Night SkySecrets

An hour inland from Cairns, the Atherton Tablelands property Kanjini opens onto a genuinely dark sky, and the evening here starts with dinner at sunset over the property's lake before the telescopes come out. Ian Maclean, an astronomy presenter with a long background in northern Australian skies, guides the session through nebulae, star clusters and planets with large-aperture telescopes, while Wiradjuri woman Rosanne Reitze — two decades working in Aboriginal communities across Queensland and the Northern Territory — brings in the sky stories and knowledge of the Traditional Owners alongside the Western astronomy. The pairing gives the night two genuine threads rather than one borrowed for effect. Tours run on Saturdays from three days after full moon to three days after new moon, chasing the darkest sky each month, from May through November; private bookings fill the wet-season gap. Running since 2009, it's one of the more considered stargazing nights in Far North Queensland.