Out on the Atherton Tablelands near Mareeba, Emerald Creek Ice Creamery has built a small country institution around premium house-made ice creams and sorbets. It is more than a scoop shop, though: the same roadside stop doubles as a café turning out light lunches, a gift shop, and a counter of house fudge and biltong for the drive home. Most of the week it keeps easy daytime hours, but on the second Saturday of every month the doors stay open until ten — a standing date for locals in a part of Far North Queensland where a genuine dessert destination is worth the trip out. It is the kind of unhurried Tablelands stop that rewards pulling off the highway and lingering a while.