The Daintree Rainforest

southern cassowary (istockphoto)

The Daintree Rainforest is a lush, vibrant, green expanse, covering an area of 1,200 square kilometres which is roughly the same size as Sydney. It is estimated to be approximately 180 million years old (depending of where you are getting your information) and is without doubt the oldest tropical lowland rainforest in the world.  Successive climate changes over the last 200 million years have resulted in the contraction and expansion of rainforest within Australia and during dry ice ages many plants and animals were unable to adapt to changed conditions and were driven to extinction. However, the Daintree, with its cloudy wet mountaintops and deep moist valleys provided a refuge for many life forms during these periods of climatic fluctuations and is now home to evolved species of plants and animals, many of which have not changed very much from their ice-age ancestors. Around at a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there is certainly a jurassic aspect to this most beautiful part of Australia, a beauty acknowledged by David Attenborough in his acceptance speech of the 2017 Britain-Australia Society Awards, when he named his favourite place as North Queensland, not only because “it has an amazing rainforest which is quite unlike any other rainforest in the world”. The first episode of his 2019 series “Seven Worlds, One Planet, Australia” begins in the Daintree https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07v1xhh - who better to gain insight from?

young ribbonwood/idiot tree

During the first episode, the viewer is introduced to Big Bertha, the Grand Dame of Cassowaries and, as we headed into the rainforest, spotting one of these dino-birds - probably the bird most closely related to the dinosaurs - was right up there on our wish list. The Cassoway is the third largest bird in the world after the ostrich and emu but much more colourful with a bright blue head and vivid red double wattle (similar to the loose hanging neck skin of a turkey x 2). It also sports a striking casque (helmet-like structure) atop its head, reminiscent of many dinosaurs. Although by nature a shy bird, the Cassowary is considered to be the world’s most dangerous bird to humans.

fan fern

The Cassowary has huge value within this complex ecosystem. They are one of only a few fruit eaters that can disperse large rainforest fruits and the only one that can carry them over long distances. As such there are now programmes in place to protect dwindling numbers as they become more uncommon and hard to find. We were lucky enough to observe one of these strange birds as it crossed the road in front of us. Unfortunately, we were not quick enough with the camera so you will have to take our word for it.

The rainforest is home to an estimated 3,000 species of plants and there are more tree species in one hectare than in the entirety of the UK. The wonderful flora boasts myriad species of trees, ferns, climbers and epiphytes (plants that healthily live on other plants) and includes large fruiting trees, beautiful flowering orchids and fabulous fan ferns. One interesting tree goes by the name of the Idiot Tree, a Ribbonwood tree dating back 120 million years, one of the rarest and most primitive flowering plants in the world. It is believed that the colloquial name of Idiot Tree derives from its name of Idiospermum but coincidentally Idiot Tree is quite an appropriate name as it produces large brown fruit which is highly poisonous, one of the few fruits that no rainforest bird or animal can tolerate. Accordingly, the only way that the tree can propagate is through gravity which probably explains why it is so rare.

Similar to the plants in the Daintree, the area is also home to the greatest concentration of rare or threatened animal species in the world. These endemic species include the Cassowary, Boyd’s Forest Dragon and the Bennett Tree Kangaroo. During the few days we were there we spotted an Amethystine Python, many frogs, turtles, shrimps, stick insects, Katydids, spiders and butterflies, including the large stunning electric blue Ulysses Butterfly.  We also saw heaps of bats and lizards and, my favourite, dazzling firefly beetles.

katydid

We spent 10 days in the Daintreee and while there we enjoyed some longer and shorter walks, including some slow explorations of several of the boardwalks, including a guided tour after dark which was both informative and fun. The many beaches are never far away and are great to explore as there is rarely anyone else around, although you do need to keep an eye out for crocs as they are regularly seen away from their usual habitat of nearby river tributaries. 

We particularly enjoyed our walks before bed, when it was dark and devoid of traffic, with Leroy off the lead and just the calls of bats and the occasional bird and the night insects to break the silence. Because of the high tree canopy in the rainforest it really is pretty dark at night, which made the fireflies all the more spectacular. They range from the occasional flash to a full electrical display.  Quite magical.