The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...

 in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is located west to south-south-west inland from Cairns

Cairns, Queensland

Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...

, well into the tropics, but its elevated position provides a climate suitable for dairy farming

Dairy farming

Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...

. It has an area of around 32,000 km² with an altitude ranging between 500 and 1280 m (1,640.4 and 4,199.5 ft). The fertility of the soils in the region can be attributed to the volcanic origins of the land.

The principal river flowing across the plateau is the Barron River, which was dammed to form an irrigation reservoir named Lake Tinaroo

Lake Tinaroo

Lake Tinaroo, also known as Tinaroo Dam, is a man-made reservoir on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. It was constructed between 1953 and 1958 on the Barron River close to Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham .- History :...

, also Tinaroo Hydro

Tinaroo Hydro Power Station

The Tinaroo Hydro Power Station in Tinaroo, Queensland is an electricity power station located at the spillway of Lake Tinaroo. It has been designed to take advantage of water being released for irrigation, and water released when the dam is full....

, a small 1.6MW Hydroelectric power station is located near the spillway.
This area is a distinct physiographic

Physical geography

Physical geography is one of the two major subfields of geography. Physical geography is that branch of natural science which deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, biosphere and geosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built environment, the...

 section of the larger North Queensland Highlands province, which in turn is part of the larger East Australian Cordillera physiographic division.