The legend of Paronella Park has been wistfully shared amongst visitors to Mena Creek for generations.
The sprawling gardens, bamboo walk, castle, ballroom, old tennis courts, fountain and waterfalls have been staples of a must-see destination for Far North Queensland travellers, and as the years trickle by, the charm of Jose Paronella's dream has continued to live on.
Owners Mark and Judy Evans lived and worked within the corporate worlds of Sydney and Perth before moving to Singapore in the mid 1980s.
After six years, and three children, the couple not only had a desire to return home to Australia but also to show their children their home country in a unique way - aboard a travelling caravan for two years.
Ready for their next adventure, they planted themselves in Cairns and enlisted the help of a friend to help them find "something interesting".
And interesting was what they found.
Walking around the overgrown Paronella Park for the first time in 1993, the pair were "lost for words".
"It just took us into another world. We both knew, without speaking to each other, that this was what we were looking for...it was the magic of the park that shone through and we could not believe that we hadn't heard about it," Mr Evans said.
Returning home to Palm Cove and approaching their bank for a loan, they were met with the same incredulity that Jose Paronella encountered when he first bought the land in 1929.
But just like Mr Paronella and his wife, Margarita, the pair were just "the right couple" to take on the 13 acre oasis.
Determined, the pair sunk their teeth into the project of restoring the park to its former glory, and just weeks later, they were met with an unexpected guest who would truly reveal the roots and the heart of the place they now call home.
"A lady turned up on our doorstep. That lady was Teresa, the daughter of Jose and Margarita," Mr Evans said.
"On the 17th of December just gone, we celebrated 30 years at Paronella Park. I believe it's because Teresa made us realise how important the story is."
Mr Paronella arrived in Innisfail in 1913 from Catalonia in northern Spain.
He dreamt of creating a home away from home Down Under for he and his betrothed, Matilda.
For 11 years, the former pastry chef built his wealth through mining tin, and then going on to buy, improve and sell 15 cane farms to amass a fortune of 20,000 pounds.
It was during his travels around the north that he stumbled across the virgin forest alongside Mena Creek Falls.
His dream, never written down and living only in his mind, suddenly had legs.
"He was without a doubt an entrepreneur. He saw opportunities no one else saw. He had a long term life ambition...he was going to build a piece of Spain...in North Queensland," Mr Evans said.
However, after no contact back home, he returned to Spain to bring his fiance to his discovered paradise, only to discover she had married someone else during his long and silent absence.
Eager to save face, Matilda's family proposed the hand of their younger daughter, Margarita, and after wedding, the pair set sail to Mena Creek - spending their honeymoon aboard the ship.
Mr Paronella set to work, constructing a 47-step staircase to shift building materials between the lower and upper level, and constructing a hand-built stone cottage in just three months - which they moved into that Christmas Eve.
He knew from the start that this dream would not just be kept to himself.
He wanted to share it with the world, and so he laboured away, creating a movie theatre that transformed into a ballroom with live bands on weekends beneath the shimmering pink and blue lights of a mammoth mirror-ball.
"Eighty per cent of the work that you see was actually done by (Jose). He was so driven that when he was building the hydro electric system, he worked extremely long hours (from 5am to 1am or 2am in the morning for weeks) because in those days, you didn't know when the monsoon was going to come," Mr Evans said.
"The project all up was six years...It shows his commitment and his passion.
"He'd invite the local Spanish community around and they would work with him on the weekend...they would turn up and pour concrete and mix it up on the scaffolding.
"Teresa recalls them using bamboo sticks to rattle the concrete down into the form work for six to eight hours. Then in the afternoon, the families would turn up...and they wouldn't have a barbecue or beer, they'd have pasta and red wine."
It's the personal touches that truly make the park - the waterfall named for Teresa, the picnic tables aside the creek with scenic views of the cascading water, Lovers Lane (built wide enough for couples to walk hand-in-hand), and the Tunnel of Love (with light shining in at the end).
December 17 holds particular significance for the Evans couple. It's not only the anniversary of the day they bought the park, but also the date they left Freemantle to embark on their two year journey, and the date they woke up in 2023 to mass flooding from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
"Every pathway was affected...big holes were gouged in the pathways. It took a team of seven staff four days of extremely hard work to get the park ready to re-open again... on December 22," Mr Evans said.
"Because we'd been pre-warned about the cyclone, we took down the awning on top of the cafe, but unfortunately in the process...it ripped in half.
"Because we had no warning of how much rain (we'd receive), the generator in the hydro-electric system went underwater and that has to be replaced.
"A number of fences were damaged, but we're moving through those slowly over the next few months. There's a lot of work that's hidden around the park that doesn't interfere with the safety of guests. We will have ongoing work."
All up, the bill to repair the damage will cost the owners over $250,000, after 557mm fell in 15 hours.
However, the park is open and bustling with activity once more, as the team slogs away to lovingly repair the grounds.
"Our recovery is quite amazing considering how much damage (there is), but I think that says it all. The story (of Jose) is of immigration, but it's also the story of resilience and recovery," Mr Evans said.
"Jose and (other immigrants) who immigrated to this country got back on their feet and kept going. That's been a driver for us.
"We had Cyclone Larry and Yasi and a flood early on, but we've been able to recovery just through commitment, perseverance...Judy said 'we take a leaf out of Jose's book and start at the front'."
Just like Mr and Mrs Paronella before them, the Evans couple have a vision.
They have expanded their empire to a caravan park (free for paying guests of the park), a bed and breakfast, the Mena Creek Hotel, a sky walk, a jointly government-funded $4m sewerage plant, and a working staff of 70.
"We have created a destination...we've given people more reason to stay, to visit, and I guess at end of the day, to spread the word," Mr Evans said.
"That will continue into the future... We're now looking at planting 30,000 trees, and hope one-day to build a piece that will allow conferences to be held, and more accommodation...to add to the attractiveness of Mena Creek to the travelling public.
"We found our dream."
