Collins Family

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Our family were the first white settlers in this place, back in the 1860′s. Bram and Gerry Collins owners of the Undara Experience

Since then, six Collins generations have explored these strange formations beneath the land, now acclaimed as one of the longest lava tube systems in the world.

When we created the Undara Experience and opened it to visitors in 1990, our aim was to preserve this unique treasure for future generations.

Working together with state environment agencies and the award winning Savannah Guides, we employ sustainable, low impact practices which support the fragile ecosystem that surrounds Undara.

We’ve won many awards for excellence including an Australian Tourism Award for Unique Accommodation and the prestigious Queensland Environmental Tourism Award.

Visit us for some genuine outback hospitality and you’ll discover why.

We invite you to share our Undara Experience.

Gerry & Bram Collins.

A message from Gerry and Bram Collins

Many guests at Undara are intrigued by the attraction’s history. The Undara Experience is designed and produced by the Collins family, the earliest white settlers in this locality whose cattle grazed in the area since 1862.

Gerry Collins, a fourth generation member of this pioneering family, applied to develop a tourist facility to showcase the Lava Tubes located on his family holding, Rosella Plains Station, in 1987. Gerry believed the best way to protect these dramatic, ancient formations for future generations lay in developing a sustainable visitor experience, managed to lessen the environmental impact but highlight the unique ecology and geology of the cave system.

Working closely with regional and state government bodies, the Collins family proposed a national park should be gazetted around the caves, and tours to the lava tubes be accessed from a lodge facility managed by the family.

In December 1989, the theme of the Undara Experience accommodation was born when Gerry discovered eleven de-commissioned Queensland Railway carriages on a siding in Mareeba. The carriages were duly purchased and restored to provide the unique style of eco-accommodation that Undara Experience has become well known for. In May 1990, the recycled turn-of-the century rail carriages were placed between the trees beside an old teamster’s trail, preserving the ecology while allowing guests a uniquely personal experience of the Queensland bush.

Undara strives to inform visitors about past and present lifestyles in the region; how this ancient land was formed by natural forces and climatic changes over hundreds of millions of years; it’s link with other continents when it was part of Gondwana; the evolution of its flora and fauna; and the need to treat it with care so that its spectacular and rugged beauty and wealth of wildlife remain for future generations to marvel at and protect in turn. Gerry Collins.

His son Bram, who grew up with the lava tubes as an adventure playground, is the Managing Director and works with the team to deliver the product & service that the Undara Experience has become famous for. Showcasing the tubes is a passion passed between the generations.

The cultural history of the region is included in the interpretive tours conducted by the Savannah Guides and includes some of the history of the native Australians of the Undara area; the Ewamian Aboriginal people I grew up with. Bram Collins

One of Bram’s childhood friends is world famous Aboriginal performer, actor, artist & didgeridoo virtuoso David Hudson.

David has retained his close links with his tradional homelands as well as his friendship with the Collins family. David has been involved in many projects at Undara over the years including narrating the new corporate DVD with Bram.

We loved creating the Undara Experience and we hope you’ll come and share it with us.

Gerry and Bram Collins.

The Collins family history has been documented in a book, Cattle in the Blood.

Foreword to Cattle in the Blood

Undara Cattle In The Blood Book Cover In 1838 William and Elizabeth Collins and their seven children arrived in Sydney from Kent, England. In 1839 they settled at Deepwater in the New England district. Their sons Thomas and Charles then moved to Queensland, where in 1862 they took up Spring Creek from which five successive generations have built vibrant cattle enterprises, and in so doing have been closely identified with the evolution of Australia’s beef cattle industry and its coming to global pre-eminence.

In the process the family has been at the forefront of industry progress whilst members have been prominent in industry organisations and played distinguished roles in community service. In the eulogy to the late Stan Collins OBE in 1992, he was described as “a man who remained steady even under the most trying circumstances, he was the embodiment of all that is desirable in a good citizen, husband and father.” From my associations with the Collinses, I know that the same tribute is applicable to the family as a whole.

Cattle In The Blood Stories such as theirs represent classic sagas of resolute men and women who daily faced unimaginable challenges and succeeded against seemingly insurmountable odds. They were the doctors, nurses, teachers and mentors in family values to new generations of Australians, and created industries on which the nation’s vibrant economy was founded. At the same time there was emerging a new literary and artistic culture which has helped define the unique Australian character.

It is important that the story of the Collins family and others like them be recorded, as it has been they, together with indigenous Australians from an ageless past, that have formed the fabric of the nation’s history. The author of Cattle in the Blood has rendered signal service by enabling those privileged to read it to better understand the debt we owe pioneering families and their future generations for the national prosperity and life styles we now enjoy. It was to honour such people that “2002 – Australia’s Year of the Outback” was created.

Bruce Campbell MBE
Founder and Chairman
‘2002 Australia’s year of the Outback’
‘Senior Australian of the year 2003’