Millaa Millaa is a dairy town on the southern Atherton Tablelands, about seven hundred metres above the Coral Sea, and it has the look of a place that grows grass for a living. Paddocks roll away in all directions, a deep, volcanic red where the soil shows, and Friesian cows stand in them with the placid air of animals who know how good they have it. The cloud often sits low on the ridges here, and mornings can be damp and cool, a surprise after the heat of Cairns.
The town is best known for its waterfalls. Millaa Millaa Falls, a short drive from the centre, drops in a neat, wide curtain into a round pool, and you may recognise it because it has appeared in a famous shampoo advert. It is also the best known stop on the so-called Waterfall Circuit, which links Zillie and Ellinjaa falls along a loop of country lanes, each with its own pool and viewing path. Swimming is allowed at some of them, in water that is cold, clear and slightly tea-coloured, though you should check conditions after heavy rain.
The ride is a sequence of gentle country roads, with the occasional steep descent into a creek valley and a climb out through rainforest and cane. The Palmerston Highway to the coast is a sharper road, with sweeping bends through the Wet Tropics rainforest, and it is a good reason to extend the day. The surface is mostly good, though the wet season, from about December to March, brings downpours, washouts and slippery patches. In the dry months the air is clear and the ranges look blue.
The Tablelands have a long history as farmland, but they were cleared first for timber, and then for dairy and maize. Ravenshoe, the highest town in Queensland, is nearby and has a different, cooler feel. Some of the country was originally cloaked in rainforest, and patches remain, thick with vines, strangler figs and birdlife. Look out for cassowaries in the rainforest edges, large, flightless and not to be messed with, and for the occasional tree kangaroo in the canopy, though those are almost impossible to see.
Millaa Millaa is small, but it has a fuel station and a couple of cafes serving good coffee and cake. Atherton, about thirty kilometres away, is the larger town with workshops and supermarkets, and Ravenshoe is another option to the west. A visit works best on a weekday morning, before the tour buses arrive.