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| RAINFOREST |
Daintree Rainforest - Daintree
Australia
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The Daintree Rainforest situated north of Cairns
in tropical North Queensland is one of the world’s oldest
and most beautiful rainforests. Approximately 1200 square kilometers
in size it supports over 3000 species of plant, over one third of
Australia’s mammalian species including 13 of which are found
nowhere else in the world. It is also home to a quarter of Australia’s
frogs, a third of the country’s freshwater fish and nearly
half of Australia’s birds.
The Daintree rainforest originated more than 135 million years ago
when Gwondana, a huge land mass began to separate into what we now
know as Africa, South America, Antarctica and India. By 60 million
years ago Australia was a separate island continent of which much
was rainforest. With time the rainforest receded to leave us with
a remnant of the history of the continent. The wet tropics provide
us with a living record of ecological and evolutionary processes
that shaped the history of Australian plants and animals over millions
of years.
The first documented history of mankind in the daintree started
with Sir Joseph Banks description of the area whilst traveling with
Captain Cook in 1770. At this time it was inhabited by the Kuku
Yalariji tribe of indigenous people. With the arrival of the British
came the early European settlers in the 1800’s, but at this
time the rainforest was too harsh an environment to colonize. By
the early 1900’s industrial development had led to the first
colonization of the area. In the 1930’s, 160 acre blocks of
freehold land were sold off to farmers. The wet tropics were ideally
suited to fruit crops as well as for use in the timber trade. However
by the 1980’s a conflict between commercial operators and
environmentalists waged. In 1987 the elected Federal Government
determined the Daintree to be a World heritage Area. In 1988 the
Queensland and Federal governments battled in the high Court over
this issue with the Federal Government winning. The Daintree still
to this day is a World Heritage listed area.
The future of the Daintree is dependent on a symbiotic relationship
between environmentalists, the eco-tourism industry and the Federal
Government in order to maintain and protect the importance and beauty
of one of the true last wildernesses….
WILDLIFE
The wildlife of the Daintree is magnificent and second to none.
It is home to mammals found nowhere else in the world including
species of tree kangaroo, rat kangaroo, ring-tailed possum, melomys
and ant echinus. The birdlife is even more remarkable with the crown
going to the ‘relic’, the Cassowary. Related to the
emus, rheas, kiwis and ostrich the Cassowary is now endangered.
However it is found in the rainforest at Cooper Creek. Many other
birds flourish including riflebirds, golden bowerbirds, wampoo pigeons,
chowchillas and paradise kingfishers.
Of over 1050 species of reptile and frog in the world, 131 occur
specifically in the wet tropics. Of interest are the beautiful pythons
and tree snakes that inhabit the area (not harmful to humans), The
Boyd’s Forest Dragon (with its dinosaur like appearance),
the cute freshwater turtles, 54 species of frog and the most spectacular
and iridescent of butterflies including the bright blue ‘Ulysses’.
However the estuaries of this coastline are home to one of Australia’s
more dangerous reptiles. The saltwater crocodile. There are plenty
of tours in the area to see this large carnivore and learn about
its lifestyle and behavior.
Due to the high rainfall and diversity of terrain, the Daintree
is a botanist’s delight. Over 3000 plant species from 210
families are found here, with 395 rare or threatened plant species
protected in the World Heritage area.
Complex mesophyll vine forests rest on the wet lowlands while notophyll
vine forests sit up on the wet highlands. On mountain ridges simple
microphyll fern forests dominate. One could spend hours studying
the range of ferns, conifers, cyads, palms, flowering plants, mangroves
and carnivorous plants.
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