Top 10 Budget-friendly Things to do in Atherton Tablelands, Queensland

A visit to the Historic Village Herberton is like stepping back in time. Showcasing Australia’s rich and diverse history this outdoor pioneer museum is testament to an era that is long gone.Open year round to visitors, the Village collects, preserves and displays fascinating historical exhibits from across Australia. The history of this museum is also closely tied with the township of Herberton and features many priceless antiques as well as buildings that have come from the town’s ancestors.The Village currently has over 50 original buildings that date from Herberton’s foundation years. Walking through the Village, visitors are given a sense of being in a real township complete with chemist, bottle collection, school, bank, grocer’s store, frock salon, toy shop, mechanic, jail and more.

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL. Enter an upside down world and meet the real stars of the night! Our personalised tours only run during feeding time 3-6pm, when the bats come down to eye level from their 6 metre-high roost. Eclectic collection of bat art , world-class facilities and bat information set among restful gardens. Open all year but bookings essential as tour times vary between 3 and 6pm. Entry $20 adult and $10 children.

The Afghanistan Avenue of Honour is a living memorial dedicated to the memory of all who served in the fight against terror in Afghanistan and to those brave and selfless Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of freedom and liberty.

The largest butterfly flight aviary and exhibit in Australia - an all weather experience in the heart of the Kuranda village. Home to over 1500 magnificent butterflies, youll be enchanted by the arial dynamics of these elusive wonders of nature as you wonder through the aviary's rainforest gardens.

Fruit bat rehabilitation center

Jaques Coffee Plantation is situated on the Atherton Tablelands in Mareeba, North Queensland, Australia, with a beautiful backdrop looking over the surrounding peaks of the Great Dividing Range. The fully licenced restaurant / cafe is at the center of the plantation's 85,000 Arabica coffee trees with a large deck over looking the garden or the inside air conditioned area, you can sit and enjoy a coffee and home baked scones and cakes or a full lunch with a beer or wine. Take a tour and enjoy an enchanting insight into the finer details of coffee from the tree to the cup. Other activities onsite include Microlight Flights, Gyro Flights and Segway Tours. Closed during February each year for maintenance

The Australian Platypus Park is home to a thriving platypus population. These wonderful creatures can be found in a spring fed pond surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. This magnificent setting draws in enthusiastic visitors from all over the globe. Dining is available in the Smokehouse Cafe, which serves a selection of great meals at reasonable prices, and we are licensed so you can enjoy a drink with your meal or snack. The Smokehouse Cafe opens at 8am with Guided Platypus tours starting at 9am and departing every 30 minutes throughout the day. Breakfast Menu 8am til 11am Main Menu from 11am to 4pm Platypus Tours every 30 minutes starting at 9am. Last tour starts at 4pm.

Home to the largest single collection of free flying birds in Australia (some 500 of them!), Birdworld Kuranda in the Australian highlands of the Atherton Tablelands 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 bird sanctuary 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. In Birdworld's rainforest canopy overhead, blue, gold and scarlet Macaws dazzle with colourful brilliance as they soar above the tree tops. One outstanding Birdworld denizen not to be missed is that rare avian giant, the Cassowary - an Australian bird now officially enlisted as endangered.Designed to "create a centre where birds would be showcased in their natural environment without the barriers of cages coming between them and their admiring public", Birdworld Kuranda is a photographer's paradise. (And without those barriers, visitors often find a feathered friend nestling on their shoulder - a golden photo opportunity!) Birdworld Kuranda can provide guided tours for all group bookings.

At Granite Gorge visitors have a fantastic opportunity to get close with the wild rock wallabies in their natural habitat. You can hand feed them macropod pellets which we have available. The Mareeba unadorned rock wallabies (Petrogale inornata, Mareeba race) are rare and endangered and only seen up close here.The wallabies are unique to this area of Mareeba. They are known to be on the top of a couple of mountain ranges but this is the only place they can be seen up close and fed in the wild. Possums, 5 types of gliders, Frilled necked and other lizards, 2 types of quolls, turtles and echidnas inhabit the gorge and park area. On winter nights dingo howls can be heard way down the gorge.