dinner’s on the tablelands With its Indigenous heritage, historic hamlets, lush rainforest, abundant wildlife and tempting tropical produce, the Atherton Tablelands has much to off er the latter-day explorer.

WORDS SIMON THOMSEN PHOTOGRAPHY THOMAS WIELECKI

Coffee country: Skybury Tropical Plantation,

DECEMBER 2013 QANTAS 83 FORAGE TROPICAL NORTH

The Great Barrier Reef grabs the attention of most visitors to Cairns, but turn your attention west and you’ll fi nd the Atherton Tablelands, an area of dramatic beauty and World Heritage-listed national parks. It’s blessed with crater , lush rainforests, EAT The Royal Hotel excellent Thai fish cakes, spring pretty waterfalls and abundant wildlife. 46 Grace Street, Herberton. rolls and fish dishes such as yabby The Indigenous heritage remains strong (07) 4096 2231. curry, as well as traditional fish royalhotelherberton.com.au and chips. Take away a range of and it’s also an important food bowl, with This graciously classic two-storey smoked products from eel and tropical fruits such as mango, papaya and 1880 hotel lays claim to being one ham to barramundi, plus sausages, of Queensland’s oldest continually bushfood-flavoured chicken and licensed pubs. The publican and even crocodile “bacon”, made by banana, as well as crops such as peanuts, / EACHAM/RUSTY’S MARKETS: GETTY IMAGES chef Paul Watson knocks up butcher Dave Hoffman, as well as coff ee, tea, sugarcane and macadamia decent pub grub for the beer fresh fish and yabbies. nuts. Prime dairy country, it has seen a rise garden – chicken parmigiana, Lake Teahouse beer-battered barramundi, rump in cheesemakers in the past decade. The , . steaks, pork chops and burgers, (07) 4095 3847. lakebarrine.com.au chips and salad for lunch. Tablelands is birdwatching heaven, with Delicious Devonshire teas and some 327 species to spot and several bird light lunches in this 1930s lakeside Lakes cottage. Plus lake cruises and an hides built across the region. To the north, Smokehouse Cafe abundance of bird life. the Tablelands spills down to the Daintree Lot 3 Millaa Malanda Road, Malanda. (07) 4097 271. Origin Espresso region, croc country and the enticing tarzalilakes.com 21 Warner Street, Port Douglas. restaurants of Port Douglas. Peter Whiddett’s aquaculture (07) 4099 4586. farm is stocked with perch, originespresso.com barramundi and red claw yabbies. A blackboard declaring “Price can While away a few hours fishing in vary due to customer attitude” the dams with the kids, but the hints at a wicked streak in these Sugarcane near Mt Uncle Distillery; opposite (from left) really exciting moment is spotting serious young hipster coffee top: papaya tree at Skybury Tropical Plantation; The Peanut platypus and turtles in the nearby roasters, who make cold-drip Place; Port Douglas; middle: macadamias; Mossman River; creek, which is surprisingly easy. coffees and espresso hits. Little to ; bottom: Creek Bio-Dynamic Dairy; Whiddett’s wife, Yuwadee, makes Rusty’s Market, Cairns; between Atherton and Mareeba eat beyond a few sweet snacks. ❯ PORT DOUGLAS PHOTOGRAPHY: PRUE RUSCOE/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU; MACADAMIAS: BRETT STEVENS/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU; MOSSMAN RIVER Buccini: porcini and FORAGE TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND mushroom risotto balls with taleggio (left and below)

trout with orange, fennel Mungalli Creek and a tamarind dressing. Bio-Dynamic Dairy Emerald Creek

254 Brooks Road, Millaa Millaa. Ice-Creamery (07) 4097 2232. 3950 Kennedy Highway, Mareeba. mungallicreekdairy.com.au (07) 4093 3373. This biodynamic farm, 4km off emeraldcreek.com.au Palmerston Highway, is next to Rum and raisin is the best seller the world’s oldest Heritage-listed among nearly 30 different flavours rainforest and looks across to of ice-cream and sorbet, but the Queensland’s highest peak, Mount adventurous might like to try bush Bartle Frere. The Watson family Seabean: crèma Catalana flavours such as wattleseed or served in a half-coconut has run a mixed herd here for wild plum and elderberry. It’s hard 50 years and makes milk, yoghurt to go past the house-made apple and cheese. The Watsons have pie with ice-cream or a banana converted the old farmhouse into nearby Italian eatery Buccini split with macadamias exporter. Their Australian Coffee a factory, teahouse and regional- (buccini.com.au) opens early. Centre has great views over the produce store. Lunch on a cheese Seabean plantation and a cafe serving SHOP plate with local condiments, then Wharf & Warner Streets, snacks and lunch. The gift shop spanikopita, lasagne or a three- Cloud Nine Guitars Port Douglas. (07) 4099 5558. sells coffee, coffee-related cheese pie, before cheesecake. Shop 7/11 Beor Street, Craiglie. seabean.com.au paraphernalia and souvenirs. The impressive Mungalli Falls is a (07) 4099 1682. Regular plantation tours – it also short drive away. This bright, breezy boathouse-like cloudnineguitars.com.au grows red papaya and lady finger dinner spot takes inspiration from Lisa Sophocleous and Mark Spain, with familiar tapas followed bananas – include a visit to the O’Brien use local rainforest Harrison’s by Catalan fish stew, paella and processing factory and a coffee timbers to produce their beautiful Restaurant & Bar piri piri chicken with cous cous. cupping (tasting) class. custom instruments. They also run

22 Wharf Street, Port Douglas. The crème brûlée in a coconut is The Junction Cafe courses on guitar making. (07) 4099 4011. a local legend and the restaurant 1/5 Front Street, Mossman. harrisonsrestaurant.com.au is open from 3pm for those in (07) 4098 3398. Tolga need of post-siesta sangria. Englishman Spencer Patrick Cane trains chug past this cute Woodworks Gallery learned his trade under celebrity retro cafe where the hipster dial is 89-91 Kennedy Highway, Tolga. chef Marco Pierre White in the Australian set at 1950. Excellent coffee, tea in (07) 4095 4488. 1990s, and the food is European Coffee Centre old china cups, straightforward tolgawoodworks.com.au slick, as is his smartly casual, Skybury Tropical Plantation wraps, sandwiches and burgers – From cheeseboards to chopsticks, outdoorsy restaurant. Think 136 Ivicevic Road, Mareeba. but the real fun is blackboard spinning tops, bowls, timber malted scallops with sweetbreads, (07) 4093 2190. skybury.com.au specials such as slow-cooked pork sculptures, clocks and tables, this gingerbread, pickled raisins and belly, green pawpaw and calamari The MacLaughlin family is brings the best out of rainforest radish – with prices to match. The salad; and house-smoked ocean timbers. The cheapest, easiest Australia’s leading coffee bean ❯ PRODUCTIONS GEORGE/CATSEYE ALISON SEABEAN PHOTOGRAHY:

86 QANTAS DECEMBER 2013 Spy & Camera Museum, Herberton; Tolga Woodworks Gallery (top left); Atherton Chinatown Museum & Hou Wang Temple (above and left)

bushwalkers and birdwatchers. A 3km loop takes you around the lake rim and there’s a 1.4km Curtainchildren’s Figwalk. Tree

Fig Tree Road, near Yungaburra. option is to take home a cross-cut nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/curtain-fig round of a rare timber, such as red An awe-inspiring 500-year-old Allan Maruff bought land in the cedar, to polish and turn into a Shannonvale Tropical SEE & DO freak-of-nature fig tree, which Nerada valley and transplanted cutting board. There is also a cafe. Fruit Winery Herberton Spy & looks like it belongs in a Tolkien seedlings here. Nerada tea has 417 Shannonvale Road, Mossman. Camera Museum tale, this monster has aerial roots been in supermarkets for 40 years. (07) 4098 4000. 49 Grace Street, Herberton. dropping 15m from the sky, The Peanut Place After a factory tour, enjoy a cuppa shannonvalewine.com.au (07) 4096 2092. creating a curtain spanning 40m. Kennedy Highway, Tolga. and plantation views. spycameramuseum.com.au (07) 4095 5333. Janbal Gallery The old farmhouse setting in lush thepeanutplace.com.au 5 Johnston Road, Mossman. forest suggests the local Would-be 007s and shutterbugs Mossman Gorge Centre This yellow-brick roadside shed (07) 4099 5599. moonshiner, but Tony and Trudi will enjoy photographer Michael (07) 4099 7000. has several flavoured peanuts – janbalgallery.com.au Woodall create dry-style table Petersen’s collection of cameras mossmangorge.com.au butterscotch and caramel or wines from passionfruit, mango, and spy gear, including Soviet Brian “Binna” Swindley is an ; mangosteens at Shannonvale Tropical Fruit Winery (inset) This Heritage-listed rainforest honey and ginger, anyone? – as Indigenous artist, inheriting his jaboticaba, ginger and lychee, plus buttonhole cameras. His personal is now a sleek Indigenous-run well as peanut products, from talent from his late mother, Shirley ports from kaffir lime, sapote, tour brings it all to life. attraction with a cafe serving butter to oil, plus ice-cream. It’s “Janbal” Swindley, after whom the mangosteen and cocoa beans. bush tucker-flavoured dishes, an a handy road-trip snack stop. gallery is named. He sells his own Hastie’s Swamp Chinatown, based around cedar and rainforest histories of the struggle with habitat loss. The art gallery and regular shuttle works, plus art and jewellery by Golden Pride Winery nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/ cutting and farming peanuts, region, while outside the Johnston hospital cares for four species, buses to the gorge. Don’t forget Mt Uncle Distillery others, and offers art classes. 227 Bilwon Road, Biboohra. hasties-swamp maize and lychees, emerged on River tumbles over an ancient plus tube-nosed and micro- swimmers to splash among the basalt lava flow to form this bats. The afternoon visiting time jungle perch and saw-shelled 1819 Chewko Road, Walkamin. (07) 4093 2750. This wetland 4km from Atherton the outskirts of Atherton. This unique 110-year-old temple, now waterfall and popular swimming coincides with feeding, and seeing turtles in the cool, crystal-clear (07) 4086 8008. mtuncle.com Gallo Dairyland The late Charlie Nastasi was an has a two-storey bird hide and is a National Trust property, was hole. Go for a walk to find tree them up close, their curiosity and Mossman River. Interpretive signs A distillery with a reputation Malanda-Atherton Road, innovator, converting his tobacco home to 220-plus species of birds, restored a decade ago and the kangaroos in the rainforest (look intelligence is apparent. Open make a self-guided walk easy, plus for vodka, whisky, white rum, East Barron. (07) 4095 2388. farm to mangoes in the 1970s, from whistling ducks to stilts, museum tells the region’s fraught for the square scats or “bush daily June-September, 3-6pm; there are regular, Indigenous-led gin flavoured with Australian gallodairyland.com.au becoming one of Australia’s cranes and kingfishers. Wedgetails Asian history. Open Wed-Sun. chocolates”). Aboriginal elder bookings essential at other times. Dreamtime walks. botanicals, and banana and coffee Giovanni Gallo settled here from biggest growers with 17,500 trees. and sea eagles soar overhead while Ernie Raymont and his grandson, liqueurs. Its Bridges Cafe serves Italy in the 1920s. Seven years ago, In 1999, he launched his mango frogs add to the din. Drew, run 60-minute guided Lake Eacham wood-fired pizzas and lunches, his dairy farming descendants wine. Wander through the packing Visitor Centre & walks from the centre. Crater Lakes National Park, Lake Daintree Village and more than 50 teas. opened this mix of working dairy, shed to the tasting room, where Atherton Chinatown Conservation Park Eacham Road. nprsr.qld.gov.au/ Stop in this small village, a spur off his children continue his legacy, cheesery, chocolate shop and Museum & Hou Malanda-Atherton Road, Tolga Bat Hospital parks/lake-eacham the highway that ends beside the producing dry, medium and sweet Nerada Tea cafe. Amid a wide range of Wang Temple Malanda. (07) 4096 6957. 134 Carrington Road, near Eacham is a 66m-deep crater lake river, to have your photo taken mango wines, a sparkling, port and 933 Road, Malanda. European cheese styles, they also 86 Herberton Road, Atherton. malandafalls.com Atherton. (07) 4091 2683. and extraordinarily clear, making beside the large, silver Big Barra, produce a lactose-free range, “cello” liqueur (also citrus and (07) 4096 8328. neradatea.com.au (07) 4091 6945. houwang.org.au The new visitor centre explains Flying foxes are the bees of the it a popular dive spot as well as try a barramundi burger or pie dragonfruit cello liqueurs). including a Greek yoghurt. (there are croc versions) or buy ❯ In the 1950s, Indian-born doctor In the late 1800s, a post-gold rush WEE/BAUERSYNDICATION.COM.AU TREE: MICHAEL FIG CURTAIN GETTY IMAGES; PHOTOGRAPHY: MANGOSTEEN the Indigenous, pioneer, volcanic rainforest, pollinating plants, but attracting swimmers, canoeists,

88 QANTAS DECEMBER 2013 DECEMBER 2013 QANTAS 89 QT Port Douglas: barbecue chicken pizza with Spanish onion, barbecue sauce, mozzarella cheese and coriander (above); welcome wagon (right) a souvenir. Daintree Timber STAY Gallery (daintreetimber gallery. Herberton crumble. Go for long walks to see com) sells red cedar and mango school, 1890s pub and 1905 police Heritage Cottage platypus, swim, admire towering wood bowls, vases and salad lock-up. Amid antique machinery, 2 Perkins Street, Herberton. rose gums and relax. Watching the servers, and handpainted saws. cars and bikes is a collection of 0427 962 670. parrots descend for the morning John Deere tractors. See the herbertonheritagecottage.com.au feed is noisy excitement, Herberton feature at Travel Insider Daintree River Cruise The century-old former post especially when a python joins in, http://travelinsider.qantas.com. 2914 Mossman-Daintree Road, office is now a guesthouse with but even more thrilling is spotting au/living_in_the_past_see_do_ Daintree. (07) 4098 6115. two ensuite rooms and shared a musky rat-kangaroo. From $297. herberton_australia.htm daintreerivercruisecentre.com.au Daintree kitchen. Free laundry, internet and Jabiru Safari Lodge

The Lafferty family has run these Discovery Centre generous breakfast with seasonal 142 Pickford Road, Biboohra. hour-long, eco-certified cruises Cape Tribulation & Tulip Oak fruit add value. From $155. (07) 4039 1969. for 25 years, know crocs by name Roads, Cow Bay. (07) 4098 9171. jabirusafarilodge.com.au and where to find them, and spot daintree-rec.com.au QT Port Douglas Glamping meets twitching at this and explain local birds. Guests can An educational introduction to 87-109 Port Douglas Road, manmade nature reserve. Mareeba get surprisingly close to those big the rainforest, with a 23m canopy Port Douglas. (07) 4099 8900. Tropical Savanna and Wetland reptiles and perhaps also see baby tower, a mid-level aerial walk, qtportdouglas.com.au Reserve (mareebawetlands.org) crocs and the odd feral pig. self-guided audio tours (one for Rydges has revamped its 170 is a birdwatching paradise with

children aged 5-9) plus bush tucker rooms into the funky, colourful endangered Gouldian finches, DAYTRIPS tours, an interpretive centre and designer QT brand. Lounge by the brolgas, ospreys, jacanas, magpie Chillagoe-Mungana cafe. There’s a good chance of lagoon-style pool, pamper at the geese and 200 other species. At Caves National Park spotting a cassowary, as there is day spa or cycle to town on a the safari-style tented lodge, take on the (free) 700m Jindalba a 30-minute dinghy or canoe nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/ complimentary bike. From $240. boardwalk down the road. Stop at cruise on the lagoon, or go for chillagoe-caves Walu Wugirriga lookout for views a dawn/sunset drive amid the Rangers lead guided tours of Rose Gums back to Port Douglas and where termite mounds to see dingoes, Royal Arch, Donna and Trezkinn Wilderness Retreat the Daintree River meets the sea. wallabies and kangaroos. Emus caves thrice-daily. Nearby are the Lands Road (via Lake Eacham), wait by the front door of century-old Chillagoe smelter Atherton Tablelands. the visitor centre, which is ruins plus two small Indigenous Kuranda (07) 4096 8360. rosegums.com.au transformed into an open-air rock-art sites. kuranda.org Nine secluded, self-contained dining room in the evening.

This hippie-tinged rainforest treehouses on a rainforest Telescopes on the balcony help Herberton village, 25km from Cairns and property, each with spa bath, spot the wildlife, and after dinner, Historic Village 380m above sea level, is famed for wood fire, balcony and kitchen. enjoy a campfire, tall stories and 6 Broadway, Herberton. its markets and how you get there There is a BYO restaurant serving the stars over a glass of red wine. (07) 4096 2002. – the equally spectacular Skyrail hearty dinners, such as twice- Visitors are welcome to use the herbertonhistoricvillage.com.au cable car or scenic railway (or you cooked lamb shoulder and facilities and cafe during the chermoula chicken, followed by A remarkable outdoor museum can drive). Nowadays it’s a tourist day. From $109. rhubarb, apple and raspberry with 50 buildings dating back to town geared to daytrippers, but the 1840s, from a crude miner’s the nearby walking trails are a rewarding experience. hut to the town’s original 1880s For airfares to Queensland call Qantas on 13 13 13 or visit qantas.com

90 QANTAS DECEMBER 2013