What's better than one Cassowary? Two! We think most things in the Daintree Rainforest are better when doubled, and right now, your donation can have double the impact.

PURCHASE OF LOT 26 RONALD ROAD, IN THE DAINTREE LOWLAND RAINFOREST

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

Action: Purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road (RP733653) 

Area: 2.093 hectares

Location: Forest Creek, Queensland

Vegetation type: Lowland Tropical Rainforest (remnant and regrowth) 

Endangered Ecological Community: Lowland tropical rainforest of the Wet Tropics ecological community is listed in the Endangered Category under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Threatened Species: Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii), China Camp Laurel (Beilschmiedia castrisinensis), Cyclophyllum costatum (no common name), Gray’s Walnut (Endiandra grayi), Noah’s Walnut (Endiandra microneura), Climbing Pandan (Freycinetia percostata)

Fundraising update for the 26th of May 2023

All donations to this project will now be matched - dollar for dollar. This is a fantastic opportunity to double the impact of your gift. 

Target to purchase and protect this property: $209,300

Amount raised: 26,905

Remaining target: $182,395

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest.

Lot 26 Ronald Road

Many people believe the Daintree Rainforest is fully protected however many freehold properties were excluded from inclusion in the Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area when it was declared in 1988. Over time these properties are being developed for housing. This degrades the iconic Daintree Rainforest and damaged the habitat of threatened species of plants and animals.

Lot 26 Ronald Road (RP733653) is a freehold property of 2.093 hectares located at Forest Creek where the endangered Southern Cassowary and the rare Bennetts Tree-Kangaroo have recently been sighted.

We need your help! The Douglas Shire Council has this property zoned as being suitable for rural residential development. To prevent this from occurring we will purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road and ensure the tropical rainforest is managed for conservation. 

The rainforest on Lot 26 Ronald Road deserves the same level of protection as the nearby Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. 

This is why we urgently need your help to purchase this at-risk property.

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest and protect it from the threat of development. Your donation will help purchase and protect essential Cassowary habitat. Prefer to use PayPal? Please donate here.

View over Lot 26 to the Alexander Range 

Lot 26 Ronald Road was offered for sale on the open market and could have been sold to someone wishing to develop the property. 

That's why we took action and exchanged a contract of sale and paid a deposit. Now we have the urgent task of raising $209,300 by the 30th of June 2023. 

The rainforest on Lot 26 Ronald Road deserves the same level of protection as the nearby Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. 

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest and protect it from the threat of development. Your donation will help purchase and protect essential Cassowary habitat. Prefer to use PayPal? Please donate here.

View from Lot 26 Ronald Road 

The purchase of Lot 26 Ronald Road will prevent the development of the property and fragmentation of the landscape. Fragmentation occurs when forests are reduced in the area through deforestation, road building, or other developments, dividing the forest into smaller blocks and creating what is known as the edge effect. The impacts of the edge effect have been thoroughly documented over several decades and show the significant detrimental effects on biodiversity. 

We have purchased 27 properties in the Daintree lowlands over the last 3 years - all funded by donations from the public. Through this process, we are reversing the negative impacts of the subdivision of the Daintree in the 1980s that created 1,136 freehold properties.

To purchase and protect Lot 26 Ronald Road we need to raise $209,300. The property is 20,930 sqm in size and the price is $10 per sqm.

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest and protect it from the threat of development. Your donation will help purchase and protect essential Cassowary habitat. Prefer to use PayPal? Please donate here.

The endangered Southern Cassowary

The acquisition of Lot 26 Ronald Road will help to fulfil our vision for the conservation of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest which requires the buyback of all undeveloped freehold properties so they can be managed for their exceptional conservation values. Buying this property will be a fantastic outcome for conservation as it shares a boundary with another property purchased for conservation in 2022 and is located only a few hundred metres from the Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. Following the purchase of this property, and its restoration we will begin the process for it to be assessed for inclusion in the national park.

The rainforest on Lot 26 Ronald Road deserves the same level of protection as the nearby Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. 

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest and protect it from the threat of development. Your donation will help purchase and protect essential Cassowary habitat. Prefer to use PayPal? Please donate here.

Fan Palm on Lot 26 Ronald Road

BACKGROUND

In 1982 the Queensland government approved a 1,136-lot rural residential subdivision in the Daintree. This resulted in two-thirds of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest being excluded from protection in the Daintree National Park and Wet Tropics World Heritage Area that was declared in 1988. Lot 26 Ronald Road at Forest Creek is one of these properties.

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is one of the oldest rainforests on Earth and provides a refuge for wildlife and ancient flowering plants. It holds exceptionally high biodiversity and conservation value and is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest remaining in Australia. With almost 200 undeveloped properties remaining in private ownership, the future of the Daintree is yet to be determined. Will it be increased development and urbanisation, or will it be the winding back of the disastrous subdivision to save the Daintree Rainforest.

Endangered Ecological Community

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest itself has now been identified as part of an Endangered Ecological Community. In November 2021 the Australian Government listed the lowland tropical rainforest of the Wet Tropics ecological community, in the Endangered Category under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The listing is effective as of Friday 26 November 2021 and includes the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, from near Ingham (just south of the Cardwell Range) in the south to north around Cape Tribulation. While now listed as Endangered the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is still not fully protected. The freehold properties in the Daintree lowland remain at risk from rural residential development.

Please, donate now and help purchase Lot 26 Ronald Road in the Daintree Rainforest and protect it from the threat of development. Your donation will help purchase and protect essential Cassowary habitat. Prefer to use PayPal? Please donate here.

STRONGER TOGETHER

The project to purchase and protect land in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is a partnership involving the Rainforest 4 Foundation, Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation, and fellow non-profit HalfCut. We recognise that we are Stronger Together and raise funds for the buyback of properties in the Daintree Rainforest and their management for conservation.

Urgent action is required to Save the Cassowary! If we'd taken action sooner the Cassowary wouldn't be on the brink. Now the situation is urgent and we must rapidly restore their rainforest habitat. 

The rainforest and the Threatened species found on Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road deserve the same level of protection as the nearby Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. That's why we've exchanged a contract and are ready to purchase this special property in Daintree Lowland Rainforest. Now, all we need now is your help.  

We’ve provided answers to the most frequently asked questions for the purchase and protection of Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. 

PURCHASE OF LOT 150 CAPE TRIBULATION ROAD, IN THE DAINTREE LOWLAND RAINFOREST

Action: Purchase Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road (RP 738591) 

Area: 1.021 hectares 

Location: Diwan, Queensland

Vegetation type: The majority of Lot 150 contains Regional Ecosystem 7.3.3: Mesophyll vine forest with Archontophoenix alexandrae on poorly drained alluvial plains. This vegetation type is listed as “Of Concern” under the Vegetation Management Act 1999.

Endangered Ecological Community: Lowland tropical rainforest of the Wet Tropics ecological community is listed in the Endangered Category under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Threatened Species: Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii), Climbing Pandan (Freycinetia percostata), Daintree Ryparosa (Ryparosa kurrangii), Gray’s Walnut (Endiandra grayi), Isachne sharpii (no common name),  Noah’s Walnut (Endiandra microneura).

Species of conservation Significance (Endemic or found at the limits of their natural range): Green Dinosaur (Idiospermum australiense), Daintree Cleistanthus (Cleistanthus myrianthus), Millaa Ebony (Diospyros pluviatilis), Cooper Creek Haplostichanthus (Polyalthia xanthocarpa). 

Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is a living museum and Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road has a significant population of the ancient flowering plant Idiospermum australiense.

This species represents one of the earliest known lineages of flowering plants, dating back 120 million years. They are found in very few locations in north-eastern Queensland (e.g. the Daintree National Park and nearby freehold properties) and only in the very wet parts of the rainforest. 

The Idiospermum has provided justification for the description of the Daintree as the oldest continuously existing rainforest in the world. They have been called the Green Dinosaur and the Daintree - the place where flowers began. They are found in the fossil record going back 120 million years and are of great significance to science and our understanding of the evolution of flowering plants. 

For this reason, Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road has been purchased and will be provided with the highest level of protection, and managed for its exceptional conservation values.  

Seedlings of the Ribbonwood (Idiospermum australiense)

Ribbonwood trees (Idiospermum australiense) have a very limited distribution. Unlike fruits of other rainforest plants, they are not distributed by the Southern Cassowary. 

They have a unique poison, a chemical called idiospermuline contained within the seed. The seeds are so toxic that most animals cannot eat them without being severely poisoned. The seeds are mainly spread through gravity dispersal, the seeds rolling down slopes to find their new home. It has been suggested that the seeds were formerly dispersed by the now-extinct Diprotodon, on the basis that many Australian marsupials are adapted to cope with the toxins in Australian plants.

Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road is a freehold property adjacent to the Daintree National Park. It is located at Diwan and is part of the core Idiospermum habitat in the Daintree. The Idiospermum populations at Diwan is equally significant to populations in the Noah/Oliver Creek valleys.

Leaves of the Ribbonwood (Idiospermum australiense)

The acquisition of Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road will help to fulfil our vision for the conservation of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest which requires the buyback of all undeveloped freehold properties so they can be managed for their exceptional conservation values. Buying this property will allow it to be included in the adjoining Daintree National Park. 

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. 

“Small areas on the very wet lowlands, especially between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation, harbour plant species which are extremely restricted and uncommon. Many areas of this ecosystem are considered refugial in nature and are local centers of endemism. Many representatives of primitive families of flowering plants are present, including the monotypic family Idiospermaceae. The ecosystem is the habitat for many threatened plant species”.

International Union for the Conservation of Nature. 

 Fruits of the Ribbonwood (Idiospermum australiense) on Lot 150

Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road is located at Diwan in the heart of the iconic Daintree Lowland Rainforest. It is completely covered by tropical rainforest and there is no evidence of a past clearing. On the property, there are many very large trees reaching 35 to 60 meters tall with impressive buttress roots. The trees are festooned with epiphytes being ferns and orchids with large lianas and other vines cascading from above.

Lot 150 is important in maintaining a vegetated corridor across the landscape as the property abuts a significant and extensive tract of forest from the mangroves to the east containing the biologically rich Cooper Creek - Cow Bay mangrove system and the Thornton Peak mountainous region to the immediate west.   

This region of the Daintree houses cryptic and rare species, some of which were identified growing on Lot 150.

A vegetation survey undertaken in May 2023 identified 164 species of plants including five listed at Threatened species. 

The vegetation on Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road contains two markedly different ecosystems, one that is high diversity well developed luxuriant rainforest growing in better-drained soil while the other is Swamp forest of lower diversity growing in a ponded situation. The entire property is remnant vegetation.

The majority of Lot 150 contains Regional Ecosystem 7.3.3: Mesophyll vine forest with Archontophoenix alexandrae on poorly drained alluvial plains.

This vegetation type is listed as “Of Concern” under the Vegetation Management Act 1999. The Queensland government indicates a pre-clearing amount of 5,000 ha existed with 2,000 ha remaining in 2019. The Queensland government specifically states that this vegetation type has “Special Values” being: “Habitat for threatened plant species include Phlegmariurus dalhousieanus”.

The second vegetation type is Regional Ecosystem 7.11.1: Simple to complex mesophyll to notophyll vine forest on moderately to poorly drained metamorphics (excluding amphibolites) of moderate fertility of the moist and wet lowlands, foothills and uplands.

Regional Ecosystem 7.11.1 is categorised as Essential habitat for the:

• Endangered Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii)
• Spotted-tailed Quoll Northern subspecies (Dasyurus maculatus gracilis)
• Bennett’s tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus bennettianus)
• a Vine (Dioclea hexandra)
• a Fern (Hymenasplenium wildii)

Of note from Lot 150 were 10 species of native Meliaceae (Mahogany’s), 9 species of native Laurels, 9 species of native Palm and 7 species of native Ficus. Some larger specimens of the ancient Hope’s Cycad (Lepidozamia hopei) were identified on the property and a handful of younger seedlings.

Old-growth trees on Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road

The endangered Southern Cassowary 

Lot 150 Cape Tribulation Road (right of picture) 

STRONGER TOGETHER

The project to purchase and protect land in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is a partnership involving the Rainforest 4 Foundation, Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation, and fellow non-profit HalfCut. We recognise that we are Stronger Together and raise funds for the buyback of properties in the Daintree Rainforest and their management for conservation.  

Right now you can double the impact you make with a donation to purchase and protect Lot 34 Cape Tribulation Road in the Daintree Rainforest. 

PURCHASE OF LOT 398 MAPLE ROAD, COW BAY IN THE DAINTREE LOWLAND RAINFOREST

PROJECT SNAPSHOT

Action: Purchase Lot 398 Maple Rd, Cow Bay (RP739004)

Area: 1.412 hectares

Location: Cow Bay, Queensland

Vegetation type: The vegetation on Lot 398 Maple Road is classified as 7.11.1a Mesophyll vine forest in lowlands and foothills on metamorphic soils. This is a very wet rainfall zone

Endangered Ecological Community: Lowland tropical rainforest of the Wet Tropics ecological community is listed in the Endangered Category under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Threatened Species: Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii), Noah’s Walnut (Endiandra microneura)

This project was completed in November 2022. Thank you to the hundreds of generous donors. 

Lot 398 Maple Road 

We purchased Lot 398 Maple Road in Cow Bay to fulfil our vision for the conservation of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. This requires the buyback of undeveloped freehold properties in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest and ensuring the land is included in the Daintree National Park (CYPAL) so it can be managed for its exceptional conservation values.

This freehold property deserves the same level of protection as the adjacent Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. Its strategic location at the end of Maple Road makes this an important acquisition as we work towards reversing the impacts of the subdivision created in 1982. 

An intact canopy of old-growth rainforest trees made Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest an important acquisition for conservation. There is no evidence on the property of past clearing and the canopy trees are 60 meters tall. There are also many old-growth trees with hollows that provide habitat for Birds, Snakes, Gliders, Possums, Bats, and other tree-dwelling animals.

Please make a donation to purchase and protect the next property in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest.

Tropical Rainforest on Lot 398 Maple Road

Two species found on Lot 398 are listed as Threatened in the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992. Noah’s Walnut (Endiandra microneura) is listed as Near Threatened and the Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) is listed as Endangered. 

The assemblage of plants on Lot 398 Maple Road has many species within the primitive plant family “Lauraceae”, all of which provide food for the Cassowary. We have been focusing on land acquisition in Cow Bay as scientists have identified this area as providing an “Essential habitat for the Endangered Southern Cassowary”. 

Please make a donation to purchase and protect the next property in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest.

Cassowary at Cow Bay in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest

Another exceptional feature of the property is a large Hopes Cycad (Lepidozamia hopei). These cycads are very slow-growing and this specimen is estimated at over 1,000 years old. They are endemic to Queensland and are the world's largest species of cycad.

Also found on Lot 398 Maple Road was the Zamia Fern (Bowenia spectabilis) which is actually a species of cycad, a very ancient group of plants. They don't produce flowers and reproduce by means of cones borne on separate male and female plants. The cones of the Zamia Fern seem to pop out of the ground! The Zamia Fern is endemic to Queensland. 

Please make a donation to purchase and protect the next property in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest.

Zamia Fern (left) and Hopes Cycad

BACKGROUND 

In 1982 the Queensland government approved a 1,136-lot rural residential subdivision in the Daintree. This resulted in two-thirds of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest being excluded from protection in the Daintree National Park and Wet Tropics World Heritage Area that was declared in 1988. Lot 398 Maple Road in Cow Bay is one of these properties.

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is one of the oldest rainforests on Earth and provides a refuge for wildlife and ancient flowering plants. It holds exceptionally high biodiversity and conservation value and is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest remaining in Australia. With almost 200 undeveloped properties remaining in private ownership, the future of the Daintree is yet to be determined. Will it be increased development and urbanisation, or will it be the winding back of the disastrous subdivision to save the Daintree Rainforest. 

Lot 398 Maple Road at Cow Bay

Endangered Ecological Community

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest itself has now been identified as part of an Endangered Ecological Community. In November 2021 the Australian Government listed the lowland tropical rainforest of the Wet Tropics ecological community, in the Endangered Category under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The listing is effective as of Friday 26 November 2021 and includes the Wet Tropics of North Queensland, from near Ingham (just south of the Cardwell Range) in the south to north around Cape Tribulation. While now listed as Endangered the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is still not fully protected. The freehold properties in the Daintree lowland remain at risk from rural residential development.

Please make a donation to purchase and protect the next property in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest.

Lot 398 Maple Road in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest has been purchased for conservation thanks to the generosity of hundreds of donors.

Today we have announced one of our most significant achievements – the protection of Lot 93 Cape Tribulation Road in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. Thank you to everyone who donated to support the purchase of this special rainforest property.