Out and About Near Atherton

Today is the last day of our three-part visit to Far North Queensland. We’ve spent time in Cairns, Port Douglas and in Atherton. Tomorrow, we start our two-week long trip home.

The weather in Atherton has turned cool. It was raining for most of the day and it feels quite cold. Would you believe that we are sitting in our room tonight wearing jumpers with the heater on. The temperatue outside has dropped to 16 C.

We began our day by driving a short distance to the town of Yungaburra. It is an attractive and historic timber village on the Atherton Tablelands which is both historical and with, what I would call, an ‘alternative lifestyle’ culture. It’s situated 720 metres above sea level so it is cool in summer and can be quite chilly in winter.

There are a total of 17 places of historic interest in Yungaburra listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. It is a very beutiful town with old buildings and a hundred, or so, colourful hanging baskets.

Yungaburra boasts two attractions. The first is a platypus viewing area but unfortunately the overnight rain created a lot of silt in the stream and the platypus had decided to stay in bed. Just about 3 kilometres out of town is the second attraction  – a giant 500 year old curtain fig tree.

This Fig Tree is a 50 metre high strangler fig with roots which drop up to 15 metres to the ground. It has a circumference of 39 metres.These trees are a parasitic species of tree that develop when the seed of a fig germinates on the top of another tree and then tries to plant its roots in the ground. Once the root system is established, the fig grows vigorously, finally killing the host tree and then growing independently. The unusual formation of this Curtain Fig Tree was created when its vertical roots strangled the host causing it to fall into a neighbouring tree on a 45 degree angle. The extensive aerial roots of the strangler fig then dropped from the oblique angle of the fallen tree 15m to the forest floor, forming a “curtain”.

Near the fig tree, we found an unusual wildlife warning sign. It was one that we hadn’t seen before. If you don’t know the animal, I’ll tell you what it is at the end of this post.**

I saw a place on the map that looked interesting so we finished the morning by driving to the Australian Platypus Park and Tarzali Lakes.  We had lunch in thei cafe and then paid a small fee to visit their platypus pond.

The Australian Platypus Park is a very scenic place where you can wander around and see platypus swimming in the spring-fed ponds, surrounded by lush foliage. I spent some time (more than Jill was happy with) taking photos  and managed to capture a few average shots of the four, or five, animals that inhabited the pond.

Over my life as a bushwalker, I have seen many Australian animals in the wild – wallabies, kangaroos, lyrebirds, possums, quolls, bandicoots and koalas etc. This is the first time that I have ever seen a platypus, so I am rather pleased.

On the way back to Atherton, we came across the Malanda falls. They are directly under the road and fall into a constructed swimming pool.

The weather had become cool over the day and with the high humidity, the conditions were just right for fog to start forming. We travelled back to our cabin at a slower speed that on our outgoing drive in the morning.

** The warning sign was for tree kangaroos. These are a unique species of marsupial found primarily in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and the far north of Queensland, Unlike ground-dwelling kangaroos, tree kangaroos have adapted for life in trees, possessing shorter legs, stronger forelimbs, and a long bushy tail that helps with balance when climbing.

Tree kangaroos belong to the genus Dendrolagus and are the only true arboreal (tree-dwelling) members of the kangaroo family. There are around 14 different species, all of which are considered threatened mainly due to habitat loss from deforestation and hunting. They can range in length from 16 to 30 inches, with tails that add another 16 to 34 inches, and can weigh up to 32 pounds.