Visiting Australia for a month rotation. I'll be in Atherton. Anything I should definitely see while I am here?
Hmm, Atherton has a nice climate in Winter from May onwards, it used to be a corn and maize farming area but is now mostly sugar cane. There's several boutique spirits distilleries in the area, I was part of a taste testing survey for tropical fruit wine years ago where I worked: I looked across to one guy filling his survey and saw him write in the comments "This lot is not worth stealing!!!". There's plenty of rainforest tropic experiences complete with waterfalls and Tinaroo Dam with ski-boat hire and cabins to rent less than half an hour from Atherton. There's a tourist train through the Barron Gorge from Cairns to Kuranda via 10 or 11 tunnels and past the Barron Falls. There's a lot of WW2 American materiel left lying around in the bush, distinctive wood framed corrugated iron covered "Igloo" buildings and lots of unexploded ordinance to be found. A hippy loaded up some artillery shells once and drove them over the the Atherton police station years ago and the main street had to be closed off while they were disarmed. There's a lot in the area to visit, see and do, mainly mining settlements, gemstone fossicking, Herberton historical village, and the Spy and Camera Museum in Herberton. There are old gold, tin, copper, tungsten mining towns and gemstones like garnets, sapphires, topaz and the odd diamond can be found but it's all in very dry, dull arid country.
I immediately got up and made a vegemite sandwich. Also Ron Grainer, the composer of the Dr Who theme music came from Atherton too.
Hmmm! Gems and fossils would be great to find. Would love to find anything like that. And sampling the local booze sounds great too! I'll be checking out the waterfalls this weekend with the roomates.
There should be a gem club in Atherton where you can get some local knowledge, probably Mt Surprise pale blue and white topaz is your best bet but it's a long drive away: there's a caravan park and campsite there with showers, toilets etc. and the topaz fields are a short drive away from the camp site. You'll need a fossiker's permit too, it used to be a generic permit but it may be location specific these days. Worst case there'll be some pensioner in a caravan who can sell you a bag of topaz for $50 if you don't get lucky. The worst of the summer heat should be over by now and everything will be green too from the rains. I'd heard there's ironstone with opal deposits nearby at 40 mile scrub but I'm not too sure of the specifics.
