The tree house is on "The Boomerang Farm". It became a great favorite with my family. Lying in the Hinterland of Australia's Gold Coast, Queensland, it was a place where people made boomerangs and taught you how to throw them. Tame kangaroos wandered around the grounds and there was also a reconstructed pioneers home. The farm had a few famous visitors: the Beatles, Abba and even some visiting British royals all had a go at throwing the boomerang here.

The timber and corrugated iron treehouse, built into a fig tree at the side of a creek, was intended to be an 'adventure' for kids of all ages visiting the farm. Nobody ever lived in it, but it certainly captured the imagination. To add a sense of adventure on the approach you first had to walk through a narrow, dark 'mine tunnel' built from huge rocks. Many a scream could be heard as people made their way through this dark passage. Spiders' webs would stick to your face, but they weren't poisonous - or were they?

When you got out of the mine shaft you had to brave a rope ladder leading to a suspension bridge that was just one plank wide. Only the brave were rewarded with entry into the tree house - but what a reward it was. Being up there felt like walking into an old movie set. There was an iron bed frame from pioneering days and a battered zinc basin for washing up, and some walls were covered in newspapers dating from the 1920s. A ladder led up to a turret at the top.

The Boomerang Farm eventually went the way of many farms on the Gold Coast: it was turned into a golf course. The tree house is still there - as are the kangaroos.

The picture was spotted on this web page by Gaia Books from London who requested me to send them a colour slide and article about it. Both were published in a book entitled: "The House That Jack Built: Treehouses" compiled by David Pearson ISBN 1 85675 137 6.

Some more interesting information about treehouses can be found by clicking here

Enjoy the journey and remember, there is a 4% difference in DNA between Chimpanzees and Gorillas but ONLY a 2% difference in DNA between humans and chimpanzees - so get a tree house and ascend to a higher abode!