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A dream from Catalonia
José Paronella came to Australia from Catalonia in 1913 and worked in the sugar cane industry, buying and selling cane farms. He first saw the land along Mena Creek in 1914, and in 1929 he bought 13 acres there. He had married Margarita in 1925, and their journey back to Australia was their honeymoon.
Concrete, rails and a waterfall
The couple built a stone house first, then the castle. Most structures are poured, reinforced concrete, strengthened with old railway track, and the Grand Staircase was the earliest. In the 1930s José added a hydro-electric plant, the earliest in North Queensland, which powered the whole park. Paronella Park opened to the public in 1935.
Floods, fire and a revival
In 1946 debris from upstream crashed into the park, badly damaging the refreshment rooms, the hydro plant and the theatre, and the family rebuilt. José died in 1948. The family sold the park in 1977, and in 1979 a fire swept through the castle. Mark and Judy Evans bought the park in 1993, and in 2009 they restored the 1930s hydro system.
