Project Snapshot

Location: Queensland, Australia
Action: Purchase of Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive, Forest Creek
Area: 1.43 hectares

Threatened Species: Southern Cassowary, Thornton Aspen and five other species of plants
Habitat: Lowland tropical rainforest and sclerophyll forest ecosystems 
Threats: Development for housing, domestic dogs, weeds

Purchase of Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive

Urgent action to save threated Daintree habitat!

If we act today a unique Daintree Rainforest can be purchased for only $75,000.

Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive, Forest Creek is 1.43 ha in size and provides habitat for seven threatened species of plants and animals. It’s also at risk of development, so I’ve acted quickly to pay a 10% deposit of $3,750. The challenge I now have is to settle on the purchase. To do that I must raise the full amount by the 30^th of October 2019 by raising $71,250.

The property is 1.43 ha in size (14,300 sqm). With a purchase price of $75,000 or $5.25 per sqm. A long-time donor has provided $3,750 for the deposit. This reduced the funds required to $71,250 or less than $5 per sqm meter.

Please, will you help purchase and protect Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive in the Daintree Rainforest. Every $5.00 you donate will save one square metre of the Daintree. If you donate $25 you will save five square meters of essential Cassowary habitat! A donation of $50 will save 10 square meters and $100 will save twenty square meters of the World Heritage value Daintree Rainforest.

This very special property urgently needs to be purchased and protected. Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive is a freehold property zoned by the Douglas Shire Council as suitable for development.

The purchase of Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive will protect two distinct ecosystems

Buying Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive will be a fantastic outcome for conservation as it connects to the Daintree National Park and provides vital habitat for the Endangered Southern Cassowary.

Six Threatened plant species have been found on the property that are listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This includes the Thornton Aspen, a very rare plant previously found at only six locations between the Daintree River and Bloomfield to the north.

The Thornton Aspen is endemic to the Daintree Rainforest.

Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive has two distinct ecosystems, lowland tropical rainforest, and a dryer sclerophyll forest. A small creek runs through the property and there are many beautiful Fan Palms. There is evidence of Cassowaries (lots of scats or droppings) and Bennetts Tree-kangaroos have recently been sighted nearby. 

Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive is located at Forest Creek, immediately north of the Daintree River. Buying land in this location helps us to wind back the impacts of the disastrous 1980’s rural residential subdivision. Please, will you make a tax-deductible donation now to save essential habitat for the endangered Cassowary.

Creek and Fan Palms

I began buying land in the Daintree Rainforest for conservation in 1999. With the support of people like yourself I’ve contributed to the purchase of 41 properties, so I know we can do this and all that’s needed is your support. 

Through our project Land Purchase to Save the Daintree National Park, we are buying land and adding properties to the Daintree National Park and World Heritage Area. With your help, we will safeguard Cassowaries and six species of Threatened plants in this critical habitat. Please take action today and help us Save the Cassowary through the purchase of Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive.

Please join me and make a tax-deductible donation now.

For the Daintree Rainforest,

Kelvin Davies

Founder

Rainforest 4 Foundation

Phone: 0437 423 119

P.S. You can donate now online or if you want to donate with a cheque/money order or through a direct deposit please see our Ways to Donate page.

P.P.S If you have any questions about the purchase and protection of Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive please email me at kelvin@Rainforest4.org or call me on 0437 423 119. Please also see our Lot 3 in the Daintree Q&A page. 

You can donate now online or if you want to donate with a cheque/money order or through a direct deposit please see our Ways to Donate page.

The purchase of this freehold property will assist in winding back of the impacts of the disastrous 1980’s subdivision of the Daintree Lowland Rainforest. Please donate now. A donation of $25 will purchase and protect five sqm of the Daintree Rainforest. 

Background

The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is one of the oldest rainforests on Earth having survived undisturbed for over 120 million years. It holds exceptionally high biodiversity and conservation value and is the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest remaining in Australia.

Rainforests once covered much of eastern Australia, however, as conditions became drier the rainforest contracted and today the Daintree provides a refuge for many unique species. The Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo, Musky Rat-kangaroo and the Southern Cassowary can be found here, as well a number of endemic plant species that have retained the same primitive characteristics of their ancestors. The flora of the Daintree contains an almost complete record of the evolution of plant life on Earth, including extremely ancient flowering plant families found nowhere else.

In the 1980’s the Queensland government approved an 1,100-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. The development that followed has resulted in fragmentation of the rainforest with the construction of roads and the building of hundreds of houses. Settlement has introduced exotic plants that have become weeds and domestic dogs and traffic that are a threat to wildlife. Because the land in question is in private ownership, the only option to resolve the issue has been the purchase and protection of additional lands to expand Daintree National Park.

Our vision for the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is to buyback land to remove the threat of further development and to address the impact of past development while supporting the Traditional Owners, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people in caring for country.

While we purchase land at risk of development for housing we also purchase other freehold properties without development approvals to reverse the impacts of the disastrous subdivision by closing and revegetating obsolete roads.

Since 1992 non-profit organisations have purchased seventy-five properties for conservation. To continue this important work, we are working to purchase freehold land in Cow Bay that will then be incorporated into the Daintree National Park. We are focusing our efforts on Cow Bay as it has some of the highest levels of biodiversity and the highest densities of Cassowaries in Australia.

Threat to Wildlife, Climate People and Planet

Daintree Rainforest is regarded as an iconic national treasure for its unique evolutionary history and tremendous conservation value. A number of rare and endangered species are found within Daintree National Park, including the Southern Cassowary, large flightless birds that in Australia are found only in the wet tropical rainforests of Queensland. Southern Cassowaries consume over 150 different fruits and play a vital role as seed dispersers in the rainforest. Due to the destruction and fragmentation of their rainforest habitats, these large charismatic birds are classified as Vulnerable to extinction.

More than 430 other bird species have also been recorded in Daintree National Park, including rare or range-restricted species like the Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher and the Lesser Sooty Owl, making the Daintree a Globally Important Bird Area. Many unique marsupials, reptiles and amphibians are also found in the Daintree Rainforest including the Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo, Musky Rat-kangaroo, Spotted-tailed Quoll and Boyd’s Forest Dragon.

One risks to the Daintree comes from development for housing and fragmentation of the rainforest, which jeopardises the integrity of the ecosystem with increased human traffic and the introduction of exotic species. Expanding settlement results in the spread of exotic plants that become weeds and stress to wildlife from human traffic and introduced dogs. Further buyback of land for conservation is required urgently as there are calls for an upgrade to Cape Tribulation Road, to build a bridge over the Daintree River and to provide a reticulated electricity supply that would all lead to further development.

The purchase of additional properties will prevent further development to these sensitive areas while protecting and restoring critical habitat for wildlife. It will also allow for winding back past development through the closing of roads and the revegetation of land as habitat for Threatened species.

Solution

We have identified this property at Lot 3 Thornton Peak Drive, Forest Creek in the Daintree Lowland Rainforest where the owner will sell it for only $75,000.

We are working to purchase and transfer ownership of land the Rainforest 4 Foundation. This will strengthen protection for the Daintree Lowland Rainforest, help reverse the negative impacts of rural residential development, and offer the best path forward for ensuring the world’s most ancient rainforest continues to thrive for generations to come.

Buying land in the Daintree helps us to reverse the impacts of the disastrous 1980’s rural residential subdivision. All donations are tax-deductible, and receipts will be issued. Please donate now. A donation of $25 will purchase and protect five sqm of the Daintree Rainforest. 

The Southern Cassowary is a large flightless bird that in Australia is found only in the wet tropical rainforests of Queensland. Southern Cassowaries consume over 150 different fruits and play a vital role as seed dispersers in the rainforest. Due to the destruction and fragmentation of their rainforest habitats, these large charismatic birds are classified as Vulnerable to extinction.