User:PK Reynolds/José Paronella

José Paronella (26 February 1887 – c1948) was a Catalonian-Australian farmer and entrepreneur.

Paronella was born in the small village of La Vall de Santa Creu in the north east of the Spanish province of Catalonia. He was the youngest of six children to Pedro and Maria Paronella. Paronella left school early and found work in a bakery at a nearby town. He moved to Pamplona where he enjoyed the natural beauty of the region as well as the festival lifestyle.

Paronella travelled to Australia in 1913 in the hope of achieving some wealth for his future. He settled in the Queensland locality of South Johnstone where he began life in the sugar cane gangs as a cook. After a while he was able to buy his own land and started to buy and sell sugar cane farms to make profit.

He married Marguerita Soler in an arranged marriage from his village in Catatonia and they had two children, Teresa and Jose (Joe).

Paronella used his money to purchase a 13 acre block of land at Mena Creek where he proposed to build a Spanish castle with pleasure gardens for visitors. In 1935 he opened his park to the public who would pay to attend the movie theatre, museum and grand ballroom where many local dances and weddings were held. Paronella built Queensland's first hydro-electric scheme to provide the mains electricity for the park many years before electricity came to this locality.

In 1946 flooding caused major damage to the site and the park never fully recovered. Paronella died 2 years later aged 59 from stomach cancer.

Paronella Park still operates as a tourist facility and is presented as a homage to Paronella's vision and hard work.