In South East Queensland, Australia, high in the mountain ranges that rise up behind Surfers Paradise, forming the Gold Coast hinterland, you will reach the small town of Canungra. And there you will find the road to Binna Burra.
At the end of the road is Binna Burra Lodge, set in lush rainforest, high in the glorious mountain ranges of the Lamington National Park. Or at least, you could find it until 7th September 2019 when raging bushfires burned all the cabins and buildings to the ground, felling massive rainforest trees and sending them crashing down across the only road to the site, preventing firefighters from reaching the grounds of the lodge.
Rich with wildlife this rainforest eyrie is a paradise location I visited at least four times during the few years I spent living in Australia 1985-1990, and then visited again when I returned to Australia in 2007 – and was planning to visit again in November 2019. But everyone had to evacuate the site in the face of encroaching fire on Friday 6th September.
The first time I visited Binna Burra on my own, I was delighted with the warm welcome, the conviviality with others who had also come alone, the joyful meals together in the Lodge, the immensely knowledgable tour guide whom I dubbed ‘Peter the Rainforest Host’, the walks through the rainforest, the many magical discoveries and the sublime views.
Binna Burra has special memories for me. Birdsong echoes from peak to peak, the blue haze of eucalyptus vapour often veils the richly forested slopes, and the lure of the Coomera Falls on the 22 kilometre Coomera Circuit awaits keen bushwalkers who love majestic views from rocky outcrops.
I remember feeling as if I was in another dimension up at Binna Burra, the atmosphere so rarefied, the air wine-sweet, a magical presence separate from the world. Here it was I had one of the few mystical experiences of my life.
Another with memories of the Lodge, Cecilia O’Grady, who worked there 1982-1986, said: “I feel quite emotional thinking about it, the history of the place. It’s very spiritual. It’s beautiful.”
The cycle of life in Australia, well known to the aborigines, involves controlled burn-offs. The periodic apparent cataclysm of fire turns the fertile landscape into a devastated waste of blackened stumps, where you would think all life had been eliminated. And yet life returns. The rains come, the green shoots spring up, and the fertile land renews itself.
But for Binna Burra fire is unknown. It is a lush, green, wet environment normally resistant to such fire. “It’s a rainforest, it’s a lush wet green place, how can it be burning?” said Professor Darryl Jones, Griffith University ecologist.
It is impossible to look anywhere else other than climate change for the reasons behind this tragedy. Nevertheless I hope that the rainforest will demonstrate once again its miraculous power for the renewal of life, and I have faith in the restoration of this glorious mountain top eyrie with the construction of a new lodge and accommodation.
I’ve previously written on this blog about Binna Burra: read it here. Also I’ve written about another rainforest lodge in Lamington National Park, OReilly’s, which you may read here.
SC Skillman
psychological, paranormal, mystery
fiction and non-fiction
My next book ‘Paranormal Warwickshire’ will be published by Amberley Publishing in 15th June 2020
scskillman.com 
How very sad…and worrying.