Atherton Tableland (a.k.a. 'The Tablelands')
The formerly rainforest-covered Atherton Tableland lies behind the coastal Bellenden Ker Range in Yidinji and Dyirbal country.
Rising more than seven hundred metres above sea level, the fertile upland formed after a series of volcanic eruptions that began around four million years ago and ended roughly ten thousand years before the present.
Extensive basalt flows from large, gently-sloping shield volcanoes produced deep, rich basaltic soils. Changes in the magma's composition around a million years ago made the material increasingly gas-charged, and fragmented lava built numerous small scoria cones, including the Seven Sisters, near Yungaburra.
Some of the rising magma interacted with groundwater, producing violent eruptions that led to the formation of maar volcanoes, such as Lake Eacham and Lake Barrine.
Although the volcanoes in the region are regarded as extinct, the relatively recent end to volcanic activity suggests that further eruptions may occur.
The European presence in the region followed James Venture Mulligan's prospecting party, who arrived in search of gold in 1875 but found substantial tin deposits instead.
John Atherton and his party arrived with cattle for the nearby goldfields in 1879, while John Newell established Herberton in April 1880 to exploit the tinfield. At its height, Herberton was Australia's wealthiest tin mining centre, with seventeen hotels, two local newspapers and a brewery.
The construction of a road connecting Herberton to Port Douglas brought a secondary rush of settlement as timber-getters established camps to exploit the rainforest's black bean, kauri, maple, red cedar, red tulip oak, walnut and white beech.
The mining and timber booms brought a sizeable Chinese population into the region. Chinese market gardeners produced fruit and vegetable crops and were among the first to grow maize in The North. Atherton's Hou Wang Temple remains standing and was added to the Queensland State Heritage Register in 1992.
In the Second World War, the Tableland served as a staging area for Australian and American troops bound for New Guinea and the South Pacific theatre of war.
Agriculture is now the area's largest industry, producing avocados, bananas, citrus, macadamia nuts, maize, mangoes, strawberries and sugarcane, using water from the Barron River, which was dammed to form Lake Tinaroo. A government buy-out ended tobacco growing in October 2006. Dairying, grazing and poultry are also significant.
Tourism is the region's second-largest economic driver. Apart from remnant patches of rainforest in various National Parks, attractions include:
Chillagoe Caves
Curtain Fig Trees near Lake Barrine and Yungaburra
Herberton's Historic Village
Lake Barrine
Lake Eacham
Mount Hypipamee Crater and Dinner Falls
Undara Volcanic National Park
Yungaburra Markets
Atherton and Mareeba are the largest towns. Other significant population centres include Chillagoe, Herberton, Kairi, Kuranda, Malanda, Millaa Millaa, Ravenshoe, Tinaroo, Tolga, Walkamin and Yungaburra.
Links to add:
Barron River
Bellenden Ker Range
Chillagoe
Chillagoe Caves
Curtain Fig Trees
Dinner Falls
Dyirbal
Herberton
Historic Village, Herberton
Hou Wang Temple
John Atherton
John Newell
Kairi
Lake Barrine
Lake Eacham
Lake Tinaroo
Malanda
Mount Hypipamee Crater
Ravenshoe
Seven Sisters
Tinaroo
Tolga
Undara Volcanic National Park
Walkamin
Yidinji
Yungaburra
