A Narrow Road in the Deep North

Authors

  • Richard Lansdown

Abstract

Many travellers by road or air between Townsville and Cairns will recall Hinchinbrook Island, lying close inshore between Ingham and Cardwell in northern Queensland. The dividing range at this part of the coast is imposing enough, but Hinchinbrook is a prodigious sight. The mainland escarpment is at least consistent in its deployment of volume and altitude, and the other islands visible from the highway present the volcanic flattened cone in conventional style, but the set of peaks across the channel looks like the Land that Time Forgot. Every analogy that springs to mind - wax spilt on restaurant tables, dribble castles, stylised vertiginous breasts, tumuli, barrows, clay shaped by impatient children, the vertebrae of random species of dinosaurs arbitrarily yoked together, Easter Island monoliths - either fails or bleeds into others. Is Mount Bowen the fifth or sixth highest peak in Queensland? Who cares? The state's highest mountain just nearby, Bartle Frere, is a wonderful sight, but does it rush up in front of your face like quadrillions of tons of rock on the end of a rod?

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Published

2016-05-18

Issue

Section

Articles