The Great Green Way is the 345km stretch of the Bruce Highway (A1) that connects Townsville and Cairns. It is aptly named for passing through Queensland’s Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, a region of breath-taking tropical beauty with the closest mainland access to the Great Barrier Reef. The scenic drive can be completed in five hours non-stop but it’s better to take a few days (or weeks) to experience bushwalking in rainforested mountains, white-water rafting on untamed rivers, strolling along palm-fringed beaches, snorkelling on coral reefs, and the friendly, relaxed lifestyle of North Queensland sugar towns. Don’t rush it, just sit back and enjoy this amazing journey.
THE WET TROPICS OF QUEENSLAND
The ‘Wet Tropics’ embraces almost 9000sqkm of North Queensland’s coastal ranges. As its name suggests, the region receives an enormous amount of rain, averaging as much as 8000mm annually. In 1988, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list for its exceptional natural beauty and as a living record of the evolution of land plants over more than 200 million years.
It is a stunningly beautiful tropical landscape: rugged mountain peaks blanketed by dense rainforests; wild rivers coursing through deep gorges; towering waterfalls (including Wallaman Falls, Australia tallest at 268m); forested lowlands crowding sweeping
