If you have never stepped foot in the Atherton Tablelands, you are simply missing out. Atherton Tablelands is one of the many beautiful locations in Tropical North Queensland region. The vast variety of activities, from waterfalls to hikes, seeking platypus or simply driving and enjoying the scenery.
To break it down for you so that you truly understand what Atherton tablelands has to offer, I’m going to speak about our absolute must see places.
Windin Falls was number one on our list. We had seen a lot of other travellers do this hike, so we decided to do a sunrise hike and catch the morning glow, something we hadn’t seen anyone do previously. At any time of the day I could imagine this place being absolutely beautiful, but there was something about hiking through the forest before the sun rose that made the experience all that much better. The best part about this is you have to find it for yourself. There are some targets placed to show the direction you need to travel. To us this made it a lot more interesting as we didn’t know how long it would take to get there, and we had to keep our eyes open so we didn’t miss the target. The hike was over 10k return. Windin Falls itself, is a single drop waterfall overlooking rolling valleys. The landscape was truly something you would expect to see in a movie like jurassic park, and if you say you never sat there during that movie jaw dropped over the scenery, you’re simply lying. We sat and watched the sun rise while we felt like we were on top of the world with no one else in sight.
If you decide you are not the type who enjoys a big hike, this is the next best thing. Tully Gorge is a short walk and an interesting climb to hunt down the little pool on the edge of the gorge overlooking the beautiful rolling landscape. As this is very similar to Windin Falls, its also very different. There is something so significant about being high up into the air overlooking all thats below you, especially the view you’ll see if you decide to visit.
Nandroya Falls in my opinion is something a little more tropical. The walk to get there is just shy of 5km return if you decide to do the short walk, around 1km in you will come across a very similar but much smaller waterfall called Silver falls, this one alone is beautiful, dropping through a single gap in the tropical rainforest falling around 5m into a beautiful crystal clear creek. Continue the walk along another 1.5km or so and you will arrive at the spectacular Nandroya falls, this has two sections, the first section is made up of multiple drops that plummet into a pool and right behind that peaking over the top are the main falls, an amazing single drop coming over moss covered rock walls surround by beautiful untouched lush rainforest. now whats not to love about that? We recommend the best time to see this is just after some heavy rain when the falls are gushing.
Milla Milla Falls and the Waterfall Circuit – Now this one is the most photographed and most popular circuit in Australia, none the less beautiful. On the 10km circuit you will come across 3 beautiful waterfalls, Milla Milla, Zillie and Ellinjaa. Each one having its own unique look. The first one you will come across is Milla Milla falls, listed the MOST photographed waterfall in Australia and you can see why. Its another single drop waterfall into a beautiful pool but for those of you that don’t fancy walking too far from your car, this ones for you. You can literally park your car in eye sight. You can choose to lay back on lush green grass underneath a single fern and watch the cat fish swim through the creek or you can have a dip and join everyone with the famous hair flicking photo, ill leave that up to you. The second waterfall you will come across is Zillie falls, though this one being a little harder to get to the base of the falls you will be greeted by a beautiful drop over a cascading creek. If you don’t fancy walking down the slippery red dirt you can stand at the top look out and embrace from above. The third and final waterfall you will come across on the Atherton Tablelands most famous circuit is Ellinjaa falls, a cascading waterfall into a refreshing pool, this for us was our favourite one as there is a lot less people there so we could embrace it all to ourselves by having a nice icy cold dip.
At the end of the day if waterfalls are not for you, you can drive through the Tablelands by car, stopping where desired and take in the incredible Australian scenery. A place that needs to truly be seen by the naked eye.
Location: Atherton Tablelands – Millaa Millaa Waterfall
Location: Windin Falls
Location: Nandroya Falls
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