The Daintree Rainforest (strictly a tropical seasonal
forest), is a region located on the north east coast of Queensland, Australia,
north of Mossman and Cairns. At around 1,200 square
kilometres (460 sq mi), the Daintree is the largest continuous
area of tropical
rainforest on the Australian continent.
Along the coastline north of the Daintree River,
tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea.
In 2009
as part of the Q150 celebrations,
the Daintree Rainforest was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of
Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".
Description
The
rainforest is named after Richard Daintree, an
Australian geologist and photographer (1832-1878).
The
area includes the Daintree National Park, some areas of State Forest, and some
privately owned land, including a residential community of upwards of 5 people.
Some of the privately owned land north of the Peninsula Range is being
progressively purchased for conservationpurposes
under a $15 million government scheme involving equal contributions from the
municipal (Cairns
Regional Council, which includes the former Douglas Shire council), State (Queensland) and Australian
Federal governments. As of May 2011, 72% of the properties earmarked for
buyback or compensation had been secured. These 'buyback' areas of tropical
rainforest included 215 blocks of land purchased by the Queensland Parks and
Wildlife Service, and 13 purchased by private conservation agencies.
The
Daintree Rainforest contains 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in
Australia, and 90% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 7%
of bird species in
the country can be found in this area. There are also over 12,000 species of
insects in the rainforest. All of this diversityis contained
within an area that takes up 0.1% of the landmass of
Australia. Part of the forest is protected by the Daintree National
Park and drained by the Daintree River. The
roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, and have been
designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem.
Daintree Rainforest
The
tropical rainforest ecosystem of the Daintree Rainforest is one of the most
complex on Earth. Its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivalled
on the Australian continent and represents the origins of its more familiar
‘Australian’ flora.
Millions
of years ago, the Australian continent was warm and humid and rainfall was
plentiful. During this time rainforest thrived in places such as the Ayers Rock
region. As Australia became more arid, there were fewer and fewer places
rainforests were able to survive. In the Daintree region, however the climate
and topography were ideal, so the area became a last remaining refuge for
rainforest. Within this refuge many species were able to live comfortably
without reason to change. Their descendants that are still living today
retained many of their ancestors' primitive characteristics, some dating back
110 million years.
One
species in particular, Idiospermum australiense, commonly known
as the idiot fruit, is one of the rarest and most primitive of the flowering
plants. Its discovery in 1970 was arguably Australia’s most significant
botanical find, greatly increasing scientists awareness of just how ancient
these forests really are.
From a
total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth, 12 families are
represented in the Daintree region making the highest concentration of these
plants worldwide. These ancient plant families may well hold the secret to a
number of unanswered questions regarding the origins of the flowering plants –
plants on which the human race depends for food and medicines.
Exploring
There
is outstanding coastal scenery that combines tropical rainforest, white sandy
beaches and fringing reefs just offshore. This is an extremely rare
combination.
To the
west of Cape Tribulation stands Mt Pieter Botte with its massive granite
outcrops. The summit providing expansive vistas of undisturbed forest and to
the south the skyline is dominated by the giant granite boulders of Thornton
Peak – one of Queensland’s highest mountains.
Much of
the Daintree Rainforest is part of the Wet Tropics of
Queensland World
Heritage Site, being listed by UNESCO in 2015 in
recognition of its universal natural values highlighted by the rainforest.
Amongst
the attributes provided as evidence for the World Heritage value of the Wet
Tropics, which include the Daintree Rainforest, the Australian
Government lists the following:
They preserve major stages of the earth's
evolutionary history -
- ancient plants representing some of the earliest land plants, the Psilotopsida (whisk ferns) and the Lycopsida (club mosses or tassel ferns);
- 7 ancient families of true ferns, including the Marattiaceae (giant or king ferns), Osmundaceae (royal ferns), Schizaeaceae (comb ferns) and Gleicheniaceae (coral ferns);
- fern genera of East Gondwanan origins, including Polystichum (shield ferns), Leptopteris, Todea, Tmesipteris (fork ferns), Lycopodiella and Huperzia (club mosses and tassel ferns);
- the ancient, fern-like cycad Bowenia spectabilis (zamia fern) and other cycads including Cycas, and the giant Lepidozamia hopei (zamia palm);
- ancient conifers such as Podocarpus (plum pine or brown pine), Prumnopitys (brown pine or southern yew), Araucaria (hoop and bunya pines), and Agathis (kauri) which are living counterparts of Jurassic-age fossils (i.e., age of the dinosaurs);
- 12 primitive angiosperm (flowering plant) families, including small, primitive, relict angiosperm families such as Austrobaileyaceae, Idiospermaceae, Eupomatiaceae and Himantandraceae;
- relict angiosperm plant families that are known as fossils from the Cretaceous (last age of the dinosaurs) including Cunoniaceae, Proteaceae (banksia and macadamia family), Winteraceae, Myrtaceae (eucalypt and lilly pilly), Monimiaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, Aquifoliaceae (holly family), Chloranthaceae, Trimeniaceae, Epacridaceae(heath family), Olacaceae and families of angiosperms to represent the longest continuous history associated with the Gondwanan landmass.
They preserve unique, rare or superlative natural
phenomena, formations or features of exceptional natural beauty –
- exceptional coastal scenery unusual in the world (and Australia) where tropical rainforest extends to white sandy beaches with fringing coral reefs just offshore;
- rugged mountain peaks and gorges with swiftly flowing rivers and spectacular waterfalls (e.g., Thornton Peak, Mossman Gorge, Roaring Meg Falls);
- extensive vistas of undisturbed forest and valleys.
The
Daintree rainforest contains important and significant habitats for conservation of
biological diversity. Approximately 430 species of birds live among the trees.
The primitive flowering plants Austrobaileya scandens and Idiospermum australiense are
also endemic to
the Daintree.
The
Daintree Region is home to a number of rare and endangered species, including
the southern
cassowary (Casuarius casuarius)
and Bennett's
tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus
bennettianus).
Daintree Important Bird Area
The
Daintree Important
Bird Area (IBA) is a 2656 km2 tract
of land that largely coincides with the northernmost part of the Wet Tropics of
Queensland World
Heritage Site. It encompasses, or overlaps, the Black
Mountain, Cedar Bay, Daintree, Mount
Windsor and Mowbray National
Parks.[
It has
been identified as an IBA by BirdLife
International because it supports a population of southern cassowaries.
It also contains populations of the locally endemic tooth-billed and golden bowerbirds, lovely fairywrens, Macleay's, bridled, yellow-spotted and white-streaked
honeyeaters, fernwrens, Atherton scrubwrens, mountain thornbills, chowchillas, Bower's
shrike-thrushes, pied
monarchs, Victoria's
riflebirds and pale-yellow robins.