Atherton Tablelands Waterfalls Day Tour with Lunch Cairns

Cathedral Fig Tree, Danbulla National Park

The first stop after the climb up the Gillies Range is the Cathedral Fig Tree, a giant strangler fig in Danbulla National Park on the northern side of the Tablelands. The tree began life as a seed dropped high in the canopy of a host tree and sent roots down to the ground; over several centuries those roots thickened into a curtain of woody columns, and the host rotted away to leave a hollow cathedral of trunks around 50 metres high. A short boardwalk leads from the car park to the base, where the roots fan out like the pillars of a Gothic church.

Your guide gives a cultural presentation here on the rainforest peoples of the region and the role of the fig in their stories, while you look up into the canopy for birds and tree kangaroos. The visit takes about 45 minutes and is the quietest, shadiest moment of the day.

Lake Eacham, Crater Lakes National Park

Lake Eacham is a near-circular crater lake formed thousands of years ago when superheated groundwater exploded through the surface, leaving a basin that filled with rain. It lies within Crater Lakes National Park at about 700 metres above sea level, is roughly 65 metres deep and has no inflowing or outflowing streams, which is why the water is so clear and calm. The rainforest comes right down to the shore, and sawshelled turtles and small fish are easy to spot from the swimming pontoon.

On this Lake Eacham tour you have about 30 minutes for a swim from the grassy picnic area or a stroll along the lakeside path. The water is cool but pleasant for most of the year, and the setting, with the forested rim reflected in the still surface, is a favourite for photographs before the group moves on to the waterfalls.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Millaa Millaa Falls is the waterfall most people picture when they search for Cairns waterfall tours: a single clean curtain of water about 18 metres high dropping over a basalt ledge into a round, dark pool fringed with tree ferns. It sits on the Waterfall Circuit near the small dairy town of Millaa Millaa, in the wettest corner of the Tablelands, and it flows all year. The easy access, the grassy lawn and the swimming pool at its base have made it the symbol of the region.

You have about 30 minutes here. Many travellers swim out to the spray and turn to look back at the amphitheatre of rainforest; others stay on the lawn with a camera. Your guide chooses the best angle for the classic shot, which is one reason a guided Millaa Millaa Falls tour beats trying to fit everything into a self-drive loop.

Mungalli Falls and lunch

Mungalli Falls tumbles through a steep, forested gorge on Mungalli Creek between Millaa Millaa and the Palmerston Highway, with a short walking track to the main cascade and views over the wide gullies of the southern Tablelands. The land around it has been farmed for dairy for generations, and the lookout above the falls is one of the few places where you see the rainforest edge and the green pasture of the highlands in the same frame.

This is the lunch stop, with about an hour to eat and relax. Lunch is included and prepared with fresh local ingredients, with morning tea and afternoon tea also provided on the day, so you only need to bring drinks and extra snacks. After lunch the road drops off the Tablelands through the Palmerston section of Wooroonooran National Park towards the coast.

Josephine Falls, Wooroonooran National Park

Josephine Falls lies at the foot of Mount Bartle Frere, at 1,622 metres the highest mountain in Queensland, and is fed by some of the heaviest rainfall in Australia. A sealed walking track of about 700 metres leads through dense rainforest to a series of granite cascades, the lowest of which forms a smooth, natural water slide into a wide, clear pool. Lookouts higher up the track show the upper falls and the mossy boulders between them.

The group spends about an hour here, long enough for several slides and a swim in the lower pool when conditions allow. Rangers close the slide after heavy rain, and your guide reads the river before anyone enters. For families, Josephine Falls is usually the favourite stop of the whole Atherton Tablelands day trip from Cairns.

Babinda Boulders

The last swim of the day is at the Babinda Boulders, where Babinda Creek runs through a jumble of huge granite boulders in the rainforest a few minutes from the sugar-cane town of Babinda, about an hour south of Cairns. The designated swimming hole is a wide, calm stretch of cool, crystal-clear water above the rapids, with a sandy entry, lawns and a picnic area. Downstream the creek narrows into gorges and pools that are strictly off limits for swimming.

The Boulders are a sacred site for the local Indigenous people, and your guide tells the story of the young woman whose grief is said to have shaped the rocks and the water. About 45 minutes is spent here before the drive back up the coast, with hotel drop-off in Cairns and the Northern Beaches in the early evening.