Welcome to the Atherton Tablelands

The Atherton Tablelands are inland from Cairns on the Great Dividing Range; Lake Tinaroo is about 1 1/2 hours drive from Cairns.  There's plenty to see here and we're planning to spend at least a couple of weeks before heading west.

Our first excursion is to Herberton, a historic town not far from Atherton.  Herherton was the first mining town in Queensland and tin was mined there for many years.  The excellent Mining Museum at the Visitor Information Centre was very informative with plenty of displays about the town's mining history.  There are many open mine shafts in the area and these are being filled in by the Council as a safety measure.

We also visited the Camera and Spy Museum, run by local photographer Michael Pettigrew.  An interesting 90 minutes was spent looking at the photographic equipment which ranged from a magic lantern, through to military cameras, modern cameras and miniature button cameras used by spies.  The original collection was put together by a retired spy.  The spy cameras were especially interesting and we saw cameras hidden in cigarette packets, lighters, buttons and a "James Bond" camera used for photographing documents.  Well worth the visit.

The next day we drove to Mareeba, about 40km north, to check out some of the attractions there.  The morning was spent at CoffeeWorks, where we sampled some of the many varieties of coffee, chocolates and liqueurs before wandering through the museum.  This comprehensive specialty museum has everything we needed to know about coffee and tea, with espresso machines, coffee roasters, pots and percolators.  The audio tour provided plenty of information.  A great place for morning tea!

From CoffeeWorks we visited the Information Centre and its Heritage Museum.  This museum is all set out like a village.  It included an interesting section on the tobacco growing industry which was a main industry here until the early 2000s.

 This weather sign at the Mareeba Information Centre really says all we need to know about the weather conditions here.











Time for lunch and we decided to visit Gallos Dairyland near Atherton.  We indulged in a shared cheese and fruit platter for lunch before buying some of their delicious cheeses and heading back to the caravan.



Today we're in Cairns, getting the new suspension on the car checked out.  The phone and wifi connection at Lake Tinaroo is a bit unreliable, ranging between one bar and no service, so posts will be spasmodic over the next few weeks.