Amongst the many coffee plantations and the various fruit orchards of the Atherton Tableland, are also home to some of Queensland’s best waterfalls. Here’s a look at 10 waterfalls we recently visited in Far North Queensland (FNQ).
Background; After Karumba up on the Gulf, we headed across the final stretch of the 3700km Savannah Way to the east coast above Cairns to spend a couple of days in the picturesque (& rather precipitous) Atherton Tablelands. We based ourselves in the township of Malanda, camping in a well-run council owned campground adjacent to the Malanda Falls and set about seeing most of the regions better known and accessible waterfalls.
In addition to the Atherton Tableland falls, we have also included two other waterfalls from as far north as Cooktown and south to Wallaman falls 51kms south-west of Ingham. We have listed these waterfalls (not in any particular order i might add) on this map to visualise where these falls roughly are, and for those who may wish to use this information for their own planning purposes.
In terms of the photography technique(s) used; all 10 images are long exposures (anywhere from 0.3second to 4.0seconds) using a weighted tripod and Neutral Grad filters to “stop down”ambient light to achieve slow shutter speeds required to create the cotton-water effect of water falling. NO images have been processed in Photoshop …only rudimentary white balance, colour and contrast adjustments performed in Lightroom.
We hope you like at least one or two of them, and if you are or have been a fan of the TV show ‘Survivor’, you may even recognise one of the falls in our list? Better still, which is everyone’s favourite image – please let us know by placing a quick comment in the comment section below this post.
I have to say my favourite is number 1, the Bloomfield Falls of course, and not just because I am in the shot! After leaving Cape Tribulation and heading up the 4WD track towards Cooktown, it was an unexpected bonus after a beautiful, STEEP, and windy track through the Daintree. We were still watching out for crocs, but it was hard to be vigilant when there was such an awesome volume of water thundering down into the beautiful wide green river below.
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Wow such splendour thank you very much for sharing your wonderful experiences with us. Love them all. So please to hear the boys made a good recovery. You have all done so well health wise. We’ve had an amazing Autumn. So looking forward to catching up when you are back in town. Lots of love X
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Hi Debbie, The boys are now back to full health, thankfully. No fun being that sick in a caravan. Glad you like Bloomfield – my fav as well – i think it is the light and of course, Celia’s pose! Will be back in late June so see you and the family then. GH
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So jealous every time I read a post! I also love #1. Stunning!
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Thanks Kim – Bloomfield is a stunning place and to think the falls when we were there were running less than 50% of average volume – imagine them in the wet season. We were also lucky with good natural light between rain showers and were forewarned of crocs, thankfully saw none. GH
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We have been to a few of those falls, but having viewed the photography they look better in many ways, Millaa Millaa looks so inviting, it looks like a nice place for a swim, but I like Josephine the way you have photographed it, it takes your eye right to the top and it still seems mysterious, wild and inviting you to explore it, …’whats around the next corner?’….thank you for such great visual art…!!
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Oops wasn’t paying attention, i posted my comment to kdudin’s reply box 🙂 Anyway, i was just saying we have been to a couple of the falls you visited, but you photography looks better than what I remember, I love the Millaa Millaa falls, would love to take a swim there, my fav would be Josephine Falls as it is quite wild, draws you eye to the top and i want to know ‘whats around the corner’ , Geoff thank you for your really enjoyable visual art!! :)) Mossmann Gorge is around that area, maybe get a few shots of that , it is a beautiful walk through the forest and over a couple of foot suspension bridges, run by the local indigenous community…Its a bit north from Port Douglas..
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Hi Son, no worries – easy done. Josephine falls is a wild one however the shot doesn’t portray it’s danger. It was raining when we were there and as I was taking a few shots a few backpackers from Sweden turned up for a swim – they took one look at the water below the falls and said their was no way they were even setting foot in the water. Mossman Gorge we also went to but decided the best shots were off the main walking tracks. We decided we did not want to break protocol there just to get a decent shot. Millaa Millaa is a beauty of a waterfall and was easy to shoot for the desired effect compared to some of the others. Anyway, most glad to hear you enjoy the photography as we all enjoy bringing to to everyone. See you soon. Geoff & Sis
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Gidday guys, just doing a major catchup on your posts so this is probably a bit out of context, I love the Bloomfield falls, it was pretty dry when we went past so nice to see what it could look like, though we did see a huge croc in the river closer to the lions den pub to make up for the low water level:)
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The Bloomfield falls was a special place. It would be a spectacular site during the height of the wet and was still immensely impressive when we were there. I remember us driving past the Lions Den heading up to Cooktown – looked like an interesting place, and upon reflection of writing our most recent post, now wish we spent a few more days up this that whole Cooktown-Laura region. Perhaps now another time?
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[…] over the eastern escarpment of the Atherton Tablelands near Kuranda. The very popular Barron Falls cascades 265 m to the gorge below. There are two (2) waterfalls—Stoney Creek […]
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Nice work Geoff. Great job on getting the big lap under your belt with two young boys. Well done.
And lots of superb images.
I wonder if you made it to Nandroya Falls on your way down to Townsville. If not, so you know for next time, the name of the campground there is Henrietta Creek (the grey hairs are growning inward nowadays).
All the best, Garry
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