Discovery Parks - Lake Tinaroo

Discovery Parks - Lake Tinaroo is a 17-acre lakeside holiday park at 4-28 Tinaroo Falls Dam Road, sitting on the foreshore of Lake Tinaroo in the Atherton Tablelands. It is one of the few parks in Tropical North Queensland with genuinely pet-friendly cabins as well as sites, and the selected dog cabins come with fenced decks so your dog has a secure outdoor space of its own.

Dogs at Discovery Parks

Dogs stay in selected, designated pet-friendly cabins and on designated caravan and camping sites. Generally one dog of any size is allowed and cats are not permitted. The published fee is around AU$10 per stay plus a refundable AU$50 deposit, and management approval is required in advance, so flag your dog when booking rather than at check-in. Inside the park, dogs stay on a leash at all times and nuisance barking is not tolerated.

If your dog tends to wander, ask for one of the cabins with a fenced deck when you book. Sites take vans and tents, and there is free on-site parking for guests.

The vibe

This is a resort-style park rather than a bush camp: a pool, a splash pad, a jumping pillow, communal fire pits, and a convenience store and cafe on site for basics and coffee. The trade-off is that there is no dedicated off-leash area inside the park, so the grounds are for leashed walks only. The lake foreshore paths at the park's edge are the daily walk, and Danbulla State Forest nearby has more scenic walking on state forest land where dogs are permitted, unlike the national parks in the region.

Pepsi: the foreshore path along the lake is an easy leash-on walk every morning, and the fire pits at dusk are where the travelling dogs all end up.

Getting there

The park sits on Tinaroo Falls Dam Road at Tinaroo, roughly 15 to 20 minutes from Atherton by local roads and a bit over an hour from Cairns. Stock up in Atherton or Yungaburra before you arrive; the on-site store covers essentials only.

While you're out there

Genazzano Campground at Barrine is a nearby pet-friendly option on the crater lakes side of the Tablelands if the park is booked out. Lake Tinaroo's foreshore recreation areas around the township and dam wall suit leashed walks and lake swims, and the state forest tracks around Atherton allow dogs where national park boundaries do not.

More options are on the Queensland pet friendly stays guide and the Tinaroo destination page.