Skyrail
The Skyrail (English also Skyrail Rainforest Cableway ) is a 7.5 km long cable car in Australia , which leads from Cairns to Kuranda . The route runs through the tropical rainforest , with the gondolas floating just a few meters above the treetops.
The starting point for the cable car is the Caravonica Terminal, 14 km north of Cairns . The six-person gondolas take around 1.5 hours to travel through two intermediate stations. At both stations it is possible to get off and hike through the rainforest on well-developed paths. The cable car ends in the rainforest city of Kuranda .
The Skyrail is one of the main tourist attractions in North Queensland .
The gondola lift goes back to a concept from 1987. In 1994, construction began on the single-cable gondola, which was supplied by POMA and opened on August 31, 1995. The Caravonica Terminal is only 5 m above sea level, the intermediate station at 545 m and the end station in Kuranda at 336 m, which results in a total difference in altitude of 749 m. The two terminals in Caravonica and Kuranda are home to the electric motors that drive the 40.5 mm thick suspension and pulling cable, which runs around 2.7 km and 4.8 km away, respectively, to the Red Peak intermediate station . The ropes run over a total of 32 cable car supports that are up to 40.5 m high. A communication cable runs over the top of the towers and is used to transfer calls and operational data between the stations. Originally the railway only had 47 gondolas. Due to the large number of visitors, it was expanded to 114 gondolas in 1997. It has a top speed of 5 m / s (18 km / h), but mostly drives much slower to allow passengers a more extensive view of the rainforest. In 2005 the rope on the steep section from Caravonica to Red Peak was replaced, and in 2007 the other rope as well.
The Olympic Flame used the Skyrail on the way to the 2000 Summer Olympics . In March 2002, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip took the Skyrail.
See also
Web links
- Skyrail website (English)
Coordinates: 16 ° 50 ′ 1.5 ″ S , 145 ° 38 ′ 43.9 ″ E