THINGS TO DO ON THE ATHERTON TABLELANDS

A beautiful, scenic and unspoilt, undulating tableland between 500 and 1000 metres above the “The Great Barrier Reef” perfect for self driving tours.

See our Self Drive Itineraries for the Northern, Central & Southern Sections of The Atherton Tablelands, allow a full day in each section.

Ancient Rainforest, Volcanic lakes , Waterfall Circuit (including Millaa Millaa Falls), Mareeba Wetlands, National Parks, “World Heritage Listed – Wet Tropics” and Mabi Rainforest areas and an abundance and diversity of flora and fauna. (including Lumholtz tree kangaroos, possums, platypus, echidna, brolga, cassowaries, rock wallabies, wallabies, pademelon, kangaroo, bandicoot, quolls, bird life, etc- guided night spotting tours can be arranged.)

Adventure Activities include: Hot Air Ballooning, Free Flying, Horse Riding, Barramundi fishing, Bungy Jumping, Pioneer walking trails with Donkeys, Go-Kart Racing and Adventure helicopter experiences.

Jose Paronella’s dream continues at Paronella Park, “…The surprise of your Travels”.

A great place to spend half a day, is “Platypus Bend”, especially if you like walking without the tourist “masses”.
Be assured of a “catch” at the Tablelands best fishing park, “Tarzali Lakes”, or just feed and watch.

Visit working Coffee & Tea Plantations, Wineries, Gourmet Dairy food tasting, cheese & chocolate dairies and other agricultural pursuits.

Self Drive the Tropical Food Trails or let Atherton Blue Gum do the driving for you.

The Mareeba Wetlands, a bird watchers haven & conservation success story. Circum-navigate the lake with the Rangers expert commentary and view the beautiful Gouldian Finches – brought back from extinction.

“Rainforestation Nature Park” – Pamagirri Aboriginal Experience, Koala’s and amphibious army ducks, restaurants and gift shops.

Historical towns of Yungaburra, Atherton, Herberton & Irvinebank – the regions heart from 1880 – 1920.
Gemstone fossicking and Gold panning, off the normal tourist track.

The Hou Wang Miau Chinese Temple, the last surviving structure of what was Cedar Camp, the Atherton Chinatown, established in the mid 1880′s.

Historic Steam Train journeys, up the steepest grades in Queensland.

For more information, please visit: athertonbluegum.com/

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Atherton Tableland

The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It is located west to south-south-west inland from Cairns, international student insurance well into the tropics, but its elevated position provides a climate suitable for dairy farming. It has an area of around 32,000 km² with an altitude ranging between 500 and 1,280 m (1,600 and 4,200 ft).[1] The fertility of the soils in the region can be attributed to the volcanic origins of the land.

The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River, which was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tinaroo, also Tinaroo Hydro, a small 1.6MW Hydroelectric power station is located near the spillway.

Contents

1 Physiography
2 History
2.1 Industry
2.2 Tourism
3 Towns
4 Environment
4.1 Places of interest
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Physiography

This area is a distinct physiographic section of the larger North Queensland Highlands province, which in turn is part of the larger East Australian Cordillera physiographic division. South of the Tablelands is the Bellenden Ker Range.
History

Atherton was first explored by JV Mulligan in 1875, but it was John Atherton who settled near the town which now bears his name in 1877. The area was originally explored for its mining potential where deposits of tin and a little gold were found.

Industry
Originally a pioneering pastoralist, John Atherton was the first to find tin deposits in Northern Queensland. Local legend has it that Tinaroo Creek received its name from Atherton who shouted, “Tin! Hurroo!” when he first made his discovery. Atherton and his friends, William Jack and John Newell, discovered the famous lode, which became the Great Northern Tin Mine. A rush of miners from the Hodgkinson’s Goldfields followed. The construction of a dray road through the Tableland brought a secondary rush, this time timber cutters to mine the red gold (redcedar) of the rainforest. Redcedar cutters camps were at Rocky Creek, Prior Pocket, Oonda Swamp (Carrington) & Ziggenbein’s Pocket. Although tin was a major part in the Tablelands, timber is what Atherton owes its existence to with large areas of redcedar, kauri, maple, black bean, walnut, white beech and red tulip oak being milled for buildings.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

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