From Rainforest Rescue: The Daintree has reached a restoration crossroads

Mark the calendar – the Daintree has reached a restoration crossroads

Can you remember what you were doing on 18^th August this year? Although you may not have realised it, local history was quietly being made in the Wet Tropics amongst a cleared strip of weeds and withered sugar cane shoots.

For the team at Rainforest Rescue it was a day to celebrate. They finally ‘broke new ground’ at their latest restoration project, 110 Cape Tribulation Road, with the first trees officially planted.

Hundreds of healthy new plants went into the soil, marking the start of what could be a landmark restoration journey for the lower Daintree. Following council approval to restore an initial parcel of the 30-hectare former farm site, Rainforest Rescue have begun to extend a ‘green island’ of natural regrowth. This 5-hectare patch of vine and Melaleuca forest, surrounded by cropped fields, hugs a cane drain which connects to Crocodile Creek and then into the extensive mangrove complex of the Daintree River estuary.

The seemingly humble site is significant for several reasons. Aside from marking the start of new restoration work following the completion of the NightWings Rainforest Centre and Cow Bay Airstrip plantings this year, 110 Cape Tribulation Road is part of a much larger restoration vision that could come to fruition. This vision would culminate in the regeneration of the Daintree Oxbow (McDowell Swamp) wetland and surrounding wetland forest habitat, connecting to the mangroves and riparian zones of the Daintree River.  

Rainforest Rescue, in conjunction with several landholders, are working with Douglas Shire Council to progress a Development Application concerning more than 430 hectares of private land (including 110 Cape Tribulation Road) that has been independently assessed as ‘Not Suitable for Agriculture’. The outcome could be ecosystem restoration on an unprecedented scale for the Daintree lowlands, with the ecologically significant wetland of the Daintree Oxbow at the heart of it.

Long-term, this project would require the creation of new jobs and potential income streams to bolster the local economy. The prospect of Biodiversity credits through the Nature Repair Market, stacked alongside Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), is one that Rainforest Rescue is keen to establish for the proposed restoration area, demonstrating to private landholders how to diversify their land’s inherent value.

But to reach that point requires planning policy decision-making. The question remains, which way will the Shire go?

If you are interested in learning more about this project, contact Branden Barber, CEO of Rainforest Rescue, via branden@rainforestrescue.org.au.