Gallo Dairyland: Atherton Tableland cheese & chocolate factory

Atherton Tableland cheese and chocolate-maker Gallo Dairyland is worth the trip from Cairns, both for the farm and the café tastings.

Gallo Dairyland is a key part of the local produce trail through the Atherton Tableland near Cairns, Queensland. This working dairy has become a visitor attraction, partly due to its café, and partly due to its on-site animal farm.

If travelling with children, it’s likely to be the animal farm that has the initial appeal. Kids can get up close to calves, pigs, turkeys, chickens and geese. It’s also possible to watch the cows being milked in the afternoon.

Gallo Dairyland cheese and chocolate

But petting the animals isn’t really what Gallo Dairyland is about. This Atherton Tableland dairy farm is famous for making its own cheese and chocolate.

Gallo Dairyland currently makes 16 different types of cheese in its on-site cheese factory. These are sold across far north Queensland, including in several top Cairns restaurants. But the best place to taste them is in the Atherton Tableland café, where the cheeses are lined up hugely temptingly in glass cabinets.

Cheese choices at Gallo Dairyland near Atherton, Queensland. Photo by David Whitley/ Australia Travel Questions.

Cheese platters at the Gallo Dairyland café

Cheese platters with one to three different cheeses cost $25. However, you may as well be greedy and go for the large platter, which serves up four to six cheeses for $35.

Gallo Dairyland makes its own chocolates, too. These can also be tasted at the café. The chocs are handmade with Swiss couverture chocolate.

Gallo Dairyland opening hours

The Gallo Dairyland café is open five days a week, from Wednesday to Sunday. For more details, see the company website.

This far north Queensland dairy farm is to the south-west of Atherton, on the Atherton-Malanda Road. Reasonably nearby attractions include the platypus-spotting bridge in Yungaburra, Lake Eacham and Malanda Falls.