Atherton Tablelands

Atherton Tablelands

We absolutely loved the scenery of the Atherton Tablelands. There are rolling hills full of dairy farms surrounded by mountains. Along some of the roads rainforest remains and it is quite pretty driving through it.

Wednesday

We spent the day driving around looking at waterfalls and little towns. One town we stopped at was called Malanda and here we did a tour of the Dairy Farmers factory. We watched them make and fill 2 and 3 litre milk bottles. They make and fill 9 million 2 litre bottles and 3 million 3 litre bottles a year.

Did you know? If empty milk bottles are not filled within 3 days they shrink by 15% that is why milk bottles are made with the circular indentation on the side of them. So they can plug them up to stop them from shrinking.

The factory delivers milk all the way to Darwin.

After our tour we were taken back to the cafe where our guide made us all a milkshake.

Millstream Falls

Curtain Fig

Malanda Falls

Milla Milla Falls

Milla Milla creek walk

Milla Milla creek walk

Zilla falls walk

Alanna at Zilla falls

Atherton Tablelands from lookout

Dinner falls

Dinner Falls walk

Ellinjaa Falls

Thursday

In the morning we went to the Crystal Caves in Atherton. It was very well done. We had to wear hard hats with lights on them. After looking through the cave ( man made with lots of different crystals in the walls and ceiling) the kids cracked open a 44 million year old geode each.

Geodes start their lives as a hollow bubble inside a layer of rock. The bubble could be from air inside explosive volcanic rock. As the mineral-rich water moves on through the bubble, tiny crystals are left behind, clinging to the sides of the bubble. Millions of years pass while this in and out flow of water gradually builds crystals inside the empty space.

Crystal Cave tour

Inside the Crystal Cave.

Kids looking at Amethyst Crystals

Luke cracking a Geode.

In the afternoon we went to Gallo’s Dairy and watched the cows being milked. I was quite amazed at how quick the process was. The cows are herded into individual stalls on a huge turntable. The turntable can hold 42 cows. As it slowly moves around the farmer at the beginning puts the machine on the cows udder and by the time it has almost done a full circle the second farmer takes of the machine and the cows reverse out of the stall turn around and walk out into the paddock again. Another thing that amazed me was that the bulls got on the turntable as well and went around for the ride. (I didn’t think that bulls were kept in the same paddock as the cows.)

Cows waiting to be milked

Cows being milked on the turntable.
The cow with pink on its udder had a calf
in the morning.

Friday

We drove to Kuranda. After looking through the shops and the Butterfly Sanctuary we caught the scenic railway down to Cairns which took about 1 ½ hours.

Careena was very happy
when a butterfly landed on her.

Todd's expert photography
Ready for take off

The train stopped at Barron Gorge falls for 10mins so all the passengers could get out and take photos .It was very beautiful but Alanna and Luke don’t know how to appreciate the spectacular views.

We had to go through 15 tunnels (all hand dug with picks and shovels). Every time we went through a tunnel Alanna and Luke pretended to be nocturnal and mucked around. When we came out of a tunnel they pretended to be asleep. (I guess they are learning things in their own way.)

Crossing the bridge

Barron Falls

On the train

We caught the Sky rail back up to Kuranda. I was a BIT nervous. (Everyone else thought it was fun and enjoyed teasing me.) I relaxed by the end of it.

The sky rail is 7.5 kilometres long and the highest station is Red Peak which is 545 metres above sea level. We got off at Red Peak and did a 10 min boardwalk around the rain forest. After another short ride we got off at Barron Falls station and looked over the gorge before continuing onto Kuranda Station where we had our photo taken in the Gondola.

Me loooking brave
(I'm actually squeezing Careena's
leg and hanging onto the side.)

Luke cool as a cucumber

Girls on Gondala loving it.

Looking down on the rain forest

One of the walks

Lookin down on Barron Gorge

Barron Falls

Looking back on the skyrail from our
Gondala

Barron River

Undara Volcanic National Park

The road to Undara was approximately 100klms of dirt road. We had to give way to cows and emus along the way and cross 2 streams. The road was quite good with very little corrugations ( Unlike Litchfield. Nothing happened inside the van this time) but it also had a range of different surfaces (rocky, muddy etc) which made the drive more interesting for Todd.

We arrived at Undara in the afternoon and booked a tour through the lava tubes for the following day.

Our tour left at 10.30 in the morning and we were told that we could swim through a lava tube if we wanted to because they still had water in them. ( Top end of Australia has had the wettest wet season on record this year.) Our guide took a group of us to the lava tubes in a mini bus. ( The only way to see the lava tubes is by a guided tour.) Todd, Alanna, luke and another man were the only ones who swam through one of the tubes with the guide. ( The rest of us watched from the steps. )The water was Chest deep on Todd and it was dark as they rounded the corner in the tube. They were gone about 10 mins before coming back. Alanna was happy because she saw a little bat.
After everone quickly got changed it was on to another tube which we could all walk into.
The word Undara means ‘a long way’ in Aboriginal language. One of the lava flows from Undara extends over 160 kilometres (or 100 miles).

Boardwalk to the Lava tubes

Archway

Archway- Part of the tubes roof  has collapesed.

Lava tube flooded

Flooded lava tube.

One of the tubes we walked into

Inside looking back out.

As we left Undara National Park we stopped at Kalkani Crater and walked around the rim.
In the distance many other extinct volcanoes could be seen. Volcanoes can erupt in different ways. Some explode like a shaken up bottle of fizzie while others flow like milk boiling of in a saucepan. This is how Undara erupted over many months or years. (The experts aren't really sure.)

View from the top of
Kalkani Crater
Another volcano in the distance.

The dark line of trees in the middle
of the picture is where the lava flowed
from Undarra Volcano.

Winton

Winton

Even though Winton was a small town it had a lot to do.
Following is alist of things we did.

Lark Quarry-- Footprints of a dinosaur Stampedee
It was amazing to see the fossilised Dinosaur footprints. It made it more real that there were Dinosaurs around 95 million years ago in Australia.

Dinosaur Footprints

On the right hand side of the
picture is about 4 footprints
from the large dinosaur.

Lark Quarry
Building that protects the dinosaur footprints

"Lark Quarry, in outback Australia, is currently the only recorded dinosaur stampede on earth. In this place, around 95 million years ago, a large herd of small two legged dinosaurs gathered on the banks of a forest lake to drink.
The herd was stalked by a large Theropod – four tonnes of sharp-clawed, meat-eating dinosaur. The herd panicked, stampeding across the muddy flats to escape the Theropod’s hungry jaws.
A record of those few terrifying minutes is cast in more than 3300 fossilised footprints. The footprints tell us about a cooler, wetter world, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the mammal’s time is yet to come.

The Trackways were discovered in 1962 by Glen Seymour. They were later excavated in the 1970s, and a shelter was put up to protect them in the 1980s. A new conservation building was built in 2002 to preserve the Trackways."

Corfield and Fitzmaurice Museum--- Had the Diorama of the stampede.

These are the dinosaurs that made the
footprints in the stampede.

Bins throughout Winton are Dinosaur
feet.

Age of Dinosaurs-- Fossil preperation centre

This tour was very interesting because we were shown how the bones are found, stored and then cleaned and put back together. It is the largest Fossil preperation centre in Australia.
They dig for dinosaur bones for only three weeks of the year because that gives them many years work cleaning and studying them.

Some bones that they have found.

Fossil preperation centre
Working on the bones.

Musical Fence-- Winton is home to world's first permanent musical fence installation in the world. Accompanied by a junkyard band, the Musical Fence is free and available for everyone to use

Careena having a go

Luke on the drum kit.

Alanna having a go

Waltzing Matilda Centre-- Only Centre dedicated to a song. The song was first peformed at Winton.

Banjo Paterson
with the words to Waltzing Matilda

Kids being jumbucks

Arno's Wall -- Made from junk he found at the tip.
                         The wall has everything in it from typewrites, sewing machines, motorbikes to the kitchen sink.

Royal Open air Theatre-- Originally established in 1918, the historic Royal Theatre offers a rare opportunity to enjoy the movies the old-fashioned way – laid back in canvas seats under the stars. The Open Air Theatre is now also home to the World’s Largest Deck Chair.

The largest deckchair in the world.

We were more impressed with Winton than Mt Isa.

After Winton we made our way to Hughenden, another town that specialises in Dinosaur Fossils. We went to the visitor information centre and had a look through their museum.

Luke being a dinosaur

Muttaburrasaurus

Fossils

The fossil at the back looking like a cupcake
is a dinosaur egg.
Some at the front are eggs too.

Fossilised crab

After looking through the museum we continued on to Porcupine Gorge National Park where we camped for the night. When we arrived it was late in the afternoon but the kids wanted to walk down to the river for a swim. The water was cold but they enjoyed sliding down the moss covered rocks into the water. By the time we walked back up to our caravan it was getting dark.
The following pictures are of the gorge.

Todd showing off

this is known as the pyramid