Gulf Savannah and Outback

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  2. Explore Queensland
  3. Tropical North Queensland Visitor’s Guide
  4. Places to visit
  5. Gulf Savannah and Outback
Fish, fossick, and toast rich, red sunsets across the flat grasslands and coastal landscapes of the Gulf Savannah and Outback. 

Things to do

Discover Kurumba onboard a sunset croc and crab tour or silently creep through the sandstone escarpments of Cobbold Gorge on a solar-powered boat. 

Watch the sky transform into a rolling, cigar-shaped cloud formation during the annual Morning Glory and bird migration in September.

You can go back to the gold mining days in Croydon and visit explorers’ Burke and Wills Camp in Normanton or walk into the world’s longest volcanic lava tubes formed 190,000 years ago at Undara National Park, and overnight in a restored railway carriage.

If you're after a fishing adventure, hop on the Savannahlander or Gulflander trains or join a guided four-wheel-drive or luxury coach tour to a secluded fishing hole in search of barramundi.


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Lawn Hill

Lawn Hill, Burke Area
Every year, thousands of visitors are drawn to Lawn Hill National Park to experience the true Outback. Encompassing the spectacular Lawn Hill Gorge with its imposing sandstone cliffs, and cool pristine waterways, the area is most famous for the World Heritage-listed Riversleigh fossil fields.

Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park

Chillagoe, Mareeba Area
From AU$27.20 - 68.20
Featuring spectacular limestone caves, small galleries of Aboriginal rock art, jagged limestone outcrops and an historically significant mining site, this park is rich in natural and cultural heritage.

Undara Volcanic National Park

Mount Surprise, Etheridge Area
Free Entry
On the western slopes of the McBride Plateau, open woodlands give way to the vast open spaces of the savanna. Here in Undara Volcanic National Park, rich volcanic basalt soils, covered in a sea of seasonal grasses, conceal the Undara lava tube.

Mount Surprise

Mount Surprise, Etheridge Area
Mount Surprise is a railway town on the Cairns to Forsayth Railway and is the first town within the Gulf Savannah encountered by visitors approaching from the east. It is a centre for gem fossicking, with quantities of topaz, quartz, spinel, garnet, cairngorm and aquamarine to be found.

Undara Experience

Mount Surprise, Etheridge Area
From AU$58 - 60
Only three and a half hours from Cairns in Tropical North Queensland's Gulf Savannah lies a land so different in contrasts - the Undara Volcanic National Park. Undara is a pristine wilderness possessing one of the oldest and best preserved lava tube systems anywhere on Earth.

Einasleigh

Einasleigh, Etheridge Area
Einasleigh in the 21st century is only a small community - there are no shops however there is a hotel where you can purchase food. You can also top up fuel here or get food from the roadside caravan takeway, under a massive tamarind tree thought to be more than a century old.

Almaden

Almaden, Mareeba Area
Train buffs take note. The Savannahlander is one of tropical North Queensland's unusual rail journeys. It runs from Cairns to Forsayth overnighting in Almaden. It traces an important railway system that was developed by John Moffat as part of his vast mining empire in the late 1800s.

Pormpuraaw

Pormpuraaw, Pormpuraaw Area
Visitors come from all over Australia to enjoy the excellent fishing at Pormpuraaw, on the west coast of Queensland. Situated between two rivers, Pormpuraaw features terrific estuary fishing for barramundi, threadfin salmon, grunter, bream, and others.

Forsayth

Forsayth, Etheridge Area
Sometimes history is more bizarre than fiction. Forsayth was once paved in gold - in a manner of speaking. Part of the Etheridge Goldfield, this area was known as 'Poor Man's Goldfield' as a prospector did not need expensive equipment to search for gold.

Croydon

Croydon, Croydon Area
Croydon, situated in the heart of the Gulf Savannah country (Savannah Way), is a small town with a big history that started with the discovery of gold in 1885. Start at Croydon's True Blue Visitor Information Centre which houses significant collections of heritage items, information displays, an audio visual in its theatre and an internet service.
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