170 Cairns-Kuranda in their bottoms. Boat too crowded. Engine failed on the reef and could not easily be re-started. Women with shady hats and parasols, hanging over the well, spoiled the underwater view at my first position. The hand movements of a party of mutes at another well, including a most excitable little woman, were a distraction at another well. Dinner with Tom and Anny Webb at Whiterock, 11 miles south of Cairns in a cane-planted valley which runs parallel with the coast between two mountain ranges. Thursday, December 24. By rail motor to Kuranda, center of an old settlement; and resort place at c. 1200 ft. and c. 20 miles by rail from Cairns. Route first through green, orderly patchwork of cane fields, then slowly mounts face of the ranges and in to the Barren Gorge. Beautiful scenery. Our numerous holidaying passengers upset by two go-slow young men who took a good half hour to load a few cases of oranges at a stop on the lowlands. My first impressions of this visit to Kuranda are mixed. On advice of some Cairns friend I'm staying at the Fitzpatrick Hotel. The other hotel (the Kuranda) looks better from the outside. Fitzpatrick pretty crude. One climbs to get anywhere from the railroad station. Finding no taxi, and having a heavy suitcase, I set about phoning the hotel. Phone call costs fourpence (c. 4 cents), in pennies. Had only one penny in my pocket. The railway ticket seller would not help with change. A barmaid in the "refreshment room" did. Learned from the hotel that there was no taxi in town, and the hotel owners' car was away somewhere. Was helped to the pub by a kindly tourist who, most surprisingly for North Queensland, declared himself a teetotaler when I invited him in for a beer. My visit to Kuranda is mainly to see the George Vievers, Senior, fine people with whom our party spent a week at the old Speewah homestead in 1948, and with whom I have corresponded ever since. Young George V. drove me out the eleven miles to visit the old people this afternoon. Also called on another son, Maurice. Made a diversion for George to cut a young cypress pine for a Christmas tree. Back to town in heavy rain which lasted well into the night. Friday, December 25. Mainly eating, sleeping and reading for me. The Barren River, once a beautiful clear stream, has after last nights rain the color of tomato soup and much the same consistency. Its headwaters are in rich red-soil farmlands of the Atherton Tableland, which one does not have to see to know are eroding away. The Kuranda township water supply is pumped from the river. It is flowing red from the taps. No bath for me this morning. Rain water for drinking is stored in galvanized iron tanks. Christmas dinner at the hotel was lavish and very good. The house is famous for it. Many guests from Cairns and the Tableland. About 300 served in several sittings. Saturday, December 26. More or less showery day along the edge of the range, where Kuranda is situated. Heavy, gusty rain from c. 6:30 on into the night. This is from a cyclonic disturbance centered in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The beginning of the wet season.