jabiru!), Red-backed Fairy wren, Comb-crested jacana, Green Pygmy Goose, Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, Forest Kingfisher, and a whole family of Brown Quail! FAAAABULOUS!!

But then, through the trees I spied a glint of sun on silver metal. Quite a lot of metal, actually. Was it a picnic table? An abandoned car?? A plane wreck???

Our curiosity piqued, we moved in for a closer look – the scrub successfully obscuring its surreal identity until we were close enough to touch it.

No, none of our guesses were even close!!

It’s a mystery (to us, at least) who constructed this monstrous metal gecko – and why! Even more bizarre – why is it hidden away in the bush surrounding this Atherton Tablelands protected wetland habitat??

So … we admit defeat.  Great photo opportunity that it is, we’re stumped!!

Any ideas?

*Go on!  Do yourself a favour and take the link if you don’t know what they look like!!
**bins = birdo talk for ‘binoculars’ without which no self respecting twitcher would visit a wetland!

The post Weird Stuff #5 – Mareeba, Queensland appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.