• It’s obvious the knowledgeable Chillagoe Caves tour guides love their jobs. They are all passionate locals who thrive on showing visitors this part of the world and you will find their commentary a valuable part of your day.
• The incredible Limestone Caves. They are truly spectacular and if you’re struggling with the heat of the outback in summer, keep in mind it’s considerably cooler in the caves, which makes for a comfortable exploration. 
• The visit to Balancing Rock and to see the Aboriginal Rock Art is a big highlight on this Chillagoe Tour
• Skybury Coffee Plantation is the largest coffee plantation in Far North Queensland.  Try the range of award-winning blends of coffees and shop in the gift shop during your visit.  

A fantastic outback day tour from Cairns to the famous Chillagoe Caves and smelters. The one and only Chillagoe Caves day tour from Cairns. If you wish to see and experience the real treasures of the genuine Queensland outback then you need to join one of our day tour bush safaris to Chillagoe Caves

What to Expect

Experience the rugged beauty and rich history of the Queensland outback on a full-day tour from Cairns to the Chillagoe Caves and Smelters. This outback Cairns tour offers a genuine Australian adventure, allowing you to explore the breathtaking landscapes and fascinating geological formations that make this region unique. As the only four-wheel drive tour of its kind departing from Cairns, it provides an exclusive opportunity to discover the hidden treasures of Chillagoe.

Small passenger numbers (maximum 16 - 20 passengers) assure space and comfort and a personalised day tour with a difference. 

The Chillagoe Caves and Outback tour operates Monday, Wednesday & Friday each week and the itinerary may be closed or changed due to the Green Season February-March of each year.

Features and Highlights

• Chillagoe Caves Exploration: Delve into the ancient Chillagoe Caves, a labyrinth of over 600 limestone caves formed millions of years ago. The guided tour of the Royal Arch Cave reveals its awe-inspiring chambers, each with unique geological features like stalagmites, stalactites, and the remarkable Cathedral Cave.
• Historic Chillagoe Smelters: Discover the industrial history of the Chillagoe Smelters, where copper, silver, lead, and gold were once extracted. Learn about the boom-and-bust story of this outback town as you explore the remnants of the smelters, which stand as a testament to the region’s mining heritage.
• Scenic Outback Journey: The Cairns four-wheel drive tour takes you on a scenic drive through the diverse landscapes of the Kuranda Range, Mareeba, and the Atherton Tablelands. Along the way, you’ll traverse private dirt roads, gaining exclusive access to areas rich in wildlife and agricultural beauty, with opportunities to spot kangaroos, wallabies, and various bird species.
• Cultural and Natural Insights: Visit significant Aboriginal rock art sites and marvel at the Balancing Rock, a natural geological formation that defies gravity. Your guide will provide insights into the cultural and natural history of the area, enriching your understanding of this unique part of Queensland.
• Lunch at an Iconic Outback Pub: Enjoy a delicious meal at the Post Office Hotel in Chillagoe, a quintessential Australian pub with hearty fare and a welcoming atmosphere. This stop also offers a chance to pick up souvenirs and explore the town.
• Granite Gorge Wildlife Encounter: End your day with a visit to Granite Gorge, where you can interact with and hand-feed wallabies, offering a close-up experience with Australia’s native wildlife before returning to Cairns.

Cairns to Chillagoe Four Wheel Drive Tours

Your journey begins with a pick-up from your Cairns accommodation, followed by a scenic drive over the Kuranda Range. As you ascend, the lush World Heritage Rainforest transitions into the drier Eucalypt Forest, offering stunning views of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. Along the way, you'll travel through the diverse landscapes of Mareeba and the Atherton Tablelands, where your adventure truly begins.

This Cairns tour is not just a drive through the countryside; it’s an immersive experience. As you journey along private dirt roads, your knowledgeable guide will introduce you to the region’s wildlife, pointing out kangaroos, wallabies, and an array of birdlife that call this area home. The four-wheel drive tour includes a stop for morning tea at the Skybury Coffee Plantation, where you can relax and enjoy the surroundings.

As you approach Chillagoe, the landscape changes dramatically, revealing towering limestone karsts and historic ghost towns, remnants of the area’s rich mining history. Upon arrival, you’ll explore the Chillagoe Caves, a network of over 600 limestone caves formed over 400 million years. The highlight is the Royal Arch Cave, a vast system with several chambers featuring stunning stalagmites, stalactites, and unique rock formations. This guided tour through the caves offers a fascinating glimpse into the area’s geological past, as well as its cultural significance to the Aboriginal people.

After exploring the caves, the tour continues to the historic Chillagoe Smelters, where you’ll learn about the town’s booming mining era in the early 1900s. The smelters, now managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife, are a powerful reminder of the region’s industrial heritage. Your guide will share stories of the smelters’ operation and the men who worked there, bringing this chapter of Australian history to life.

Lunch is served at the Post Office Hotel, a classic Australian tavern in the heart of Chillagoe. After a hearty meal, you’ll have time to explore the town, visit the souvenir shop, and soak in the laid-back atmosphere of this charming outback community.

The afternoon is filled with more exploration, including a visit to Aboriginal rock art sites and the famous Balancing Rock, a natural wonder that has to be seen to be believed. The final stop is Granite Gorge, where you can hand-feed wallabies and interact with other native Australian animals before heading back to Cairns.

This Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Tour offers an authentic and unforgettable experience of Queensland’s outback. From exploring ancient caves to learning about the region’s mining history, and from spotting wildlife to enjoying the charm of an outback town, this tour provides a comprehensive look at the natural beauty and cultural heritage of Tropical Far North Queensland.

See more outback 4WD tours from Cairns

Learn more on our Blog.

Chillagoe Caves Tour - Kuranda - McAllister Range

Our Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Tour begins when a friendly naturalist guide picks passengers up from their Cairns accommodation. 

The Outback day tour begins its journey, winding its way over the Kuranda Range heading west through Mareeba embarking on a remarkable journey back to prehistoric times.

The Kuranda Range is a scenic stretch of highway that is enveloped by World Heritage Rainforest. The road winds along the side of rocky waterfalls and the buttress roots of giant trees, home to a million humming cicadas and exotic forest birds.

Forest clearings offer spectacular views of the tropical city of Cairns that lies below, and out to the sparkling waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Dividing Range is waiting at the summit of the Kuranda Range, and the tropical rainforest quickly merges into a drier Eucalypt forest, home to an abundance of kangaroos and wallabies. 

After following the Kuranda Range a short while, we turn off the main highway and the real four wheel drive adventure begins. 

Our guides have both access and knowledge of private dirt roads that run behind agricultural properties, and the tour begins twisting and turning through cattle, mango, paw paw, lychee, longan, banana, coffee and orchid farms.

The scenery is diverse and ever-changing, the wildlife prolific.  The tour guides have a special knack of spotting some of the most elusive wildlife in the Eucalypt forest – kangaroos, wallabies, lizards and cows are sure to be seen. 

The landscape is framed by tall mountain ranges in the distance, and depending on the season the land may be dry and arid, or during the green season rich and vibrant. 

These contradictions make Cairns and Far Northern Tropical Queensland an intriguing and beguiling area of natural beauty to visit.

First Stop...Morning Tea at Skybury Coffee Plantation. From here we travel through the back blocks of this wetland area viewing wallabies, emus and other wildlife and then along the irrigated agricultural paddocks of this fertile area, eventually crossing over the Great Divide and into the Western watershed.

Travel through historical ghost towns and rolling hills rich in minerals eventually giving way to towering limestone karsts scattered around Chillagoe.

Chillagoe Caves - Outback Queensland Australia

There are over 600 limestone caves in the Chillagoe region, intriguing labyrinths that twist and turn underneath the dry tropical woodland forests. 

It's here where we explore the Royal Arch Cave, a vast cave system that features several massive chambers, each with distinct and intriguing features. 

There are several stairs leading in and out of the cave system, therefore a moderate level of fitness is required.

The Royal Arch Cave is surrounded by woodlands that feature pockets of vine thicket clinging to limestone outcrops.  This woodland forest is home to a variety of native Australian animals including birds, wallabies and kangaroos. 

The caves are naturally air-conditioned and maintain a constant temperature of 22 degrees Celsius, cool relief from Chillagoe’s dry heat. 

The first chamber of the Royal Arch is enormous, a monumental testament to the millions of years it took Mother Nature to create.

Our privileged tour group is led by a Queensland Park and Wildlife Ranger through narrow cave walkways until the second chamber is discovered – a glorious open chamber with remarkable limestone formations. 

This is the ‘Picnic Chamber’, a popular picnic spot largely due to the constant temperate milieu for the miners and their families in the early 1900’s.  The tour continues through the limestone labyrinths, home to bats and pythons, a remarkable tour through a rich geological past.

The final chamber in the Royal Arch Cave system is the Cathedral Cave, an enormous space which features pulpit rock formations, inspiring both the name and a sense of awe and inspiration. 

Chillagoe Caves have taken 400 million years to form, a timeline which is ever apparent in the Cathedral Cave.  This unique system of caves boast the typical features of stalagmites and stalactites, along with some more distinctive features, such as a giant strangler fig growing from the base of one chamber through a crack in the cave roof.

The cave tour lasts approximately an hour, and is a wonderful journey of discovery and exploration, one which showcases some areas of immense ecological and geological significance.

After leaving the township of Chillagoe behind, our outback day tour begins winding its way back down to the tropical city of Cairns. 

There is one more short comfort stop before heading back towards the city of Cairns.

Our Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Tour is a full day adventure tour of the Australian outback, allowing travellers a unique insight into the Australian Outback landscape, history and culture. 

Full of immense natural beauty and an abundance of wildlife, the Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Tour will create memories to treasure forever.

Chillagoe Smelter

The drive to Chillagoe is marked with a distinct landscape of granite and limestone – a remarkable geological feature in an area that was formed by volcanic activity.  As the town of Chillagoe appears on the horizon your tour guide begins to tell of the interesting and unique history. 

The town of Chillagoe is small and charming, boasting quaint country cottages, rolling agricultural paddocks and two prominent taverns located on the main streets.

The tour guide expertly guides the four wheel drive through the town, and just outside city limits lies the Chillagoe Smelter.  The Chillagoe Smelter played a significant role during the mining boom, and operated from 1901 to 1943.  In its heyday, the Chillagoe Smelters employed over 1,000 men, who were responsible for extracting copper, silver, lead, mica and some gold.

 During this time the township of Chillagoe was a thriving metropolis, until the ultimate collapse of Chillagoe Smelters in 1943.

Today, chimneys still stand tall on the landscape, a testament to smeltering at the turn of the century.  The size, scale and evidence of smelting processes, which are now very rare, are preserved in the remains at the Chillagoe Smelters. 

The Chillagoe Smelters are historically significant, and are being managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife. After exploring the smelters it’s all aboard the 4WD once again, the next destination is the Post Office Hotel in Chillagoe for lunch.

Lunch Time in Chillagoe

The Post Office Hotel is an iconic Australian tavern with some of the most delicious counter meals in all of Queensland! There is also a souvenir shop where you can purchase some souvenirs.

Aboriginal Rock Art & Balancing Rock

Next stop, view some amazing Aboriginal Rock Art and Balancing rock. This stop is for 1 hour approximately.

Granite Gorge

Granite Gorge is where you have a chance to hand feed wallabies and hold other indigenous animals before heading back to Cairns.

We have no doubt you will enjoy your day out in the Australian Outback. We also have a fantastic Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation day tour, please click here to view or you can book one of our Combo Package tours and save up to $70.00 per person here 

Departs From

Cairns

Departure Time

• Cairns 6.50am to 6.30pm (11.5 hours)
• Palm Cove / Northern Beaches 6.45am to 6.15pm (11.5 hours)
• Port Douglas 5.50am to 7.00pm (13 hours)

Pickup Locations

Cairns

Destinations

• Atherton Tablelands
• Cairns
• Chillagoe Caves & Outback
• Atherton Tablelands

Months of Operation

January - December

Days of Operation

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Excluding Christmas Day and New Year's Day

Duration

12 hours (approx)
11.5 to 13 hours depending on your pickup location

Available for Purchase / Hire

Return Transfers from Port Douglas or Thala Beach, payable on board to the driver

Fitness Level Required

Low, Medium

Additional Information

• Carbon Tax and fuel levies may apply.
• Fitness And Medical Conditions: reasonable level of fitness is needed as there are stairs and narrow sections of cave. Small children will have to be carried in the caves no strollers allowed. Not suitable for wheelchairs, walkers, closed in shoes must be worn in the caves.

Eco Certifications

• Comfortable walking shoes
• Refillable water bottle
• Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen
• Cash / card for any additional purchases

• 4 years to 16 years of age is at the child rate.
• Age of children must be specified at time of reservation so baby & booster seats can be supplied for 7 years or under. This is Queensland Transport Ruling.
• We do not recommend long drives out to Chillagoe Caves with young children as it is a very big day however we can certainly cater for them with car seats for children up to 7 years of age.