Current Events in the Daintree Rainforest.

This page keeps abreast of changes and important news issues facing the Daintree Rainforest. If you have any news you would like to share with us, please email us. In addition, if you believe we are portraying issues about the Daintree Rainforest in an insensitive or biased manner, please email us so we can rectify any problems.

05/08/03
A Douglas Shire Council crisis meeting held in Mossman yesterday attempted to reach an acceptable solution to the Daintree ferry dilemma. Suggestions of a bridge or second ferry were ruled out for a second time on the basis that the rainforest is already struggling to cope with the 500,000 visitors it receives per year. Additional river crossings would increase the number of tourists and threaten the rainforest ecosystem.

A new system will be trialed which will give Daintree residents and tour buses priority access to the ferry using specially built lanes. Self-drive tourists and Cairns locals will need to wait for the buses and residents to complete their crossing before they are permitted to use the ferry. The waiting area on the southern side of the river will be upgraded to include toilets, short walking tracks and access to river cruises.

A Cow Bay resident has revealed that the four hour waiting times used to justify additional river crossing methods are limited to periods of extremely high volume during the school holidays. At other times there is rarely any delay exceeding 10 minutes when waiting to board the ferry, which takes four minutes to complete the transit.

28/07/03
The future of the Daintree River Ferry is continuing to make the news. There have been numerous complaints (reported in The Cairns Post, The Courier Mail and Channel 10 Cairns TV news) about delays at the ferry crossing of up to 4 hours. Tourist company operators say the delay is reducing the Daintree’s attractiveness to international tourists.

The tourist operators cite statistics that show than 10 years ago buses accounted for more than three quarters of traffic, but sealed roads have created an environment where more people are using their own cars, or rented cars. With the increased traffic, the Daintree cable ferry has been unable to keep up with traffic pressures and delays have lengthened.

A Douglas Shire Council general meeting last month has further soured tourist operators. A majority vote of the council overturned a motion to investigate the costs of building a low-lying single lane bridge with a boom gate, and a second ferry across the Daintree. Daintree Rainforest residents say a bridge would increase traffic to such an extent the environmental interests of the rainforest would be threatened. Tourist operators say a bridge would boost the tourism industry and stimulate the local economy.

08/07/03
It now costs an extra $4 to use the Daintree Ferry. Beginning at the start of July 2003, the Douglas Shire Council applied its plan to charge visitors an extra $4 to cross the Daintree River, using the money to buy back private land to protect the rainforest. This raises the cost of a return trip with a car to $20. Three quarters of the money will be put towards land buy-back.

Although the Queensland State Government did not support the levy, the Douglas Shire Council implemented local by-laws to make the revenue collection possible. Mike Berwick, the Douglas Shire Mayor, and Chris Bennett, from the Daintree Rainforest Foundation, both believe that the Daintree Rainforest is at a critical conservation junction. The men say that unless action is taken now to preserve the fragile and rare ecosystem in the area, it could be irreversibly threatened within the next 5 years.

Tourist operators, however, are displeased with the introduced levy. They are concerned the 450 000 people who use the ferry each year will be unwilling to pay the extra $4 to enter the Daintree Rainforest, and thereby threaten the $400 million annual tourism industry.

27/03/03
In the late 1980s, a southern investor purchased one hectare of rainforest at Cow Bay in the hope that an economic boom would result in a good return on the property. The land was left undeveloped and draped in rainforest, waiting for an opportunity to be slashed in the name of progress. The Australian National Party came close to kick-starting this development by attempting to introduce grid-connected electrical power in 1989, but overwhelming protests by Daintree residents and a government-changing election stopped the plan in its tracks. To date, the state Labor Party has opposed the development of grid power in the Daintree Rainforest, and to the delight of conservationists has instituted a land buy-back scheme. This is a process whereby the government purchases freehold land in the rainforest to safeguard ecological values against rampant development. Fortunately for the rainforest, the economic boon hoped for in the 1980s has not come to fruition.

In a historic move for the Daintree Rainforest, the state government has bought back the hectare of land from the private investor who owned the property for over 20 years. The government is now searching for another investor to buy the land and use it for conservation reasons. The Australian Rainforest Foundation is considering funding the buy back of 6 other blocks in the Cow Bay area.

10/03/03
The debate about applying a levy to the Daintree River Ferry continues. A stalemate between the Beattie Labor State Government and the Douglas Shire Council is frustrating residents of the rainforest and environmental lobbyists.

The council wants to introduce a $4 tax to buy back approximately 1500 hectares of privately owned land for environmental preservation and tourism infrastructure. The state government, however, is sticking fast to its commitment – made at the last election – to freeze taxes.

Local pressure groups in the Douglas Shire are considering launching a campaign to coerce the government into raising the ferry levy. They say the fee increase is vital because rural residential property owners are rapidly settling the lowlands of the rainforest, and steps need to be taken urgently to save the ancient ecosystem from human damage.

15/11/02
The most controversial proposal facing the residents and tourist operators in the Daintree Rainforest at this time is a suggestion by local authorities to raise the cost of the Daintree River Ferry. The council has considered using the revenue from this proposed change to the fee structure to fund the land buy-back program. However, residents of the Daintree Rainforest are outraged at the plan because this means their daily commute into Cairns, Mossman or Port Douglas will be become even more expensive than it already is.