After bouncing about on a hot dirt track, there are few sights more welcome than a smiling lodge host bearing a chilled glass of bubbles. It’s an apt introduction to Mt Mulligan Lodge, a unique north Queensland getaway, which genuinely merits the description “outback escape”.
Our original plan was to helicopter in – a quick 35-minute trip from Cairns – but a sudden tropical storm grounded air traffic, so we’ve switched to a 4WD. Since turning off at the small township of Dimbulah, we’ve passed just one dusty ute and a handful of floppy-eared Bos indicus cattle.
I’ve been hanging out for a first glimpse of Mount Mulligan, our destination lodge’s namesake, since leaving Brisbane. This massive tabletop mountain, known to First Nations Australians as Ngarrabullgan, sits on Djungan land. It’s a sacred site, revered as the birthplace of the creator being, the Rainbow Serpent. Cave shelters located on the mountain have been dated back 37,000 years.
We’ve journeyed up through 180-million-year-old rainforest on our climb out of Cairns, pushing past papaya orchards and dairy farms on the Atherton Tablelands, before finally heading into the bush.
At Mt Mulligan, a 28,000-hectare working cattle station, we turn the corner of the main pavilion, Champagne flutes in hand and it’s like walking onto a film set – with towering, widescreen views of the mighty Ngarrabullgan, the undisputed star.
This story is from the February 2022 edition of Gourmet Traveller.
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This story is from the February 2022 edition of Gourmet Traveller.
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