Silkwood
Postcode: 4856
Silkwood is a small sugar farming community centred just west of the Bruce Highway between Cardwell and Innisfail in North Queensland.
It’s only a fairly short drive from Silkwood to some of the best beaches in this part of the world, including Kurrimine and Mission Beach, where lush tropical vegetation slides down to the white sand and an azure sea. Protected by the wave-taming Great Barrier Reef, the beaches offer superb fishing, boating, sailing and beachcombing.
It’s in this area that you’ll find two of nature’s rare and beautiful species – the spectacular, iridescent blue Ulysses butterfly, and that endangered and most colourful of birds, the huge and flightless cassowary.
Found only in north Queensland and Papua-New Guinea, the cassowary’s origins trace back to pre-historic times when Australia was part of the huge Gondwana continent. Although it is a large, powerful and aggressive bird which can weigh up to 83kg, development of its once virginal, rainforest domain has forced the cassowary into the endangered zone and the Queensland Government has introduced a comprehensive environmental program to protect the bird.