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 Nearer to Cairns
The mountains recede from the coast near Cairns giving the city some breathing space. [point 9 on map] There is a lot of open farmland immediately north of Cairns that should provide plenty of space to set up equipment without the risk of being blocked by crowds of non-specialitst observers who will probably crowd the available beaches & coastal areas.

 

 Plenty of open space is available in the vast expanse of open and mostly unfenced fields between the airport and the skyrail base station. Be aware that this is private not public land. Take care not to damage sown fields. Below are two very roughly stitched panoramas showing the coast from Palm Cove to Cape Grafton and Cairns. Photographs taken from Skyrail gondolas. The gondola's security windows restrict the angles from which you can take pictures so these panoramas are stictched from images taken while ascending in the morning and during descent some hours later in the afternoon. Both panoramas have links to much bigger more detailed enlargements. Click on the image to enlarge, click on the enlargement to return. Observing from the open fields below, the Sun will rise somewhere near Cape Grafton. From Cairns, it will rise behind the Cape.

 

 

The longest duration visible from the mainland is 2m05.7s yet almost every piece of land visible
in these two panoramas experiences more than 2 minutes of totallity. Observers can choose their
location for terrain, horizon, scenic factors and convenience and don't need to worry about proximity
to the centre line.


 
Any place with a good view of the east horizon will make a great place to watch the eclipse. Though the beach immediately comes to mind, the tide will probably be coming in as the eclipse progresses. Some beaches may become covered by tides. New Moon occurs at 06:38. A high tide of about 3m occurs mid-morning (9:06am) on the day of the eclipse in this region. Tide height during totality will probably be about 2.3m. So the tide will be low at 3am about the time you select your observing location. High tide will be coming in during the eclipse and high tide will occur about an hour after the total eclipse ends.  Oak beach might seem to be the perfect spot located on the beach and the centreline but the following photograph shows why Oak Beach should be avoided. 

In the photo above I tried to take the photo keeping the camera level with the ground in the beach house yard.  I was probably a touch low.  
The back yard is more like 3.1m. In the photo below, I've constructed contours and then using tide data, annotated the photo with times
when the tide will most likely reach it.  Oak beach is obviously one place to be avoided. 

 

In the mountains
Mountain cloud clings to many of the mountaintops in the hinterlands. We followed the road from Mossman to Julatten. On the mountain climb Lyons lookout [point 6 on map] has a view to the ocean. But the lookout looks NNE. We found that views to the east, southeast and the west obscured by tall trees and steep topography. Perhaps someone with local knowledge might know of somewhere high with a suitable vantage point.

These images were taken at Lyons lookout half way up the mountain road to Julatten.

 

 

 

The lookout has views to the north north east

 

To the southeast, the direction of a November sunrise, the horizon is obscured.

 At Julatten itself, [point 7 on map] open fields and flat topped mountains might make for a good location were it not for the mountain cloud that was hanging around the hilltops on the August day we were there.

 

 

 The roads from Cairns up into the mountains likewise provide few lookouts with expansive clear horizon options. The climbing sections of these roads are between Gordonvale and Yungaburra on the Gillies Highway and between Cairns and Mareeba on the Kennedy Highway. Mountains in this area are given names like "the Misty Mountains" because they are so frequently shrouded in mountain cloud.

Escaping the cloud
If cloud becomes a problem, the section of road past Mt Molloy on the inland road to Cooktown runs parallel to the centreline and quite close to it. However this "chase" will have to take place during the night and we did not travel this road so we can't advise on the availability of open ground nor the road conditions. Remember the whole of Cape York is one big rainforest bar those areas that have been cleared for logging, agriculture or grazing. Most rental vehicles are contractually restricted from travelling along this road.

Internet

At the time of our visit, August 2007, we found the local wifi internet connection available at the apartment in Port Douglas totally inadequate even for basic email. We purchased a 30 min time block for $6. We spent the first 15 mins trying to bring up the login screen for my email account. Internet Cafes in Cairns were much better. We didn't stay in Cairns so we can't comment on hotel internet in metro Cairns but we'd expect if to be fine. For monitoring weather as the eclipse approaches, Cairns is probably more desirable from an operational base while Port Douglas is a quieter place to stay if you want to escape the crowds. Hopefully internet services in Port Douglas will improve over the next few years.

Bengt bought a Vodaphone mobile phone simcard at Cairns airport. A hawker was selling them to emerging passengers. He couldn't get any coverage outside the Cairns metropolitan area. The Telstra 3G network should provide decent coverage now (2009) in 3 years time. The Telstra 3G network provides the widest coverage for both wireless broadband internet and mobile coverage. Unfortunately, they are also the most expensive.

Mains Power

Australian mains voltage is 240 v 50Hz with a three pin connector with active and neutral pins at angles.

Time signals

Most observers today use GPS time these days. However for those that prefer SW radio time signals, WWV can be difficult to receive in Australia. The Australian time signal VNG closed down some years ago. ABC Regional Radio (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) stations AM/FM provide a time signal every hour on the hour. Most hotel rooms have some sort of clock radio and all rental cars will have a radio.

The pips start at the 55 second mark, the sixth pip marks the hour.

ABC Station Frequencies for Cairns region

ABC local Radio and Radio National broadcast time signals on the hour starting at 59m 55s. Six pips to the hour. The sixth pip is longer marking the hour.

A comprehensive listing of ABC radio frequencies are available here. Look under the local and radio national stations. Other stations don't broadcast the time signals.

http://www.abc.net.au/reception/freq/qld.htm

However the short list of ABC local frequencies below should suffice for most potential locations:

Cairns
AM 801 kHz
FM 106.7 Mhz

Cairns North
FM 95.5 Mhz
Covers the northern beaches and the Sky Rail base station
Primary recommendation for observers with telescopes

Mossman & Pt Douglas
AM 639 kHz
Covers most of the centreline area

Mt Molloy
95.7 Mhz

Atherton
AM 720 kHz
Wide coverage of the tablelands and south side of the path down to Innisfail

Conclusion
The path in Australia offers eclipse chaser a bewildering choice of diverse locations from outback adventurers to rainforest and beach resorts. The simplest and cheapest solution is to fly to Cairns and book into one of the many beachside accommodation options to the north of the city. One of the 2min04s isochrons runs along the coastline most of the way from a point just inland of Oak beach to Cairns. Most locations mentioned in this report have a duration between 2m 02s and 2m04.5s. Even Cairns marina sees 2m01s of totality, observers stationed in this area will only lose a few seconds of totality relative to locations right on the centreline. The geographic constraints give rise to an interesting alternative strategy. Locate as far off the centre line as possible on the 2m 01-04s isochron (eg Fitzroy Island) to maximize the potential length of the diamond ring and Baily's beads without any loss of eclipse duration.


OTHER THINGS TO DO [NATURAL ATTRACTIONS AROUND CAIRNS]

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