Atherton is a town on the Atherton Tablelands within the Tablelands Region, Far North Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Atherton had a population of 7,068.
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 Priors Pocket or Priors Creek.
Atherton has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Atherton has a humid subtropical climate that differs from the surrounding tropical savannah climate due to the town's elevation high on the Atherton Plateau. Temperature extremes have ranged from 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) to -0.6 °C (30.9 °F). The average annual rainfall is 1,379.8 mm (54.3 in)