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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

An Apollonaut travel guide

Moments in a longer story.

Selected milestones for Kuranda and Birdworld.

A pink and grey galah perched on a wooden rail among rainforest plants at Birdworld Kuranda
On this page

Village, railway and birds

These dates describe the place you can learn about here. They are not a company timeline for Apollonaut.

  1. 1885

    First settlers

    Europeans settle in the rainforest on the range above Cairns.

  2. 1888

    A town surveyed

    Kuranda is surveyed by Thomas Behan.

  3. 1891

    The railway arrives

    The line from Cairns reaches Kuranda.

  4. 1913

    One parrot, not two

    Green male and red female eclectus parrots, long thought to be two species, are confirmed as one.

  5. 1970s

    The village in the rainforest

    Kuranda begins to call itself the village in the rainforest.

  6. 1980

    A family business

    Birdworld Kuranda’s family-run business begins.

Follow the stories behind the dates

A timeline is a beginning. The longer history introduces the people and places; the sources below provide further context.

Read at the source

Sources & further reading

Links lead to the original publishers.

The Apollonaut collection

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