The Atherton Tablelands, the highlands behind Cairns, are named after John Atherton, who made the tin deposits at Herberton accessible by opening a route to the coast in 1877. Dense forest covered these highlands before the majority was felled for timber and given over to dairy cattle, tobacco and grain. The remaining pockets of forest are magnificent, but it’s the area’s understated beauty that draws most visitors today, and though Kuranda and its markets pull in busloads from the coast, there are several quieter national parks brimming with rare species. You could spend days here, driving or hiking through rainforest to crater lakes and endless small waterfalls, or simply camp out for a night and search for wildlife with a torch. For a contrast, consider a trip west to the mining town of Chillagoe, whose dust, limestone caves and Aboriginal art place it firmly in the Outback.
Numerous tours run here from Cairns, but to explore properly you really need your own car: drivers can reach the Tablelands on the Palmerston Highway from Innisfail; the twisty Gillies Highway from Gordonvale; the Kennedy Highway from Smithfield to Kuranda; or Route 81 from Mossman to Mareeba.
Atherton
Thirty kilometres south of Mareeba and centrally placed for forays to most of the area’s attractions, the bland setting of ATHERTON is the largest town in the Tablelands. It was founded in part by Chinese miners who settled here in the 1880s after being chased off the goldfields.Two kilometres south of the centre, the corrugated-iron Hou Wang Temple at 86 Herberton Road is the last surviving building of Atherton’s old Chinatown, a once-busy enclave of market gardens and homes abandoned after the government gave the land to returning World War I servicemen. The temple was restored in 2000, with an accompanying museum full of photographs and artefacts found on site.
You can spot local birdlife at Hasties Swamp, a big waterhole and two-storey observation hide about 5km south of town. While nothing astounding, it’s a peaceful place populated by magpie geese, pink-eared ducks, swamp hens and assorted marsh tiggets.