The name Millaa Millaa is said to mean 'waterfalls' in the language of the local Aborigines. There is a story which suggests that it was Christie Palmerston (see Port Douglas for details of his life), who gave the town its name. In 1884 Palmerston, an expert at constructing routes from the Tablelands to the sea, created a track from Innisfail (then known as Geraldton) through Millaa Millaa to the mining settlement at Herberton. Land around Millaa Millaa was first settled by whites in 1910. The following year the Eacham Shire Council was formed. In 1921 the railway, which had been working its way slowly south from Cairns for over thirty years, finally reached Millaa Milea. The town was the terminus for the line until it closed in 1964. During its time as a railhead Millaa Millaa saw a boom in the local timber industry.