Day 28 - Atherton Tableland

Inner Pilot
Jan 6, 2011
4 min read

Updated: Dec 11, 2024

I gave Vegemite a go for breakfast this morning. I had heard about this stuff over the years and even did some research on it before I came. I wasn’t sure if it was as iconic as I was led to believe, but it is. I asked the lady at the café about Vegemite, and she confirmed she was raised on it, her kids are raised on it, and it’s one of those things an Aussie always has in the house.

Vegemite is made from left over brewer’s yeast, it looks like fudge, and it’s very salty. I liked it in moderation, on my toast (which is how they eat it). I was told it makes a nice addition to gravy also.

I made my way through the mountains and onto the Atherton Tableland to the west. I stopped at a small town called Kuranda and realized quickly it was just another small, commercialized town. So I continued on. There was a Butterfly Sanctuary there that might have been interesting though. As I left the rainforest and mountains behind, coffee plantations started becoming a prominent feature of the landscape. Given my propensity for long blacks, you might guess I’d be interested in this. So, when I saw a sign for “Jaques Coffee Plantation”, I said to myself, “I’m in!”

The first thing I noticed as I pulled up was a separate parking area for aircraft. 'Hey, my kind of place', I thought. When I went inside the café, I was presented with a few options, one of which was a movie, tour, and coffee package for $10. “I’ll take it”, I said. I was then escorted into a movie theater that might have seated 20, and alone I watched the history of the Jaques family.

The production was very good and informative. The Jaques basically left their coffee plantation in Tanzania (eastern central Africa) due to the growing political instability and arrived in Australia to search for a new beginning. They found it in Queensland, but due to actions of the Government, they had two massive failures that wiped out their previous coffee plantations. They’re now prospering in the Atherton Tablelands.

Nikki, The Beautiful Young News Caster from Seven

A film crew from Seven (that’s the name of a local TV station) just happened to be there at the time, getting ready to do a story on coffee and also on a new bio-fuel that could be produced from a plant called a “diesel tree”. They wanted footage of patrons enjoying coffee, so a British family was enlisted to play the part. Rob Jaques served them up a few times, and everyone had fun participating or watching.

The British family couldn’t drink all the extra beverages served. So Nikki, the beautiful young news caster from Seven, without batting an eye lash, took possession of some fancy whip cream-topped concoction and started in.

Later Nikki sat right down on the floor to pet a dog. Earlier she had been riding a 4-wheeler (ATV) around the plantation and got mud splashed up on her legs. When I asked her about what she does, I found out she used to be a rugby player (which is rougher than American football and with no real protective gear). This is all coming from a feminine, professionally-dressed, "getting ready to go on camera" young woman. I was getting the picture. She was the real thing, and I was beginning to admire her.

Lamonica, Italian & Fig Connoisseur

My next stop was at a man’s house who advertised selling figs. Well, I’d never even seen a fig that wasn’t dried or part of a fig newton. So in I went. I found the most delightful gentleman. His name is Lamonica, and even though he emigrated from Italy in 1960, he had an accent that would lead me to believe he had just gotten off the boat. He let me try a fig. “You eat the skin too”, he informed me (as I pensively chewed the flesh from the inside of one). He told me figs grow well here but most people don’t know how to care for them. It was obvious he was proud of his ability. He loaded me up, told me not to eat too many before wine (or otherwise I would suffer at the other end), and then wished me a good life. I finished 10 figs at once (no wine).

Aussies love their little meat pies. They sell them at cafés and restaurants and in the case of today, at roadside stands. The lady who sold me one said her meat pie business has been in existence for 100 years and passed down through three generations.

The Atherton Tablelands is an incredible bread basket. It’s full of coffee, banana, mango, sugar cane, and many other types of plantations. It’s a unique climate sandwiched between the rainforest and outback. They have great roads through the mountains here. They’ve built highways right up and over steep terrain. It makes for a lot of hair-pin corners, but they’ve gotten the side slopes right. You feel like a race car driver on them.

There are two World Heritage Areas here: Wet Tropics (a string of rain forests including The Daintree) and The Great Barrier Reef.

The interest rates are incredible here now. For example, if you put $5,000 or more into a CD for 6 months, they’ll pay you 6% APR.

Who knows what a "drive-in" (theater) is? Well, I found one!

There’s an automobile company here called “Holden”. They've been part of GM since 1931 and make a full line of cars and SUVs. They make something called a “ute” (which is like a tiny El Camino). The ute is very popular (I don’t know why).

They say "brekkie" for "breakfast".

"Bloke" is used for "guy".

Another song for ya mate: Mat Kearny - Lifeline