North Queensland calls you, c1950s

North Queensland calls you, c1950s, poster by Percy Trompf. The scenic beauty of the rainforest, and its associations with tropical lushness, featured prominently in North Queensland tourist promotional material from the 1890s onward. Then, as now, the tourist experience of the rainforest was typically contrived and comfortable. To enjoy the Fairyland Tea Gardens near Kuranda, which operated from the 1930s to the 1950s, tourists crossed the Barron River by boat, then walked along a pathway through fern- and orchid-bedecked rainforest to a kiosk dispensing tea and scones on white tablecloths under a rustic thatched roof. Queensland Government Tourist Bureau, Collection of the National Library of Australia