Atherton Tableland description and photos - Australia: Cairns (Topic)

Atherton Tableland description and photos - Australia: Cairns. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Atherton Tableland.

Photo and Description

The Atherton Tableland, part of the Great Dividing Range, stretches over an area of about 650 square kilometers in northeastern Australia in the state of Queensland. This is a relatively low plateau - its height varies from 600 to 1100 m above sea level. The geological history of the plateau is very interesting: many of the hills are extinct volcanoes, in the craters of which lakes are now splashing. There are a lot of endemic, that is, not living anywhere else in the world, species of flora and fauna: shy tree kangaroos, wallabies, possums, marsupial flying squirrels and secretive platypuses.

Since ancient times, the main inhabitants of the Atherton plateau were aboriginal tribes, whose population sharply declined with the appearance of Europeans here. In 1875 James Mulligan and John Atherton, in whose honor the area later received its name, independently explored the plateau. Travelers managed to discover rich deposits of tin near the future settlement of Herberton, which caused a stream of settlers to these places. The active settlement of the region provoked the construction of a road from Port Douglas to Herburton, and in 1886 the town of Atherton was founded here. Today, several cities are located on the plateau: Atherton, Kairi, Kuranda, Mariba, Malanda, Milla Milla, Ravensho, Herberton.
Interestingly, one of the first foreigners on the plateau was the Chinese: at the beginning of the century, more than a thousand Chinese lived in Chinatown in Atherton, most of whom were engaged in agriculture.

In 1925, the Gillies Highway was built , which made it possible to get to the plateau from the coast of the Coral Sea in just a day. In 1955, a dam was built on the Barron River.

Today, the Atherton plateau is one of the largest agricultural centers in the country; sugarcane, avocados, corn, strawberries, citrus fruits and mangoes are grown here. Tourism is developing most actively.

Visitors to the plateau offer numerous opportunities for recreation: walks along hiking trails, bird and animal watching, tours to limestone caves, hot air ballooning, fishing, rafting, water skiing.

A 15-minute drive from the city of Atherton is Lake Tinaro with the village of the same name on the shore. The lake itself is of artificial origin, it was formed after the construction of a dam on the Barron River. Today Tinaro is a very popular tourist destination where you can practice a variety of water sports, or you can just relax on the sandy beach. From here begins the 28-kilometer Dunbull Drive, passing pineapple and eucalyptus plantations, through a state-protected rainforest and a stretch of humid tropics.

Two famous "blue" icons of the evergreen plateau are the crater lakes Barrine and Eacham, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. On the shores of both lakes, there are circular hiking trails, during a walk along which you can meet a musk kangaroo rat. In the vicinity of Lake Barryn there are two amazing twin trees "Agathis of New Zealand" - it has been reliably established that their age is 1100 years!

The 90-meter Mungalli Falls, 13 km from the town of Milla Milla, are also worth a visit - the highest waterfalls on the Atherton Plateau.

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Topic: Atherton Tableland description and photos - Australia: Cairns.