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Lake Eacham is a beautiful crater lake on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, Australia. It’s one of the crater lakes making up Crater Lakes National Park, in the very interesting landscape of The Tablelands. We visited in October 2025 to check out the area and take some photos. You can easily visit Lake Eacham by road from Cairns (the nearest airport) or holiday hotspot, Port Douglas.
If you’re planning to visit Port Douglas, or Cairns, we have guides to Things To Do in Port Douglas and Things To Do in Cairns on our website. We are based near Port Douglas, and this is our home turf.
For more information on Crater Lakes National Park, go to the qld.gov site. The day use area (car parks, changing rooms, and access) are soon to be improved. Lake Eacham is part of the UNESCO-listed Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area.
Lake Eacham
You can see Lake Eacham’s location on the map here. Lake Eacham is close to Lake Barrine and Yungaburra. Yungaburra is a really nice town, so check out accommodation in Yungaburra; you may prefer to base yourself there while you explore the Crater Lakes of the Tablelands.
Things To Do at Lake Eacham
You can swim at Lake Eacham. There is easy access for swimmers with steps and a jetty. The water is clear and full of fish. I’ve been told that there are freshwater crocodiles here, although I’ve never seen one. Are there saltwater crocodiles? Hopefully not! Freshies aren’t massively dangerous to people.
Is the water cold? Yes. This is the Tablelands, we can even get a frost in winter.
There is a circular walking circuit around Lake Eacham. You’ll see some interesting birds and wildlife in the tropical vegetation. Watch out for snakes!
If you have a canoe, kayak or SUP, I believe you can use them on Lake Eacham. It is my understanding that motorised boats and jet skis aren’t allowed. Check this at the .gov site I linked to above.
What’s Near Lake Eacham
Yungaburra is the closest town, and Atherton is also not far away. You could visit Herberton or Ravenshoe from here, and Cairns is the closest coastal spot, from which you can access the Great Barrier Reef and Islands.
If you’re looking for a restaurant or place to eat near Lake Eacham, Lake Barrine Tearooms is a good place to go. You’re also quite close to the Gallo Dairy; they have a restaurant, plus amazing chocolate and a small farm animal petting zoo for the kids.
Shaylee Strawberry Farm is also close to Lake Eacham. I believe they do some food now, but we haven’t visited in years. We will soon, yesterday we drove past on the way home from Lake Eacham, munching on our chocolates.
We stopped at the Gallo Dairy just yesterday and spent $40 on yummy chocolates.
How To Visit Lake Eacham From Cairns?
The easiest way is to self-drive, but if you don’t have a car, there are tours to Lake Eacham. Take a look at this tour, it includes other lakes and waterfalls on The Atherton Tablelands.
Lake Eacham is much closer to Cairns than Port Douglas, I can’t find any tours from Port Douglas to the Crater Lakes and there’s no public transport.
Lake Eacham Accommodation
Chambers Rainforest Lodge is near Lake Eacham and it’s a very well-known and popular place to stay. We have stayed here ourselves, but not very recently. The accommodation was quite basic, but that’s fairly typical of this area. The location and facilities were great. You can book Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodge here.
We very much enjoyed our stay at Chambers Rainforest Lodge, and the wildlife watching opportunities on our doorstep. The kids loved seeing the sugar gliders at night on a rainforest safari, we had a fairly spacious family room with self-catering facilities and a nice balcony that we shared with the bush turkey birds.
Crater Lakes Rainforest Cottages is another accommodation option near Lake Eacham. We have not tested this one for you,
