Thanks to our generous donors we are continuing to support our partners Daintree Life in closing roads by planting trees in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. On the 6^th of March, additional trees were planted in Cow Bay to close a gap in the canopy.

This section of road is regularly used by Bennett's Tree Kangaroos. One of the trees planted was a Golden Guinea Tree (Deplanchia tetraphylla). They grow naturally in New Guinea, Cape York Peninsula and the Wet Tropics of Queensland in northeastern Australia. The branches of the mature trees have spectacular large bouquets of many yellow flowers.

Trees planted in March 2019

Over 50 km of roads were constructed in the 1980’s as part of an 1,100-lot rural residential subdivision crisscross the Daintree Lowland Rainforest in Far North Queensland. Now 30 years after the declaration of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area that excluded most of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest from protection, the closing and revegetating of some of these roads is occurring.

The closing of roads is seen a significant milestone in the long struggle by conservationists to prevent the development of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest, a place many Australian’s believe is protected in a national park. These roads can be closed as the properties they serviced have been purchased through Daintree land buyback schemes that commenced in 1993.

Two happy tree planters in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest

The closing of roads in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest and the planting of trees will restore habitat for threatened species including Cassowaries and Bennetts Tree-kangaroos. The community will benefit from reduced road maintenance costs for Douglas Shire Council and improved amenity for tourists who expect to see rainforest and wildlife rather than roads.

Bennett's Tree-kangaroo. Image: Martin Harvey. Source: photolibrary

The work to revegetate the roads is being undertaken by Daintree Life with the support of the Rainforest 4. Together they are working on a larger project to plant 500,000 trees in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest to repair areas cleared in past decades.

Thank you to our wonderful donors for enabling this project to continue. To help support our Road Closure to Save the Daintree project please make a donation here. Every $10 will plant and maintain one tree. 

A section of road in the Daintree  Lowland Rainforest that was close and revegetated in December 2018.