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Attractions & Things to Do

Discover amazing places to visit, from scenic lookouts and wildlife encounters to museums and galleries.

National Parks and Reserves

Barron Gorge National Park

Barron Gorge National Park has great cultural and historical significance, with dramatic scenery and World Heritage-listed rainforest. The local Aboriginal people developed trails through the area, which later became the first pack routes used by Europeans to link the hinterland goldfields to the coast. Today, you can walk the same trails for pleasure! Walk to a lookout to view Barron Falls (spectacular after good rainfall). Take the Skyrail cableway for views over the forest canopy and out to the coast. Jump aboard the famous Kuranda railway as it winds past ravines and picturesque waterfalls. Explore the rainforest along the walking tracks from Speewah or Kamerunga. Join a white-water rafting tour for an up-close experience of the river.

Kuranda

Zoos, Sanctuaries, Aquariums and Wildlife Parks

BatReach

BatReach, located in Kuranda, is a bat and wildlife care centre, focusing on flying foxes. Pam Tully, creator of the centre, began looking after flying foxes around 1990 in the suburb of Edge Hill in Cairns. She then started a bat and wildlife rescue and care centre at Zillie Falls near Milla Milla on the Atherton tablelands. She later relocated to Kuranda at the top of the range overlooking Cairns. In 1999, after noticing that people walking past seemed horrified at the flying foxes in the recovery cages, making comments like "look at those ghastly creatures

Kuranda

Zoos, Sanctuaries, Aquariums and Wildlife Parks

Birdworld Kuranda

Home to the largest single collection of free flying birds in Australia (some 500 of them!), Birdworld Kuranda displays no less than 75 species of the most spectacular birds from all corners of the planet - as well as from the earth's fast diminishing rainforests. Visitors are free to wander through the lush, tropically landscaped aviary to observe the birds in their own specific - yet natural - habitats. Two lakes connected by a tumbling waterfall for example are home to waterbirds such as stilts, herons and Australia's own unique Black Swan.

Kuranda

National Parks and Reserves

Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve

The Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve is set on 200 acres of open bush land, 40 kilometres west of Cairns. It is home to many of the world's exotic and endangered animals. They have the largest pride of lions in Australasia with 25 in total on the property. They also have Common Hippopotamus, Pigmy Hippopotamus, White Rhinoceros, Syrian Brown Bears, Sumatran Tigers, Bengal Tigers, Cheetahs, Servals, Otters, Ostriches, Deer, Reptiles and many species of Monkeys.

Kuranda

National Parks and Reserves

Chillagoe-Mungana Caves National Park

In the Chillagoe-Mungana National Park, dry tropical open woodlands hide underground caves of breathtaking natural beauty. Pockets of deciduous vine thicket cling to jagged limestone outcrops. Laid down 400 million years ago, the limestone has been weathered, dissolved and reformed by water to create caverns and passages of significant natural and cultural heritage value. Join a ranger on a guided cave tour to view splendid limestone formations. You can also explore some of the caves on your own. Visit Balancing Rock, an impressive tower karst (limestone pillar). Walk the nine kilometre return track to Royal Arch Bluff, looking for wallabies and birds. Drive the historic interpretive trail at the Chillagoe Smelters.

Chillagoe

Natural Attractions

Curtain Fig National Park

Part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Curtain Fig National Park contains an endangered type of rainforest called mabi forest. A semi-deciduous canopy allows more sunlight to reach the ground than in other rainforest types. This promotes a well-developed shrub layer. The highlight of this park is a huge, unique fig tree called the Curtain Fig with extended aerial roots dropping 15 metres to the forest floor and forming a 'curtain'. Enjoy the short, elevated boardwalk around the tree. Return at night to spotlight for the elusive Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo and other nocturnal animals.

Yungaburra

National Parks and Reserves

Danbulla National Park and State Forest

Danbulla National Park and State Forest is a spectacular part of the Atherton Tableland, encompassing eucalypt and acacia forests, pine plantations and rainforest; also crater lakes, walks and places of local history and interest. The park and State forest covers 12,000 hectares between Tinaroo and Lamb ranges and borders Lake Tinaroo. Choose a camp site at one of six camping areas. Enjoy a short walk through upland rainforest to Mobo Creek crater or take time to marvel at the enormity and age of the cathedral fig tree.

Atherton