Barron Falls in Flood.

A Geological Perspective per Warwick Willmott,

‘Rocks and Landscapes of the National Parks of North Queensland’

Published by Geological Society of Australia, Qld Division.

BARRON GORGE NATIONAL PARK

The Great Escarpment is starkly obvious in this heavily visited park on the outskirts of Cairns. The Kuranda scenic railway winds around its eastern slopes, the Skyrail Cableway soars above its steep rainforested edge, people peer from lookouts at the Barron Falls, rafters shoot rapids in the floor of the Barron River Gorge, and hikers explore historic tracks from the lowlands to behind Kuranda.

The Barron River has carved a gorge into the escarpment for about 8 km inland from Kamerunga, with the Barron Falls gradually retreating into the tableland behind. It was once thought that the gorge was deepened and advanced more quickly by the capture of the former headwaters of the Mitchell River, on the northern side of the Atherton Tableland. However, recent examination of water-bore drill records around the supposed capture zone near Biboohra north of Mareeba suggests that there has always been a ridge of rock between the two streams.

The escarpment and gorge are carved in meta-sediments of the Hodgkinson Formation, whose origin and nature are described on pages 49-50. Such meta-sediments are primarily argillite (hardened mudstone) and greywacke (hardened dirty sandstone), but in this park examples of two other types, quartzite (hardened chert bands) and greenstone (recrystallised basalt) are prominent. The dramatic Glacier Rock and Red Bluff above the railway are of quartzite and greenstone respectively.