Stop the bridge across the Daintree River  

 

A proposed bridge across the Daintree River will fuel further development of the World Heritage value rainforest along the Daintree coast and must be stopped.

 

  • Currently, the only way to reach the Daintree is by vehicular barge across the Daintree River. 
  • The local authority, Douglas Shire Council is exploring options for a bridge over the Daintree River.
  • A bridge will have an enormous flow-on effect. It will increase the number of vehicles and the hours of the day that they’re on roads. Vehicle strike is a killer of the Southern Cassowary and endangered species critical to the rainforest’s natural ability to regenerate.
  • An increase in traffic will lead to growth in property prices, increased demand for additional services such as energy supply, further fragmentation of highly sensitive ecosystems, and disturbance of terrestrial and aquatic environments.
  • The Daintree Lowland Rainforest in North Queensland is the oldest rainforest on the planet, with an unbroken evolutionary history going back over 120 million years to the first flowering plants. Let's not change that now.

 

People power has saved the Daintree time and time again and it will this time too. Sign the petition to demand the Douglas Shire Council to dismiss all proposals for a bridge over the Daintree River which will irreparably impact fragile ecosystems and the endangered animals that live within them.

Will you sign?

 

 

To Douglas Shire Council

 

Urgently put a stop to proposals for a bridge across the Daintree River and instead work to protect the region’s natural values.

 

_ _ _ _

 

Building a bridge over the Daintree River will support further undesirable development. For decades, governments and NGOs have been investing in buying back blocks adjacent to the World Heritage Area to slow down development. And now the Douglas Shire Council has put a bridge back on the table.

 

A bridge over the Daintree has been floated on and off for decades and has been met with opposition from the local community and conservationists across the world.

 

A bridge poses a significant threat to the area’s biodiversity. There’s no doubt a bridge brings with it an increase in vehicular traffic to this internationally significant region. With a bridge will come the following impacts:

 

  • 24-hour access across the river means cars are crossing the river at all times of day and night, putting at risk already endangered wildlife.
  • The construction phase and inevitable road upgrade will disturb sensitive ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic.
  • The bridge is likely to increase the number and type of services available to residents and tourists of the Daintree, for example, deliveries and waste services
  • An increase in tourism development will increase road kills of native wildlife, including the endangered Southern Cassowary
  • Expansion to the road network will create an edge effect, opening up the rainforest canopy and further catalyzing the spread of pest plants and animals
  • Tourists currently visit the Daintree for its intact rainforest and genuine wildlife experiences. Additional infrastructure will undermine the region’s natural values

 

People power has saved the Daintree time and time again and it will this time too. We’re calling on the Douglas Shire Council to put a stop to development in the Daintree once and for all and to cease all proposals exploring a bridge across the Daintree River.

 

 

 

8,565 signatures
  • Rynell Williams
    signed 2020-05-27 18:20:40 +1000
    Grew up there and it doesn’t need a bridge!!
  • Shona Cornwall
    signed 2020-05-27 18:19:42 +1000
  • Julie Durnin
    signed 2020-05-27 18:19:26 +1000
  • Judy Davis
    signed 2020-05-27 18:18:45 +1000
  • Marryanne Christodoulou’s
    signed 2020-05-27 18:18:23 +1000
  • Audra Notting
    signed 2020-05-27 18:18:21 +1000
    We don’t want any changes to our natural beauty
  • Cathy Kubany
    signed 2020-05-27 18:17:10 +1000
  • Bruce Beet
    signed 2020-05-27 18:16:34 +1000
    Desecration if a heritage listed site is unthinkable.
  • Nikki Thomas
    signed 2020-05-27 18:16:29 +1000
    Protect. Protect. Protect.
  • Cristian Speranza
    signed 2020-05-27 18:15:44 +1000
  • Margie Lee
    signed 2020-05-27 18:13:12 +1000
  • Fiona Curtis
    signed 2020-05-27 18:12:36 +1000
    It’s bad enough that big companies are destroying the First Nations Peoples’ sacred sites but to injury to insult, a bridge here is a bridge too far!
  • Ricardo Artigas
    signed 2020-05-27 18:12:11 +1000
  • Cheryl Taylor
    signed 2020-05-27 18:12:06 +1000
  • Michel Hatchett
    signed 2020-05-27 18:11:11 +1000
  • Lara Emerson
    signed 2020-05-27 18:08:44 +1000
  • Trevor Dower
    signed 2020-05-27 18:06:46 +1000
  • Robin Bartrum
    signed 2020-05-27 18:04:28 +1000
  • Birte Knaus
    signed 2020-05-27 18:04:16 +1000
    Wildlife have rights too.
  • Brenda Smith
    signed 2020-05-27 18:00:36 +1000
  • Anne Boehm
    signed 2020-05-27 17:59:40 +1000
  • Roddie MacNally
    signed 2020-05-27 17:57:42 +1000
    I live on an island in queensland with a bridge and the traffic is the same as if I was in suburbia. Once that bridge is built then cutting into the rainforest will be next. Wildlife will be run over and killed so decide I what you want.
  • David Gray
    signed 2020-05-27 17:57:41 +1000
  • Graham McLoughlin
    signed 2020-05-27 17:56:56 +1000
  • Brian Ward
    signed 2020-05-27 17:56:17 +1000
  • Joanne Waugh
    signed 2020-05-27 17:54:46 +1000
  • John Hughes
    signed 2020-05-27 17:54:40 +1000
  • Nicolette Birkhold
    signed 2020-05-27 17:53:13 +1000
  • Carolyn Mehonoshen
    signed 2020-05-27 17:53:03 +1000
  • Max Fedoseev
    signed 2020-05-27 17:50:04 +1000