Mareeba: The Heart of Australian Coffee Country

If you asked most Australians where their coffee comes from, the answer would likely involve Ethiopia, Colombia, or Brazil — the countries that dominate global coffee production. What far fewer people realise is that some of the finest coffee in the world is grown right here in Australia, in a small tropical town in the mountains of Far North Queensland called Mareeba.

That's where the Jaques Family has called home for generations. This is our story — and the story of a region that produces something genuinely special.

Where Is Mareeba?

Mareeba sits on the Atherton Tablelands, a fertile highland plateau about 60 kilometres inland from Cairns in Far North Queensland. The town itself is at around 400 metres above sea level, with the surrounding agricultural land rising higher across the Tablelands.

It's an unlikely setting for a coffee-growing region — most people think of tropical lowlands when they picture coffee farms. But altitude is one of coffee's best friends. Higher elevations mean cooler nights, slower cherry development, and more complex sugars in the bean — all of which contribute to better flavour in the cup.

Why Mareeba Produces Exceptional Coffee

The Atherton Tablelands have a combination of growing conditions that are genuinely rare in Australia and unusual even on a global scale:

• Altitude: 400–900 metres above sea level, providing the cooler temperatures that allow coffee cherries to develop slowly and develop more complex flavour compounds.
• Rainfall: The region receives a reliable wet season from November to April, followed by a dry season that helps concentrate sugars in the ripening cherry — similar to the seasonal patterns in premium coffee regions in Central America.
• Soil: The Tablelands sit on ancient volcanic basalt. This soil drains well, retains moisture at depth, and gives the coffee a mineral complexity that's specific to this place.
• Climate: Warm, humid days and cooler nights through the growing season — the diurnal temperature range that specialty coffee producers around the world prize for its effect on acid development and sweetness in the bean.

Australia's Coffee Industry: Small but Exceptional

Australia produces a tiny fraction of the world's coffee — estimates put total annual production at somewhere between 500 and 800 tonnes of green bean, compared to Brazil's output of over 3 million tonnes. The entire Australian industry could fit inside a rounding error on a Brazilian export report.

That scale has shaped the industry in important ways. Australian coffee growers can't compete on volume or price with mass-market producers. What the industry has leaned into instead is quality, traceability, and the story of place. Every Australian coffee farm is, by global standards, a specialty producer — because the economics of the industry don't support anything less.

The main growing regions are the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland and the Byron Bay hinterland in northern New South Wales. A small amount of coffee is also grown in Western Australia. Each region produces a noticeably different cup — the Tablelands tends toward smoothness and body, while the NSW origins often show more brightness and fruit.

The Jaques Family in Mareeba

We've been part of the Mareeba community for a long time. Coffee growing here isn't a trend we've joined — it's what our family has done across generations on this land. We grow, harvest, process, and roast everything here in Far North Queensland, which means we control the full journey from the tree to the bag that arrives at your door.

That matters more than it might sound. Most coffee sold in Australia — even premium specialty coffee — is roasted from imported green beans. There's nothing wrong with that, and there are excellent roasters doing exceptional work with imported origins. But it is a different thing to what we do. Our coffee hasn't crossed an ocean. It hasn't sat in a shipping container. It was picked, processed, and roasted here, and it reaches you as fresh as it's possible to be.

Visiting Mareeba

If you're ever in Far North Queensland, Mareeba is worth the detour from Cairns. The drive up from the coast through the rainforest ranges is one of the most beautiful in Australia, and the Tablelands themselves — with their red soil farms, crater lakes, and cooler highland air — feel like a different world from the tropical coast below.

The region has a genuine agricultural character that's increasingly rare in Australia. It's a working farming community, not a tourism construct — and the coffee, mangoes, avocados, and tropical fruit grown here supply markets across the country.

Taste Where It Comes From

Understanding where your coffee comes from changes how you drink it. It's no longer just a morning habit — it's a connection to a specific place, a specific family, and a specific set of decisions made by real people about how to grow something properly.

That's what single-origin, farm-to-cup coffee means to us. Explore our Queensland-grown range: Medium Roast Whole Beans, Espresso Roast Whole Beans, and our full range of ground and whole bean options.