Cape Tribulation Daintree Rainforest

In the cross-hairs of Queensland Government Acquisition?

“The Queensland Government will channel more than $10 million a year into a new ‘Eco Fund’ to expand the state’s National Parks.”

So said the Hon. Premier, Anna Bligh and Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, the Hon. Andrew McNamara, in a joint statement last Friday.

“… we’re going to expand our National Parks by 50% … reaching a target of 12 million hectares by 2020 …”

Developers and other entities will pay for this doubling of protected area, by offsetting their environmental impacts and greenhouse emissions.

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Dictyophora multicolor

It’s amazing how many of the secrets of the rainforest display themselves in our rare, exotic, tropical fruit orchard. Dainty orchids like Oberonia titania and Cadetia taylori hang from the branches surrounded by an exceptional array of lichens. Insects are in abundance. Birds and butterflies are in full view where you can admire their beauty while you mow the grass.

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I have risen early these passed two mornings, to capture the elusive spectacle of the sun�s first rays illuminating the descending moon over Thornton Peak. The greatest uncertainty was finding the mountain free of cloud, but as can be seen in the image, the variables of timing and clarity fell into splendid accord.

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Plants that flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks rather than from new growth and shoots, are described as cauliflorous or cormiflorous; those that flower from the branches are ramiflorous. The Scarlet Bean (Archidendron ramiflorum ssp. Cooper Creek) is a spectacular example of both which is currently in bloom. (more…)

I recently reported that the wet season had well and truly arrived in the Daintree, with over 700 mm of rain in five days.

The Australian mean rainfall total for 2007 was 497 mm, slightly more than (more…)

The Cooper Valley has been dumped on with exceptional rainfall over the past few days. Since Boxing Day, over 700 mm has been recorded in our portion of the catchment.

Last night I was unable (more…)

The Daintree Rainforest contains a treasure-trove of biodiversity, rare and endemic species. It represents a continuous living history depicting the evolution of plant and animal species over a greater period than any other natural terrestrial landscape on earth.

Cooper Creek Wilderness occupies a strategically significant portion within the middle reach of the celebrated Cooper Creek catchment. This area encapsulates the majority of attributes of the greater Daintree including flora relicts, primitive animals, examples of on-going evolution and speciation, rare and endemic flora and fauna and living links with recent past incursions of flora and fauna from south-east Asia. (more…)

Step into the rainforests of the Daintree lowlands at the moment and you�re likely to whiff the pervasive scent of the rare Javan Ash (Ryparosa javanica). The abundant flowering emits a sweet, slightly off-smell, like five-day-old socks or raw hamburger mince. (more…)

Why would a fungus want or need to create light? According to the Wet Tropics Management Authority, no one knows why many species use bioluminescence, but across its incredible evolutionary history, in circumstances of such windlessness, the fungi would appear to have adapted through mimicry of the flightless, female firefly. The fungus emits an indistinguishable light from an identical chemical reaction to lure the male firefly into making contact. He then carries the spores throughout the forest on his journey ahead.

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The sophistication of the various strategies for concealment and evasion and their hundreds of millions of years of adaptive refinement are not the only obstructions to revealing the secrets of this ancient rainforest. Indeed, one of the greatest difficulties (more…)