Rainforest Craters, Granite Ranges and the Forests Around Tinaroo

Overview

Danbulla National Park sits on the Atherton Tableland, around 60km from Cairns, between the Tinaroo and Lamb ranges beside Lake Tinaroo. The park forms part of a broader forested landscape that includes eucalypt and acacia forest, plantations and patches of Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforest, all within an upland area about 800m above sea level. Parts of the high country rise beyond 1,200m, which helps explain the cooler feel of the place and the mix of dry forest and moist upland rainforest found across a relatively compact area.

Highlights

What gives Danbulla its character is the contrast between open tableland forest and pockets of ancient upland rainforest, with Lake Tinaroo bringing a broad sheet of water into the middle of it all. The mountains north of the dam are built from Tinaroo granites dated to about 260 to 270 million years old, giving the area its solid, rounded backbone.

One of the standout natural features is Lake Euramoo, a volcanic maar set within the tableland. It is a small feature on the map but geologically it is one of the most distinctive parts of Danbulla, adding a very different shape to a landscape otherwise defined by forest, ridges and granite country.

Best Time to Visit

Danbulla can be rewarding at any time of year, but the cooler months are often the most comfortable for walking and taking in the lookouts and forested parts of the park. Its elevation brings lower humidity and milder temperatures than the coast, which makes the tableland feel noticeably different from Cairns even though it is not far away.

From August to December, the wetlands and lake edges are especially interesting for birdlife, with migratory waders regularly seen around Lake Tinaroo.

Plants and Animals

Danbulla supports an unusually varied mix of vegetation, from eucalypt and acacia forest to wet sclerophyll and high-altitude rainforest. Some of these upland rainforest communities are refugial and contain plant lineages linked to some of the earliest flowering plants. Families of particular significance here include annonaceae, apocynaceae, euphorbaceae, myrtaceae and proteaceae.

The park is also important for threatened wildlife. Mammals recorded from the area include the northern bettong, spotted-tailed quoll, yellow-bellied glider and several upland possums such as the Herbert River ringtail, green ringtail and lemuroid ringtail. Frogs are a key part of the upper catchments in this part of the Wet Tropics, and Danbulla also has rich birdlife, with more than 200 species recorded across the lake, marshes, tributaries and surrounding forest.