Curtain Fig Tree, Yungaburra: Why It Hangs Like That

Most big trees make you crane your neck. The Curtain Fig makes you stop walking. It sits a kilometre off the Gillies Highway on the edge of Yungaburra, and the thing that stops people is not the height, it is the shape: a sheet of aerial roots fifteen metres deep, hanging off a trunk that leans at an angle it was never meant to lean at. There is a reason for that angle, and it is the whole story of the tree.

Why this one hangs like a curtain

Every strangler fig starts the same way. A bird drops a seed into the fork of a canopy tree, the seedling takes root up there rather than in the soil, and it sends roots down the host’s trunk towards the ground. Those roots thicken, weave together and eventually kill the tree that gave them a start. What is normally left behind is a hollow column, a fig standing in the shape of the tree it replaced.

This one went differently, and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service is unusually direct about it. In their words, the roots “strangled the host causing it to fall into a neighbouring tree, a stage unique to the development of this fig”. So instead of standing up straight while it died, the host toppled sideways and jammed against its neighbour. The fig kept doing what figs do, dropping roots from wherever it now sat, and because the trunk was lying at an angle those roots came down as a broad sheet rather than a tight column. Both host trees have long since rotted away. What is standing there now is entirely fig.

That is the bit worth knowing before you go, because once you see it you cannot unsee it. The curtain is not decoration. It is a record of an accident that happened a few hundred years ago.

What you are actually looking at

It is a green fig, Ficus virens. Queensland Parks and Wildlife publishes the numbers, which is more than most big-tree attractions manage: nearly 50 metres tall, a trunk circumference of 39 metres, estimated at over 500 years old, with the aerial roots dropping 15 metres to the forest floor.

Worth knowing: green figs are deciduous. They drop their leaves in the cooler months, so the canopy you get in July is not the canopy you get in February. They also fruit red, and the fruiting is what pulls the birds in.

One more detail that sounds invented and is not. Each species of fig is pollinated by its own species of fig wasp, and only that one. The female wasp doing the work here is about three millimetres long. A 50-metre tree, half a millennium old, entirely dependent on an insect the size of a pinhead.

The boardwalk, and the accessibility question

The walk is a 180 metre circuit on an elevated boardwalk, graded 2, and Parks says to allow ten minutes. It is gently sloping with no stairs, it loops the whole tree, and it is the only part of the national park the public can access. The boardwalk exists to keep feet off the root system, which is the reason for the one rule that matters here: stay on it.

Now the part other guides get wrong. You will see Curtain Fig listed as wheelchair accessible in a lot of places, including by tourism bodies. Queensland Parks and Wildlife does not make that claim. Their own visitor safety page says there are no stairs on the boardwalk, “but it does not meet the Australian Standard for disability access”. Their printed journey guide is softer and marks it as wheelchair accessible with assistance. We publish the land manager’s wording, because it is the more conservative of the two and because being stranded at a trailhead is a worse outcome than being pleasantly surprised.

Add to that the thing nobody mentions: there are no toilets at Curtain Fig. None. The nearest public toilets are back in Yungaburra. If that changes the plan for anyone in your car, plan around it. We cover this and a lot more in our wheelchair access guide to Cairns.

Go back after dark

The park is open 24 hours, and this is the single best piece of advice in this article. Parks describes the resident nocturnal mammals, insects and reptiles as making for “a rewarding spotlighting trip”, and their journey guide tells you what to look for: Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroos, green possums, and birds of all types.

The near-threatened mammals recorded in this park are a genuinely good list: Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo, the diadem leaf-nosed bat, and three ringtail possums, the Herbert River, the green and the lemuroid. Nobody can promise you a tree-kangaroo. But standing on a boardwalk under a 500 year old fig at nine at night with a torch is a different experience from the daytime one, and most day-trippers never do it.

Bring your own torch. No source mentions any lighting at the site and we would not count on any.

Mabi forest, the rarest thing on the site

The viewing areas look out over mabi forest, and the forest is arguably rarer than the tree. Less than four per cent of it remains and it is listed as an endangered plant community. Over 130 bird species live in mabi forest generally, and 41 have been documented at Curtain Fig specifically.

The name comes from Country. The Ngadjon-Jii are the Traditional Owners of this area, and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife management statement for the park records that Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo is known as “mabi” or “mapi” by the Ngadjon-Jii. The forest type carries that name. We are not going to tell you what the tree means to the Ngadjon-Jii, because no official source publishes that and it is not ours to tell.

For the record on how it became a park: gazetted as a timber reserve in 1913, state forest in 1915, part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area when that was proclaimed in 1988, and national park in 2005. About 200 hectares, though the two Queensland Government figures on record differ slightly, 195 hectares in the management statement and 209 in the state’s wetlands mapping.

Curtain Fig or Cathedral Fig

These two get mixed up constantly, including by people selling tours. They are different trees in different parks, and size is not what separates them. Parks gives both of them the same rough numbers, nearly 50 metres tall and around 500 years old.

What actually separates them is shape and access. Curtain Fig is the one with the sheet of roots hanging off a leaning trunk, a kilometre off the sealed Gillies Highway, on a 180 metre boardwalk circuit. Cathedral Fig is in Danbulla National Park near Lake Tinaroo, it stands in the columnar cathedral form that strangler figs normally take, and Parks puts it at 70 kilometres and an hour and a half from Cairns down Danbulla Road, which is mostly unsealed. Its walk is 300 metres return and Parks states plainly there are no wheelchair-accessible facilities there.

If you have time for one, and especially if the car is a hire car with an unsealed-road clause in the contract, make it Curtain Fig. If you have a full day on the Tablelands, do both, but check the road conditions for Danbulla first.

Getting there, and what to bring

From Cairns it is about 66 kilometres and just over an hour via the Gillies Highway, which is the winding one up the range through Gordonvale. Turn onto Curtain Fig Tree Road just outside Yungaburra and go one kilometre to the car park. Parks also lists the Kennedy Highway as an alternative from Cairns, the Palmerston Highway if you are coming up from Innisfail, and the Mossman to Mt Molloy road from Port Douglas.

Bring a torch if you are going after dark, and water, because there is nothing at the site. Wear something on your feet you do not mind getting damp; this is the Tablelands and the boardwalk can be wet.

Two rules from Parks worth repeating. Domestic animals are not permitted in the park, so the dog stays home. And there are stinging trees in this rainforest, around four metres tall with large heart-shaped leaves and serrated edges. Parks says not to touch them and to seek medical attention if a sting is significant. Staying on the boardwalk handles both problems at once.

On drones: Parks publishes no Curtain Fig specific rule, but statewide the CASA rules apply, a Queensland Government permit is required for commercial or promotional filming and for aircraft over two kilograms, and some parks carry local restrictions on their signage. Read the signs on the day rather than taking anyone’s word for it, including ours.

While you are up there, Yungaburra itself is worth the extra twenty minutes, and the rest of the plateau is covered in our guide to the Atherton Tablelands.

The verdict

It is a ten minute walk for a tree, and it is still one of the best short stops in Far North Queensland. Ten minutes of your day, no fee, no booking, open whenever you turn up. The only way to get it wrong is to treat it as a photo stop, take the shot from the first viewing platform and leave. Walk the full circuit, because the tree reads completely differently from the back.

And if you are staying anywhere on the Tablelands, go back at night.

FAQs

How far is the Curtain Fig Tree from Cairns?
Queensland Parks and Wildlife puts it at about 66km and just over an hour’s drive via the Gillies Highway. Turn onto Curtain Fig Tree Road just outside Yungaburra and go one kilometre to the car park.

Is there an entry fee?
No fee is charged or advertised, and Parks lists no permit requirement for day visitors. The park is open 24 hours a day.

How long does the walk take?
It is a 180 metre boardwalk circuit and Parks says to allow ten minutes. It is graded 2, gently sloping, with no stairs.

Is the Curtain Fig Tree wheelchair accessible?
Not officially. The boardwalk has no stairs, but Queensland Parks and Wildlife states it does not meet the Australian Standard for disability access, while their journey guide describes it as wheelchair accessible with assistance. There are also no toilets at the site. Plan on the basis of the safety page rather than the tourism listings.

How old is the Curtain Fig Tree?
Parks estimates it at over 500 years old, nearly 50 metres tall, with a trunk circumference of 39 metres. You will see a much lower figure on some pages; the land manager’s number is the one to trust.

Can you see tree-kangaroos there?
Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo is one of the near-threatened mammals recorded in the park, and Parks names them as something to look for on a night spotlighting visit along with green possums. There is no guarantee, and you will need your own torch.

Are dogs allowed?
No. Parks states that domestic animals are not permitted in Curtain Fig National Park.

Header photo: ours, Curtain Fig Tree, Yungaburra, November 2020. Park facts verified at Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service on 15 September 2026, with no park alerts current on that date. Check the QPWS park alert on the morning you go, not the week before.