A young Japanese tourist has died at a popular waterfall and swimming spot in Far North Queensland.
Emergency services recovered the 22-year-old man’s body from Millaa Millaa Falls about 5pm on Monday, two hours after they were called to the area, 100 kilometres south-west of Cairns.
Police said the man was with a group of people at the waterfall when he failed to resurface from the water.
A report would be prepared for the coroner, police said.
Millaa Millaa Falls is prominently featured in tourism promotional material and is heavily frequented by visitors during the dry season.
The falls are on a popular circuit of waterfalls in the southern Atherton Tablelands.
Andrew Broadbent, who runs a nearby caravan park, said the area had “been a lot quieter” in recent weeks as the peak tourist season had passed.
Millaa Millaa Falls is widely regarded as one of the safer waterfalls in Far North Queensland, although two men died at the site in July 2024.
“It’s not a high-flow waterfall. It’s just a curtain waterfall straight down into a little pond and it’s quite shallow,” Mr Broadbent said.
“There are hundreds of people who go swimming there.”
Mr Broadbent, who moved to the area about 10 months ago from north Brisbane, said conditions in the past fortnight had been “absolutely beautiful [with] no rain”.
“Prior to that, we’ve had a lot of rain this dry season but, again, it’s not a high-flow waterfall,” he said.
“Even when it pours down with rain, you can still go swimming in it. It’s not a dangerous waterfall to swim in.”