FIELD ATLAS · SWIMMING HOLE

Babinda Boulders

CAIRNS & TROPICAL NORTH, QLD

The Yidinji name for this place is Bunna Binda. The reserve sits an hour south of Cairns, where Babinda Creek runs down from Mount Bartle Frere over and between granite boulders the size of houses, polished smooth by water over millennia, adjacent to Wooroonooran National Park. The main swimming hole at the picnic ground is broad, calm, and safe; a 1.3km boardwalk runs downstream through lowland rainforest to viewing platforms over Devil's Pool, a narrow chute of fast water and underwater channels where 21 people have drowned since 1959 — swimming or scrambling beyond the signed area is not permitted. The Yidinji story of Oolana, told by elder Annie Wonga and displayed at the Babinda Information Centre, accounts for the boulders' creation and is part of how the place is understood today. Free entry, open daily, free camping at the adjacent Rotary Park.

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