Fields of flavour
Abundant in produce and beauty, the Atherton Tablelands leaves a well-travelled gastronome wanting more.
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Standing high on a slope in the Atherton Tablelands, I’m captivated by the view.
From a neatly tended garden at a local farm, I’m gazing down upon a series of ridges. Softened by greenery and the misty early morning air, they resemble a green tablecloth flung over the landscape, with curves and folds fading into the distance.
I wish — as I often do on my travels — that my wife Narrelle could be there to share the moment. I see a lot of wonderful things as a freelance travel writer, travelling from place to place on assignment, but I don’t often get to do so in the company of those I love.
And this is a part of the world worth sharing.
To the west of Cairns rise mountain ranges and atop these lies the Atherton Tablelands, a spread of agricultural land dotted with attractive towns. With cooler temperatures than on the Pacific coast, the region’s farms yield a variety of produce. Once, tobacco was king, but in its place now are fields of bananas, avocados, strawberries, mangoes, citrus fruits and nuts, along with other specialist crops such as coffee and cocoa beans.
It’s a magical place, green and pleasant and a seeming cornucopia of good food; and I don’t even have to drive to enjoy it. I’m exploring the region via Brett’s Outback Tasting Adventures, a food tour which runs regularly from Cairns or Port Douglas into the Tablelands. Over the course of a day, our guide and driver Brett is piloting us to a series of food stops at great local producers.
Just getting here was a highlight. As we travelled from Cairns up the twisting Gillies Highway through dense rainforest, Brett delivered a running commentary on sugar cane, floods, crocodiles and other elements that distinguish this part of Queensland.
The first stop of the tour — where I’m admiring the wonderful view — is the perfect starter for a day of foodie pleasure. We’re at Sunset Ridge Farm, an idyllic property set on sloping land outside the tiny town of Yungaburra.
Here, our group sits within a gazebo for a breakfast of local pork chipolata sausages and corn fritters with Davidson plum relish, and a cup of yoghurt served with Davidson plum pulp, chia seed and finger limes.
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‘It’s an eye-opener to taste so many fruits I know so little about, when Indigenous Australians have been eating them for millennia’
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The Davidson plum — also known by local traditional owners as the ooray plum — is a native fruit with a deep purple flesh. It’s visually entrancing and is the first hint that this tour will involve Australian native ingredients as well as more familiar produce, adding a fascinating note of discovery.
That note is heightened at our second stop, Rainforest Bounty, outside nearby Malanda.
Co-owner Geraldine McGuire, a descendant of John Atherton, for whom the region is named, has applied her expertise as an environmental scientist to the production of native fruits. Starting with one corner of an established property, she planted a range of native trees bearing delights such as lemon aspen, Cape York lilly pillies and Boonjie tamarind.
READ MORE: Cairns, a land of plenty
We can see the results in front of us, as we sit at a long timber table on an open-sided porch with a leafy view. A spread of cheeses is matched with lilly pilly chutney, Davidson plum sauce, and green mango and tamarind chutney.
I’m particularly impressed with the Jeowbong, a Laotian-style chilli paste that is blended with Davidson plum and lilly pilly berries. It’s an eye-opener to taste so many fruits I know so little about, when Indigenous Australians have been eating them for millennia.
While diversity in food and drink is the hallmark of the day, there are different attractions to be found at the Australian Platypus Park at Tarzali Lakes, via a walking track that takes us to a waterway where the distinctive creature can be sighted. That’s one of the things I enjoy most about the Tablelands — the way it blends the beauty of nature with quality local produce, creating a mesmerising mix of pleasures.
Our platypus spotting is followed by a visit to Gallo Dairyland, a working dairy farm which produces high-quality cheeses and chocolates. We sample several types of each, and I decide I’m most partial to the Rainforest cheese, a variety blended with chives and onion.
Next stop is further north at The Humpy at Tolga. Once a small roadside stall, it’s grown over the decades into a popular shop selling all sorts of local produce, specialising in nuts.
I love the visual punch packed by the ultra-colourful mangoes, finger limes, soursops, dragonfruits, rambutans and other fruit arranged along the shelves. A highlight of our tastings is the sweet chilli and lime peanuts, which I could snack on all day.
By now, it’s late enough for an alcoholic beverage at Mt Uncle Distillery at Walkamin, beneath the mountain of the same name. I’m starting to see that there’s more to the Tablelands than fruit, though the distillery’s products do use local ingredients in their making. At a long timber bar, we’re taken through a tasting of vodka, gin, whisky and rum.
They’re all interesting: the vodka filtered through volcanic rock, the gins blended with Australian native botanicals, and the rum sharp and sweet. But the drink that hits the spot is a Bloody Mary laced with the Bushfire Smoked Gin.
The final course? Coffee, something I’m surprised to learn is produced in the Tablelands. It turns out that, as migrants from East Africa, the family that owns Jaques Coffee Plantation in Mareeba brought their coffee expertise with them.
As we sit in the plantation’s cafe to sample coffee and coffee-based liqueurs, we reflect on all the excellent food and drink we’ve enjoyed.
I still wish that Narrelle could be with me to share the moment. However, I’ll leave with a new knowledge and appreciation of native ingredients — and a sense that Australia is finally waking up to, and appreciating, its own unique elements. With the Covid-19 pandemic having temporarily closed off the wider world to travel, that seems the perfect lesson to learn right now.
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