Atherton and the Atherton Tablelands – 4 to 20 October 2010

From Kalkani and Undara we continued on our way to the sea.

Our next stop was Atherton, the principal town of the Atherton tablelands that sprawl west from the Great Dividing Range overlooking Cairns.

We left behind the Savannah and entered a World Heritage Rainforest area, also a world of small dairy farms and coffee, tea and tropical fruit farms.

Windy Hill is a wind farm. It generates only enough power for 3,500 houses, which works for remote communities but is hard to envisage as a large scale supplier of electricity.

We camped at the Atherton Camping Park, nice out of season as it was empty and nestled nicely by a creek below one of the volcanic hills that surround Atherton.

After our long drive on dirt roads a small wire in the battery charger had come lose. It was great to be able to ring the Australian manufacturer, speak with the designer, and based on the lights still registering have him diagnose that it was “the yellow wire” that needed to be re-soldered, a simple job once the diagnosis was made.

The printer also died, too much rattling for its paper feeder, and given the economics not worth paying the $80 to have it diagnosed. We felt quite sad for it as it has performed so well, thr0ugh rough and smooth it printed and even now it was still trying, but just could not make the paper come out.

We are enjoying walking down the road to Atherton to have a real coffee. So far we have counted eight coffee shops in Atherton. We think this town has a serious coffee problem.

We visited the Crystal Caves, a museum where you are encouraged to touch the exhibits. This is the worlds biggest Amethyst Geode and all the crystals are gem quality.

We went to Cairns to buy a new printer. We had lunch at Salt House and the best chocolate ice cream Trish has ever had from a small beach side stall nearby.

The drive to Cairns through Yungaburra has spectacular views and is a very pretty trip.

We drove to see the Hypipamee Crater and Dinner Falls in Mt. Hypipamee NP . The crater is an inactive gas vent from the mantle and its sheer sides are scary. The rain forest at Hypipamee is beautiful. Dinner Falls have a lovely swimming pool at the base. We did the falls drive and saw the Millaa Millaa Falls, the Zillie Falls and the Elinjaa Falls. This was a beautiful drive.

The rainforest is home to Cassowary [which we did not see] and Bush Turkeys which we saw almost everywhere. We returned via Malanda and photographed the original picture theatre. Dairy Farmers has a milk factory here, and our son Chris has installed equipment there when he worked in Australia.

We have done a few drives to Yungaburra which is heritage listed and very attractive. Most buildings are over 100 years old, which although it does not seem much, is old for Australia.

Yungaburra is the food centre for the area. We found a good French Restaurant called Flynns and a nice cafe called the Whistle Stop Cafe. The major attraction near here is the Curtain Fig Tree. Trish feels sorry for the Host tree in this situation. It is standing there growing peacefully and a Strangler Fig germinates in a crevice or fork and strangles it. In this case the host tree fell over and rested against another tree and the aerial roots have formed a curtain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove via Mareeba to Kuranda. Our first stop was the Tolga Woodworks, which displays the work of local artisans. As the Table lands is basically a food producing area we sampled some of the the excellent range of local food. The Peanut Place is immaculately clean and has the biggest range of flavors of peanuts we have ever seen. It also has peanut butter ice cream. It is very popular with Japanese tourists and they manage to get 100 or so through in about 15 minutes. It is open on Christmas Day and does a great business.
After that we visited the Emerald Creek Icecreamery. This has lovely icecream made with fresh local milk and available everywhere.

Later in the week we also visited the Coffee Works in Mareeba which roasts and brews local coffee and the Gallo Dairy and Chocolate factory run by the Gallo family. They milk 500 cows a day and have 1,000 on the property.

We saw the Hou Wang Chinese Temple. This was built by the Chinese who settled in what was then called Cedar Creek, the first settlement that became Atherton. The temple was conserved although Cedar Creek has long since vanished. A festival called the Tastes of Atherton was held in the grounds of the Temple. The locals performed and we had a great time.

There were military encampments all around this area, mostly memorialized by plaques set on large stones. During WW2 the 7th and 9th Divisions were based on the table lands at various times and the Barron Valley Hotel was requisitioned as the Officers Club. The Commander in Chief of the Australian Force General Sir Thomas Blamey resided there before being sent to Port Moresby. The largest Military Hospital of the era was at Mareeba. A lot of the buildings around town were requisitioned.

It was thought the relative coolness was beneficial to soldiers, there were places to practice jungle warfare nearby and it was close to the theatre of war in New Guinea.

Kuranda is a town in the Great Dividing Range above Cairns. It has a nice range of shops catering to the busy tourist trade which has centered around the local railway for over a century.

The wet season of 1882 cut the roads and caused a near famine for tin miners on the Wild River near Herberton . The residents petitioned the Government for a railroad. Tenders were let in 1886 and the railroad was built and completed in 1891. It was an engineering marvel for its day taking the track up a very steep rise with pick and shovel. We caught the train to Freshwater and caught the cable car back, flying over the canopy.

As you can see rain forests tend to be wet and this has been an exceptionally wet dry season, so the Barron Falls were flowing more than is usual.

We visited Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine. These are crater lakes formed when magma met water in the soil. Steam formed and caused an eruption. Once the eruption had finished the water condensed and filled the lakes.

A large part of Lake Eacham was cleared to provide recreational swimming for soldiers during WW2. There is a walk around the lake and it still provides a small area for recreational swimming.

George Curry fell in love with the Lakes while surveying the region in the pioneering days. He and the Local Council and Forestry Department formed what was then called the Lake's Trust. This trust sought to protect the lake and surrounding land from logging. It is the precursor of the National Trust and used by them as a model. In 1923 George applied for a grant and was given a perpetual lease over one acre of land on the shore of Lake Barrine.

Living on the edge of the lake in a corrugated iron hut George first showed the visitors around Lake Barrine in a row boat. The 3rd generation of the Curry family still own and manage the Tea House and small cruise boats take you round the lakes to see the local animals and plants. After almost a century the ducks have come to expect their morning tidbits. There is a walking trail around the lake.

On the way back from the natural lakes, we visited Lake Tinaroo, the dam supporting an irrigation scheme for the Tableland.

We visited the Herberton Mining museum. This is a reconstruction of towns of the era. It has original and significant houses brought to the site and restored, then furnished with furniture and artifacts from the time when there were mines here. In this way it has become a repository of the past. We loved Atherton and its surrounding delights.