Nighttime Atherton Tablelands Rainforest Tour: Spot Australia's Unique Wildlife

Embark on a thrilling nighttime rainforest tour in the Atherton Tablelands and discover Australia’s unique wildlife. Spot tree kangaroos, platypus, and more in their natural habitat.

Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Lake Barrine - After a scenic drive from Cairns along the winding Gillies Range Road, the journey leads to Lake Barrine. This stunning volcanic crater lake is encircled by lush rainforest. The first stop is for afternoon tea, and there’s no better place to enjoy it than at Lake Barrine. Following this, a leisurely walk through the surrounding…
What's Included
  • Local guide
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Afternoon tea
  • All equipment (binoculars, spotlighting gear, rain ponchos, reference materials)
  • Dinner
  • In-vehicle air conditioning
  • National Park fee
What's Not Included
  • Drinks, unless specified
Additional Information

Embark on a captivating tour through the Atherton Tablelands and be amazed by Australia’s distinctive creatures and birds in their natural habitat. Guided by a knowledgeable nature enthusiast, this small group tour will take you through vibrant tropical rainforests and a volcanic crater lake at nightfall. Encounter tree kangaroos, lizards and musky rat…

Location
Lake Barrine
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.8
(403 Ratings)
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Basudevbasu
Oct 2, 2025
Unique rainforest experience - One of the best nature and wildlife experiences we ever had, and we have been to the African bush, the rainforests of Borneo and the dry forests of India before. What made this tour unique was Paul's immense knowledge of the local flora and fauna and his keen eye. We saw many interesting plants and trees, varied wildlife including platypuses, possums, a couple of tree kangaroos, a rat kangaroo and heard some wonderful bird calls/songs. The dinner was one of the best we had in Australia. Highly recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aaronw58
Sep 21, 2025
Bucket list tour! - This tour was everything I hoped it would be. The rainforest was beautiful. Our guide, Paul, did an excellent job of finding so much interesting wildlife and vegetation. We saw three platypuses in the river swimming around looking for food. Saw the rare tree kangaroo. We also so many other reptiles, wallabies, birds, etc. There is a trail he took us through so don’t worry that you are just wandering through the dense rainforest. We had a delicious dinner at a pub in Yungaburra. The food was included and you could purchase your own beer if you wanted. The walk at night was amazing seeing a gigantic strangler tree, bats, and other things. The night sky was an emotional moment for me. Seeing all the stars and the Milky Way without light pollution was absolutely incredible. I’ve never seen the sky like that before except in pictures or TV programs. I would recommend taking a little motion sickness medicine for the curvy road up to the rainforest if you ever have any sort of motion sickness issues. I usually never do at all but it even made my stomach a little weird.
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49trishab
Sep 14, 2025
Amazing night walk in the rainforest - We had a wonderful afternoon / evening exploring the tablelands. Paul was a really knowledgable and entertaining guide who obviously loves the area. He was incredibly patient and made sure everyone in the group was included. He went out of his way to make sure we saw plenty of wildlife and had a memorable time.
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Celinaf646
Sep 11, 2025
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! - Absolutely amazing!! We had such a good time with Paul!! We saw not 1 not 2, but 5 platypuses!!! We saw many reptiles, beautiful birds and the world’s most dangerous plant! So interesting! It’s definitely worth it if you are ever in cairns or near by!
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Kathy
Sep 10, 2025
Highly recommend when you visiting Carins. - If you are in Cairn, and you love nature and wild animals, this is a must do tour. I had three tours when I was there, this is the most unique experience which I enjoyed the most. That to be said, you need to have good mobility, not afraid of dark because it will require some level of walking in the darkness. However, darkness is also part of the fun because the best time to see nautical animals is after sunset. Our guide, Paul is passionate about animals and he has wide range of knowledge about various animals and plants. We saw green ants, wallaby, ring tail opossum, bush tail opossum, platypus, forest dragon, fruit bat, bird, pademelon etc. It's amazing that Paul knows where and when to find each of them. I think we saw abut 7 of platypus, which usually is hard to spot in the wild. I have learned so much from Paul. This is a rainforest "safari". I would highly recommend it to anyone. Oh did I mention a delicious dinner is included?
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Cam_b
Sep 9, 2025
Paul is an amazing tour... - Paul is an amazing tour guide. Very knowledgable and insanely good at spotting animals in any lighting. He provided binoculars, which was a huge enhancement to the whole experience. We got really lucky to see a tree kangaroo and a platypus, among many other animals.
Review provided by Viator
Tour33365061716
Sep 7, 2025
Very unique rainforest experience!! - This is a must-do if you are in Cairns!! It is incredibly unique to other rainforest tours, as exploring in the nighttime exposes you to various nocturnal animals for an overall special opportunity to see rare Australian wildlife in the wild. Paul is a very knowledgeable tour guide, passionate about nature, that is determined to make sure each and every tour participant has the chance to see the animals. Some of the various animals included multiple platypus, bats, wallabies, possums, lizards and more, and Paul teaches everyone how to properly use binoculars for the optimal view. So grateful to learn so much about the area!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Daniel_d
Sep 1, 2025
Wonderful Evening with Unexpected Sightings - Paul was extremely knowledgeable and made sure that we stuck to our schedule, while also ensuring that we got a glimpse of all the critters. Dinner was also a nice touch!
Review provided by Viator
Jyothi_v
Sep 17, 2025
Visit to the rainforest was quite a thrilling experience! - It was a well organized tour and quite an experience! Paul's knowledge and passion shone through the whole tour and he made sure we were able to see the creatures that were out there. The dinner (vegetarian) was decent too. We spotted some wild creatures (Possum, Flying Foxes, Forest Dragon, Platypus, Gecko, Wallabies, Bush Turkey). We couldn't see the Rat Kangaroo, Tree Kangaroo, flight of the bats. It was raining for some part of the tour. Feedback that I would like to give is: 1. We spent too much time looking at Platypuses as after spotting 2 it wasn't exciting to spot 4 in total. That time could have been used elsewhere (perhaps flight of bats?) 2. Paul was quite funny but could be more patient in answering questions and not make us feel stupid while asking questions. 3. In the description of the tour rain ponchos were mentioned but he had umbrellas instead. It was raining for some part of the tour and I didn't have a waterproof jacket so ended up getting really wet.
Review provided by Viator
Loganck
Sep 16, 2025
Double check pick up time - My friends & I weren't able to do this trip because we missed the pick up window, so I'm kicking myself because it looks incredible. I'm leaving this review as a heads up. I did not reach out to confirm my time because the email says Coral Tree Inn start time 1:30pm. My selected pick up location was the Coral Tree Inn so I thought it was clear my start time was 1:30pm. I thought you reached out if you were starting elsewhere. Paul reached out the morning of via email with the pick up time of 1:15pm, but unfortunately I have limited access to wifi since I'm traveling abroad & never saw it. We arrived to Coral Tree Inn at 1:22pm & had been informed by the receptionist that the bus had given us one minute & left so we missed our tour. I called Paul trying to see if we can grab an Uber & meet them since we were only a few minutes behind them, but he made it clear that wasn't an option. I would've appreciated some leniency since we were nearly 1/3 of the small group tour & only 7 minutes late, but also get not wanting to impact the tour of the individuals who showed up on time. Paul did reach out that evening to offer to move our tour to the following day which is very kind & appreciated but we are flying out. So we are out $620AU
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From $145
up to 11 guests
1 - Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).