The Daintree
Home to an amazing diversity of plant life and animals, today the Daintree plays host to thousands of tourists that visit every year.
The Daintree National Park comprises two large sections, Cape Tribulation and Mossman Gorge, as well and some smaller sections in between.
When people refer to ‘the Daintree’, though, they are generally talking about the area between the Daintree and Bloomfield rivers.
Cape Tribulation is roughly halfway between the two rivers, and this was the location for the majority of the action during the Daintree blockade. Take a ride on the Daintree River ferry and enter another world.
History
The Daintree has been home to the eastern Kuku-Yalanji for thousands of years. Captain Cook struck coral off the coast in 1770 and named the cape that juts out in the sea littered with fringing reefs Cape Tribulation ‘because here began all our troubles’.
The first Europeans began to settle the area in the late 1800s, initially as cedar getters, then clearing the land for cattle and crops. But tropical conditions, isolation and the ever encroaching rainforests have always made living north of the river a challenge. Tourism is now the mainstay of the local economy.
Various sections of freehold land north of the Daintree River were subdivided in the 1970s and 1980s, and today over 1200 people now call the area between the Daintree River and the Bloomfield River home.
Environment
Cassowaries, crocodiles and tree kangaroos are just some of the animal species that inhabit the Daintree.
Ancient rainforests, which can be traced back hundreds of thousands of years to Gondwana, provide a unique habitat for rainforest species, many of which are endemic to the area.
Trees thought long extinct have been found in isolated pockets of the Daintree forest, surviving both ice ages and human encroachment.
The Wet Tropics World Heritage area was declared in 1988. The unsealed road that we now know as the Bloomfield Track, the site of the Daintree blockade, is within the World Heritage area.
Find out about the regions National Parks.
Tourism
The best way to appreciate the Daintree is to visit. The following sites have information about the services and activities their members offer, including tours of the Daintree, day spas, trips to the Great Barrier Reef, and unique and boutique accommodation options.
Visit Port Douglas Daintree Tourism
Destination Daintree
