Our next stop was at the “Tyto Wetlands” in Ingham where we found a beautiful camp site. The name “Tyto” comes from the tyto owl or grass owl, the only owls which lay their eggs in the grass.
Even though the town is in decline and many shops are vacant, this area has been beautifully preserved with a modern interactive wildlife/tourist centre, a boardwalk, art gallery and restaurant overlooking the lily covered ponds. 
All kinds of tropical and subtropical birds were feasting there: ibises, egrets, ducks, blue-winged forest kingfishers, red crested jacanas, willie wagtails etc...When people walk over the boardwalks an army of turtles popped their heads out off the water and scurried forward trying to climb the lily-pads. Obviously they were being fed by some locals.
We did the obligatory town walk to find the famous “Pub with no beer”, where farmer Dan Sheahan penned the poem after riding 20 miles for a beer, but the pub had run out! Call it a pub-with-no-beer-phobia, but I don’t think there is an Aussie who doesn’t know the “Pub with no beer” song by Slim Dusty! The actual building was not what we expected and had been turned into a 60th motel after falling into disrepair.
However, nearby Mercer Lane was well worth seeing. It’s mosaic walls tell the history of Ingham. In the twenties and fifties many Italians settled in Ingham to work on the sugar plantations.
Since then, Italian families have bought many sugar farms and opened up other businesses. The town is proud of it’s Italian heritage and good Italian cuisine.
Once a year an Italian Festival takes place, which happened to be on the weekend after our arrival. Unfortunately - or fortunately- the stay at the wetlands is limited to two nights, and so we just had a quick walk through the festival after it opened at 10 am. It was difficult to ignore the stalls with pasta dishes, Italian small goods, wines and sweets.
We just allowed ourselves some ricotta-nutella cannoli and coffee and left quickly for our waistline’s sake!
Forty-nine kilometres inland from Ingham is the Wallaman waterfall which is Australias highest single drop fall, plunging down 268m. The drive to the fall led through large sugar cane fields and mango orchards. Then a winding road climbed up the mountain through lush rain forrest of ferns, palms and umbrella trees. We were sorry, we weren’t better prepared for a walk, otherwise we would have attempted the steep descend to the bottom of the fall and back up again, which some bushwalkers told us is spectacular.