We returned south after our adventures at Cooktown and Laura at a relaxed pace. It was time to check out some of the things to see and do in the Atherton Tablelands, and (re)discover why this area is so popular with tourists and locals alike.
We saw some magnificent timber work at the Tolga Woodwork Gallery. These places always showcase incredible craftsmanship - and the gallery here was no exception. Beautiful timber had been turned into exquisite furniture - and we all enjoyed walking through the gallery.
Our next stop was Crystal Cave in Atherton. Rene Boissevain has put together an amazing collection of crystals - and displayed them in a unique quirky cave. It was fascinating walking through the crystals - many of them able to be held and touched.
Inside the Crystal Cave
One of the most amazing specimens is a huge Amethyst Geode, standing over 3.5 metres tall. It is simply spectacular and takes your breath away when you walk into the room. We thoroughly enjoyed our time checking out all the crystals here - even more impressive was that the vast majority are able to be held or touched. Some of the specimens are extremely rare, others are simply beautiful. This was a fantastic place to visit.
With the sun sinking low in the sky, we pulled into Wild River Caravan Park near Herberton. We discovered an excellent communal camp-fire shelter and sat around watching the flames well past normal bed-time. It was a simple structure, but Jo took plenty of photos, meaning one day we will be building something similar at home...
Herberton is a sleepy little town, not far south west of Atherton. It was in its day a tin mining town, but as the ore ran out and the mines closed, a new opportunity was seized. A Heritage Village was proposed and opened in 1977. Many of the buildings were relocated to the site, others were already here, and today the Herberton Historic Village is a remarkable place to visit.
The school building, like many others here was simply picked up in one go after the last bell rang, It was as if the students had just gone out on an excursion... and in their place slotted two little boys for a quick history lesson...
Today's lesson is Australian History.
Set up in a similar fashion to Sovereign Hill or Flagstaff Hill in Victoria, we appreciated the laid back style and the quiet atmosphere at Herberton. We expected more people, being school holidays, but found ourselves being able to thoroughly explore the areas we found of interest.
There was collections of all kinds of things - some of it extremely rare - and it was great fun wandering through the village checking out all the various 'shops' and buildings on display. Many of the shops were set up in their original style, from the Butchers, to the Grocers, it was all done extremely well. The printing presses were amazing, particularly to see them working but there was simply all manner of things to see catering to all interests.
I loved the machinery - and there was plenty of it. Some was still in working order - some of it might one day go again, but a large part of the collection was beyond repair. Jo loved wondering through all the shops - the fashions in the dress shop were quite incredible. The boys loved the lock-up, and its collection of firearms - as well as being captivated by the working steam engines.
After spending most of the day checking out the displays, we moved on and made our way towards Malanda. The Atherton Tablelands has rich volcanic soils, and the evidence of the volcanoes, maars and vents that shaped this land is all around. One such place is the Mount Hypipamee Crater. This vent was a side shoot off a nearby volcano. Rock and water was blasted out of this hole in what would have been a massive explosion. Today the water level is some 60 metres below the platform. The bottom has never been found - but is over 100 metres below the surface down a shaft off to one side. The green duckweed covering the surface was eerie - and we didn't stay too long.
We walked back to the car-park via the Dinner Falls - on the Barron River. These falls are a series of cascades over old basalt flows and were quite pretty. We were amazed at the number of tourist buses (all young back-packers) who literally pulled up, took their photos and just as quickly were gone again. It wasn't quite the pace we were used to - and just as soon as one bus load left, another arrived thwarting our usual 'wait five minutes' rule.
We pulled up at the picturesque Malanda Caravan Park for the night - and were impressed at this quiet park, with heaps of space to run around in. The park was alongside the popular swimming hole at the Malanda Falls - and it isn't just people who like swimming here, but platypus too. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the shy platypus on our visit - but I think that is more to do with trying to get young boys to sit still and be quiet rather than any fault on the platypus' behalf.
The following morning we visited the recently rebuilt Malanda Visitors Centre. The displays inside were state of the art, and we soon lost the boys as they went on their own journeys discovering all sots of wonderful facets of this part of the world. From Dream-time stories about the landscape, to how the volcanoes worked, to the calls of the rainforest birds, this was a fascinating place to spend a few hours. Just don't tell them it's learning!
After learning so much about this landscape, we took a couple of short loop walks through the rainforest. From seeing snapping turtles, to hearing the call of birds, our new experts guided us through the walk. We also had a Bush Turkey follow us for much of the walk, and his antics entertained us as well.
Acting on a hot tip from the Visitors Centre, we headed to the Nerada Tea Plantation - not to learn about tea, but to see if we could spot a rare Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo. Funnily enough though we ended up being fascinated by the story of tea in Australia, and how through ingenuity and sheer determination, Nerada Tea has become a top quality tea using custom made machinery. The realisation that harvesting tea needed to be done mechanically if Australia was going to have a viable industry lead to the development of new techniques. Today one driver can harvest around 8 tonnes of tea leaf a day compared to a hand picker averaging around 60kg.
The factory itself was just as fascinating, with all the steps that need to be followed to create tea leaves. Interestingly the main difference between green and black tea that I could work out was to do with how the tea was processed and whether the leaves were fermented or not in part of the process. I of course could be wrong - but I did learn that the tea bush is a relative of the Camellia - and looks a lot like it too.
After having a thorough explore of the visitors centre and the tea factory, we wandered around the gardens for a bit before we spotted high in the trees a couple of deadly Drop Bears looking down on us. Drop Bears? No of course not. We saw a pair of curious Lumholtz Tree Kangaroos, and we stood for quite a while watching these beautiful marsupials.
I didn't realise that Australia has two species of Tree Kangaroo, and the Lumholtz variety is the southernmost tree dweller. It was incredibly cute - but it did have sharp looking claws. The Tree Kangaroos are also the only species of kangaroo that can walk backwards. (As a bit of trivia, the Kangaroo and Emu were chosen for the Australian Coat of Arms as neither of them can walk backwards - they can only move forwards).
The next morning we packed up and made our way to Gallo Dairyland. Ten years ago, Gallo Dairy was another struggling dairy farm after deregulation changed the industry. The owners figured creating a tourist cafe, cheese factory and chocolate making factory was a way to diversify - and we stopped in and tried some of their delicious cheeses.
At the Gallo Dairyland Cheese Factory
After stocking up the fridge with some cheese, we headed to the nearby Curtain Fig Tree - an ancient Strangler Fig that had the misfortune of having its host tree fall whilst it was still fairly young. The host tree's fall was stopped by another tree, creating its famous curtain. Ironically the only reason it is still here today is that the ground surrounding the tree is littered with basalt and scoria boulders, meaning it would have been difficult to clear and transform into farming land. It was a beautiful tree to visit.
Nearby we stopped for lunch at Lake Eacham. This stunning crater lake was a former maar volcano. Many years ago Jo and I had gone swimming here - and it is where Jo discovered I am not particularly comfortable in deep water when taken by surprise and dunked! The water still looked beautiful, but the 'beach' had been landscaped making the entry much more industrial. This is a stunning lake, but try as I might, I couldn't convince the boys to go for a swim.
Instead we headed down to the nearby Lake Barrine. Larger than Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine has a famous Tea House operated by the same family since it opened in the 1920s. We decided on a whim to take the next cruise on the lake, and found ourselves thoroughly immersed in its history, and some of the magnificent flora and fauna in the area.
It had been a wonderful day, but it was time to return down the Gillies Range to Cairns. We made our way slowly down the steep mountain and returned to Cairns extremely happy to have made it out into the hinterland for the previous week.
It was time to pay a bedside visit to Rocky - still at the dealer 'hospital'. The tyranny of distance and speed of surface freight was all too apparent. The dealer had yet to receive all the parts on the extensive list. The previous day the main component, the cylinder head had arrived, and the team were basically installing what they could with the parts they had. My hope that we would have Rocky back by the end of the week was not to be, but to Volkswagen's credit, they have still allowed us to use the Pajero until such time as Rocky is fixed. It might not be perfect, but it is sure better than nothing.
But there is still plenty to see and do here - in fact most people come to Cairns to explore a part of one of the most fragile and beautiful things in this planet. Perhaps it was time we too had a look.
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