Atherton is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Atherton had a population of 7,331 people. Geography Atherton is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. Atherton is joined by the Gillies Highway to Yungaburra, the Kennedy Highway north to Mareeba and south to Ravenshoe and Mount Garnet, the Malanda Road to Malanda and the Herberton Road to Herberton. History Yidinji (also known as Yidinj, Yidiny, and Idindji) is an Australian Aboriginal language. Its traditional language region is within the local government areas of Cairns Region and Tablelands Region, in such localities as Cairns, Gordonvale, and the Mulgrave River, and the southern part of the Atherton Tableland including Atherton and Kairi. The town was named after John Atherton, a pioneer pastoralist who settled at Mareeba (then known as Emerald End) in 1875. The area was formerly known as Priors Pocket or Priors Creek. It was named Atherton by Falconer West Hutton, the surveyor who prepared the town layout on 11 May 1885. Atherton Provisional School opened on 2 March 1891 and closed in 1905. In 1906 it reopened as Atherton State School. The school celebrated its centenary in 1984. Atherton Pioneer Cemetery opened in 1897 and closed in 1927 when the Rockley Road Cemetery was opened. Atherton Post Office opened by 1903 (a receiving office had been open since 1889). Cairns Road State School opened on 18 July 1921 and closed in 1963. St Joseph's School opened on 29 January 1923. The Atherton War Memorial commemorates local residents who died in World War I. It was dedicated on 1 May 1924 by the Tinaroo Shire chairman, Frederick Grau. It is the only war memorial in Queensland of a digger in an animated pose, It was originally located in the middle of the street adjacent to where the ANZ bank is now located, but was later moved to the park outside the old Atherton RSL sometime after the 1950s. The Atherton Courthouse was used as a wartime hospital for officers during World War II and has air raid bunkers beneath the building. The Atherton Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns was established in 1949. William John Bock was an early pioneer in Atherton. He made an audio recording discussing the early town, prior to his death on 19 February 1953 (aged 95). Atherton State High School opened on 27 January 1959.