Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Trip from Cairns

Great time with Gavin in the Outback!

Had a really great time on this tour. Although, I went by myself and the trip was really informative about the outback and Australia in general. Gavin did a fantastic job, had great energy and was able to share with us his personal stories, connections to the Aboriginal peoples, flora and fauna. He also took the time to play us some modern Australian music, providing a deeper understanding of modern Australia culture. They are all part of my Spotify playlist now! Had a great time and would really recommend to anyone spending some time in Cairns. It is a long day trip, but the sights were the most beautiful- and it did truly feel like something different and exciting to do in the area.

Diverse and Worth It

This was a great day! We made many stops to view and experience the diverse landscapes and culture. Starting the day at a coffee plantation was Beautiful and set the tone for the excitement and beauty ahead of us. Andy, our driver and guide, was fabulous and so in tune with his community. I’d love to take another tour with him. He’s patient and reliable.

Awesome outback experience

We started off with breakfast at Skybury cafe which was great. Then we went to explore a cave followed by lunch. Smelter was next then balancing rock and rock art. Lastly was granite gorge park to feed wallaby. They were so cute! We enjoyed this tour so much with our driver guide Ro. He’s easily one of the best around. He looks after everyone. Thank you.

A long day

It was a long day, we enjoyed the drive through the changeing spectacular landscape. Our driver Mark was a very competent driver, but we would have liked more information. This also applies to the cave tour. The morning tea at the coffee plantation's restaurant was excellent, a short tour of the plantation and opportunity for photos of the coffee bushes, and en route of avocado and mango trees would have rounded it up. However, the drive to the caves is a long distance, and we realise that you can't pack everything into the one day.

Wicked Adventure

Gavin from Billy Tea Safaris was the guide to be with. Excellent commentary, humour and music play list. The caves are fantastic experience and the local topography interesting and diverse. A great tour across the ranges, tablelands into the arid outback.

Great experience!

The tour was very well organized, with lots of activities. The guide (Dave) was very passionate about his job and his explanation were really great. Food was also amazing. Really hurry up booking this tour!

Cave and All

The full package great spots good fellow passages and an excellent driver and commentary. Thanks Gavin.✅✅✅✅✅

Best Day of Caves and Rock Wallaby Feeding

It was an amazing experience that exceeded my expectations. We went to the caves and saw lots of bats, cave formations, and even a toad. We stopped for fresh locally grown coffee, and got to feed wild Rock Wallabys that were very friendly. We also saw Kangaroos, Wallabys, and a Monitor Lizard beside the road, and the guide pulled over every time so we could get a good look. Despite the long bus ride, I 100% recommended it.

Awesome!

Great trip! Mark was a great guide, we got to see the caves, bush outback and some local stops including wallaby's. We really enjoyed it! Note that this is definitely a trip to the bush outback (still grass, trees, etc), and not the flat barren desert outback.

Fascinating and fun

Such an interesting day trip! While yes there's a lot of time spent travelling because of the distances it's absolutely worth it. You get to see a really different side of Australia to most of the trips leaving from Cairns and the caves were spectacular! Roh was a fab guide, super informative and entertaining and feeding so many wallabies at the end was an added bonus. Thank you!

Wonderful Wallabies, Cool Caves, and the Best Tour Guide I've Ever Had

Do you enjoy caves and views of the outback? Do you love learning about nature, agriculture, animals, and a million other things? Do you love kangaroos and wallabies? YOU MUST GO ON THIS TRIP! It is a very very long bus ride, so be warned there, but my goodness it is worth it and our guide Gav was easily the best tour guide I've ever had! He seemed to know a wealth of information about everything and made the most of our long ride by telling us all about our surroundings in a colorful, informative way that never got old. The Chillagoe Caves were beautiful in an earthy, strange way and home to a number of little bats who kept clear of us. Balancing Rock was an interesting site to see. We loved the scones and coffee we had at the coffee plantation we stopped at in the morning (don't normally care for marmalade but the kind they had was delicious!). I would advise bringing snacks if you get hungry quickly like me, as I was feeling a bit faint by the time we got to the old pub for lunch (lunch was quite delicious and they had a vegetarian option, which I appreciated a lot). Perhaps the highlights for me, as an animal lover, were Gav's decision to stop by a regularly kangaroo-infested gold course so we could see the famous Australian icons up close and our feeding of the rock wallabies, who were very friendly! Such a wonderful tour! I'd consider going on it again if I ever return to Australia!

Not you usual tourist experience

Caves very interesting and our guide Rowan engaging and informed. Tour included extra experiences including charming encounter with wallabies

Chillagoe is a must-go!

After a wet, grey start, our first-class Guide, Gavin (aka Steve Irwin with a goatee) took us safely over the water-damaged Kuranda Range and, as predicted, into a day filled with sunshine and blue skies. Great coffee, scones and paw-paw at Skybury Coffe farm, a dozen km west of Mareeba then on to Chillagoe. The Royal Arch was a great experience and made so enjoyable with our knowledgable cave guide and Ranger Dave! Good pub Lunch followed a visit to the old copper smelting site. Stops at old Almaden railway station and the Mareeba golf course to experience a mob of at least 50 Grey Kangaroos. Wonderful timing Gav! After a final 30 minute visit to Granite Gorge to find another dozen Wallabies, we headed home to Cairns. A fantastic day for everyone. Take water, hat, camera, snacks and sun cream. Mobiles work well in towns (Dimbulah, Almaden, Chillagoe, Mareeba) Thanks Gavin for a wonderful day.

Amazing Caves

Chillagoe Caves were amazing. Was a great day. There was a lot of stairs and the 4WD truck we were in was a bit rough - driver doesn't slow down for pot holes or anything. It was a great day

Just do it.

A very full 12 hour day with lots of memories to take home and share with friends. Way better than doing it all yourself.

highly recommend outback tour

I did the Chillagoe Caves and Outback tour and I literally had the best day of my life! The tour was well organized with delicious brekkie and lunch. The tour guide explained everything and was really enthusiastic and could answer every question. I personally loved seeing the outback and desert as well as the caves, feeding and petting wallabies, and seeing real kangaroos! It was definitely worth every dollar. I can highly recommend this tour!

A fun day out of Cairns seeing lots of diverse sites

We had a really fun day with Billy Tea Safaris on the Chillagoe Caves and Outback tour. Our guide (Gavin) was great. We made several interesting stops during the day which really added to the enjoyment. Gavin shared lots of fun information along the way and made sure everyone was comfortable and enjoying themselves. He even went out of his way to make sure we saw a "mob" of kangaroo up close. This tour is a full day out of Cairns and well worth it. Highly recommend it and this company.

Must do experience

Awesome day out to Chillagoe. Gav was extremely knowledgeable and made the experience of traveling out so much more interesting. Caves were awesome and granite Gorge was a great experience with the little rock wallabies. Definitely worth doing and thanks Billy tea safaris for an unforgettable day

Great guided day to the Outback

We booked the Outback trip late in our trip planning and solely based on the great reviews as a fun, and away from the water excursion. Billy Tea did not disappoint. We had a great time, our guide was knowledgeable and funny, the stops were informal and fun, we saw and learned a lot. This is a great way to experience the other side (inside) of NE Australia when visiting the costal towns and reef

Chillacoe Cave and nore

We had a fabulous time! Great opportunity to see kangaroos and wallabys and much more. The cave and balancing rock were fun, coffee plantation great as well. Gavin, our guide is very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about Australia from him!

Friendly, Interesting, & Furry wildlife

Gav is very friendly & makes the tour extra great. Gav is considerate, outgoing, takes his time, & is very knowledgeable. The female cave guide also was awesome. Mahalo!

Relaxed and informative day trip

Very well organized. Guide Rowan was top notch and very knowledgeable. The caves were beautiful and lived feeding the rock wallabies. Liked that it was a small group. Only negative part was felt the slogan “outback” was misleading

Great trip highly recommended

Excellent trip it was well organised and informative . The guide was great . The cave experience was amazing. Great morning tea and lunch . A long day but was well worth it. Great value for money. Would have like to spend more time in the cave as it seemed a bit rushed.

Rock wallabies were awesome!

Really great day! Our tour guide Gav was excellent making sure we got to see as much as possible and had lots of knowledge on the local area. Meeting the rock wallabies was the highlight! They jumped into our laps and were super friendly -really cool experience! Got to hold a snake, skink and parrot too!

Great outback adventure

We had a excellent day with Gavin, he is passionate, very knowledgeable and great storyteller. We were not disappointed, seen lots of wildlife, great lunch, met some locals and informative cave tour.

Amazing experience! Highly recommend!!

I had an amazing time on the Chillagoe Caves and Outback Day Trip tour!! This was my favorite tour of my trip! Gavin was an amazing tour guide and offered so much information on the local environment, animals and aboriginal people! His passion for the area was very obvious!! The coffee stop was amazing, the caves were so cool and my absolute favorite part was getting to feed the wild wallabies! We also got super lucky and saw a dingo. Definitely worth the trip(:

Great day in the outback with Billy Tea Safaris and guide Gus

Gus was the most informative guide. He was knowledgeable about everything we saw, flora, fauna and buildings. He identified animal footprints. Explained about aboriginal culture and traditions ,told stories of their beliefs. He had great anecdotes throughout the day. Would do this tour again, truck was comfortable.

Great tour!

Our guide Graeme was great- informative & made the trip even more enjoyable! Enjoyed the caves & the tour!

Had a blast!

Loved the history of Chillagoe, the views and the caves. Pub lunch was also amazing! Transfers were easy and communication from driver was awesome!

Great full day out

We were booked on the Rainforest tour but it was cancelled due to the recent storms. We were offered this Outback Tour which was a pleasant surprise. Our guide Rowan l, was excellent and the tour was very interesting. Seeing the gradual change in countryside from the tropics to the inland areas was great. The old mining town, caves, Balancing Tock and Granite Gorge were excellent.

If you're even hesitating booking this tour - just do it and ask for Rohan!

Rohan at Billy Tea Safaris is the best! We had him as our guide today on the Chillagoe Caves & Outback Tour. I love his enthusiasm for Australian nature, his seemingly endless knowledge about geology and history, and his energetic approach to his tour guiding craft. He was timely, patient, professional, funny, and very easygoing. He even translated all of the metric units in the day (e.g. kilometers, celsius, etc.) to imperial units (e.g. miles, Fahrenheit, etc.) to make it easier for our coincidentally all-American bus. Not even just measurement units - when we asked what is the difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo, he made a very clever comparison for us Americans which was that the family of kangaroos is similar to the family of deer that we are so familiar with in the US. For example, a red kangaroo is like a moose, Eastern grey kangaroo is like an elk, etc. He made every moment of the day exciting for us - whether that was stopping on the side of the road when we cheerily witnessed our first wallaby sightings, showing us the nests green ants made in trees, or telling us funny stories about what previous passengers have left on the bus (you would not believe some of the things folks have forgotten!). To top it all off, Rohan even had a fun creative game for us to play with prizes during the 1.5 hour car ride back into town from the Outback, and it was definitely a unique one that I had never played before that I thoroughly enjoyed. All in all, a wonderful day spent that was not part of our original itinerary (we pivoted our plans due to the flooding in Cairns) but honestly could have not asked for a better vacation day or a better tour guide. Thank you for the wonderful experience, Rohan! Highly recommend! P.S. My favorite part of the tour was hand-feeding the wallabies some (safe and natural) pellets and seeing the little joeys pop out of their mommy's pouches. :)

Great day

We had a great day. We especially enjoyed visiting the wallaby sanctuary and interacting with those amazing creatures. The Caves were amazing.

Chillagoe - crikey!

Amazing day. Gavin was our tour guide and was fantastic. So much knowledge, energy, personality. It is a long day and we had up to 42 degrees. Many highlights but for us was the python holding at Granite gorge, the wallabies and the caves. Absolute 11 out if 10. Highly recommend.

Daytrip

Caves were wonderful and balancing rock. Seeing and feeding the rock wallabies was lovely. The drive is long but you see a different side of cairns.

A Day in the Outback

Had a wonderful trip with Gavin & Angus. A lovely group of people on the bus too. Enjoyed all of the stops and sights.... Chillagoe caves (thankyou to Doug for his knowledge of the Royal cave), coffee and scones, pub lunch, balancing rock, aboriginal rock art, Chillagoe smelter and of course feeding the rock wallabies and enjoying the birds and reptiles at Granite Gorge. A full day that flew by. If you have the opportunity, highly recommend this tour.

Great trip

Marc was a great guide. The coffee stop was awesome and the cave was a highlight. Ending with the granite gorge was quite nice. Thanks for a great trip.

Gift of the 'Gav' our tour guide

Our tour guide 'Gav' was extremely approachable, entertaining, engaging, informative and knowledgeable. The day was well planned and pitched at the abilities of the individual also taking into consideration the ages and welfare of all. We managed to see lots of things that we wouldn't have managed ourselves in a few days let alone one. The trip brought home some of the hardship of days gone by and how much toil was involved in creating some sort of infrastructure to access raw minerals, we had an insight into indigenous lives and cultures, natural wonders and iconic wildlife. Vehicle comfortable complete with some good ol' Aussie 'toons' from John Williamson to ACDC! Plenty of stops including a lovely brekkie stop at the coffee plantation and typical pub lunch. Would definitely recommend it to others and hopefully will experience one of the other trips when we manage to visit the land down under in the future

Absolutely loved every minutes of the day tour, amazing experience, best tour guide

I loved everything about the Chillagoe Caves and outback day trip. Driver arrived at my location promptly, great group of people to travel with. Our tour guide Gavin was very informative, friendly, ensured we were always safe and made the whole day very interesting and fun. I loved the friendly service we received everywhere we went. It was a great day and highly recommended.

Amazing experience and taste of the Outback

We did this tour with Gavin and it was a blast. He is a great guide and driver and kept us informed of what to expect the whole time. Each stop was unique and we never felt rushed. He made it a point to interact with all guests and gave local tips on things to do in the area which was very helpful. The stop at skybury was really enjoyable start to the fun filled day

Great adventure into the outback!

This was an amazing tour! Our God, Mark, was very knowledgeable, personable, and entertaining. The guy that the caves was equally as good. Mobile I signed up for the caves, but the highlight of the tour for me was wallaby rock, where you can hand feed, the quite docile wallabies. They literally eat out of your hand, and I even had one very small one who tried to climb in my lap. There are a lot of hours spent in the bus, but that’s to be expected when you go so far out into the outback. It was definitely worth doing a tour, as these were places I don’t think we would’ve found on our own and driven to. I highly recommend this tour!

Geology, history and wildlife all in one tour!

The Billy Tea tour to Chillagoe Caves was for me a highlight of our Australia trip. The small group size gave us opportunity to ask questions and move at a better pace by not being hurried or held back which often happens with larger groups. Loved the tour of the Caves which are amazing! Really enjoyed our morning "tea" at the Skybury coffee plantation. The scones with clotted cream were wonderful. Witty and informative our guide, Gavin, made a long day totally enjoyable!

Awesome day out

Small group tour Our Guide, was very informative, friendly. The tour stops & , destinations were all excellent.

Beautiful caves

This was an excellent day and the caves were spectacular. Good amount of time in cave with guide. Other stops good too with commentary in between. Loved getting up close with the rock wallabies. Comfy ride so could snooze or read between stops.

Amazing tour and guide!

Amazing! Amazing! Amazing! Our guide Gavin truly made this one of the best experiences. He was just the best!! We learned so much and got to see so many cool parts of the Outback. Feeding the wallabies was a highlight!

Sunny Coast Visitors

Tour schedule; vehicle comfort; knowledge and commentary of Driver Gavin; good meals. Coffee plantation; caves including local guide; old copper mine; balancing rock; rock wallabies. General pace of tour was good especially for distance covered.

Great guide and food!

Gavin was amazing! He was super friendly and knowledgeable about everywhere we went! The places we stopped for food were delicious!

Loved Balancing Rock

The guide, Rohen, arrived early to pick me up and was personable and friendly and made the trip a great experience. The cave portion of the trip felt a little short, but nonetheless, the caves we saw were pretty. The rest of the scenery on the trip was amazing. There is a bit of hiking involved, and some members of the group opted to sit out the hike to Balancing Rock. Definitely not a trip for people with any walking difficulties.

Worth the effort!

This was an excellent trip and well worth the effort to see some of the outback. On the way out we stopped for coffee and a snack. The caves were great to see as was the smelters. Lunch was lovely in the little town pub too. Rowan the guide was lovely and friendly and went out of his way to make sure we were all happy and saw what we wanted to. The little rock wallabies on the way back were adorable.

Long Van Ride

Great tour guide. It was interesting to see everything, but we spent so much time in the van. I wish someone had told me that before we had booked. Otherwise it was a cool experience.

A true aussie experience

We learned so much from our guide (Mark) about the aussie outback and from the Park ranger in the caves. There were a few places that could be considered more challenging to access for those with physical limitations (e.g. low ceilings in the caves) but nothing to seriously worry about for most people. Everyone in our tour was able to participate and I'm far from being an example of agility. We got to feed rock wallabies, which honestly has been the highlight of my day. Overall great tour. Do bring a hat & sunscreen as there is not much vegetation to shield you from the sun out there.