A major service centre and the largest town on the Atherton tableland. It is the centre for a number of agricultural activities including coffee plantations, mango, avocado and tobacco farms.
Location: 64 km west of Cairns; 450 metres above sea-level.
Places of interest in the surrounding area: Barron River; Granite Gorge; Mareeba Tropical Savannah and Wetland Reserve; Davies Creek National Park; Golden Drop Tropical Winery; Tinaroo Falls Dam; Mosque (built by the town's Albanian community); Mareeba Heritage Museum.
Granite Gorge
Granite Gorge is one of the Tablelands most unusual and fascinating attractions lies 12 kms from Mareeba. At Granite Gorge you can truly experience Australia s Northern Savannah wilderness. Here you can also immerse yourself in the cool waters of Granite Creek, so don't forget to bring your bathing suit and a towel. Visitors to the reserve have the opportunity to hand feed the abundant Mareeba Rock Wallabies here. It is not good for them to consume bread and crackers, so if you want to get close to them bring some rolled oats or you can buy wallaby food for just 1 dollar. Bush Camping is available for tents, caravans and motor homes. In addition there are three bush setting cabins overlooking Mareeba Valley.
The Golden Drop Winery is a family owned and operated mango winery, located just 10 minutes North of Mareeba. The property was originally a viable tobacco farm in the 1970 s, but with the looming demise of the tobacco industry Charles decided to diversify from tobacco and planted his first 3,600 mango trees in 1975. Over the past 25 years his plantation has grown to have in excess of 17,500 trees, making it now one of the largest mango plantation in Australia. The Winery is open to the public 7 days a week from 9:00am to 5:30pm (except for Christmas Day, Anzac Day, Good Friday, Boxing Day and New Years Day). Just drive north from Mareeba for 10 minutes to Biboohra and then turn right off the highway and follow the signs for 2km to the Golden Drop Winery. Address: 227 Bilwon Road, Biboohra, Queensland, 4880, Australia
The locality was settled by John Atherton in 1880. Atherton had settled at Emerald End Station on the Barron River in 1876. He discovered tin and named the locality Tinaroo. His house became an inn and the town, the first on the tableland, grew up around it. Tobacco was first grown in the area in 1928 and did much to bring prosperity to a town which had previously been little more than a stopping point. Today there are over 400 tobacco farms around the town.
Origin of name: a local Aboriginal term meaning 'meeting of the waters' or 'place to meet'.
