Daintree World Heritage Areas

A World Heritage site is a place that is listed by UNESCO as having outstanding cultural or natural importance to humanity, the preservation of which is considered to be in the interest of the international community. The Daintree is the only place on earth where two World Heritage sites exist side by side - the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics of Queensland.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988 as an outstanding example representing the major stages of Earth’s evolutionary history.

During the Ice Ages, when the climate was cooler and drier than it is today, the Australian rainforests retreated and survived in small moist pockets. These rainforest refuges have existed continuously for over 100 million years. The Daintree Coast is one such refuge, where the rainforest is believed to more than 135 million years old - one of the most ancient and primitive in the world.

The World Heritage Daintree Wet Tropics Rainforest

• is one of the largest rainforest wilderness areas in Australia,
• is one of the only places on earth where the rare combination of fringe coral reefs and rainforest coastline can be found.
• contains many species of flora that existed or originated from when Australia was part of Gondwana, more than 120 million years ago.
• contains one of the most complete and diverse living records of the major stages in the evolution of land plants, as well as one of the most important living records of the history of marsupials and song birds
• is one of the most significant ecosystems on this planet and an outstanding example of significant ongoing ecological and biological processes.
• contains important and significant habitats for conservation of biological diversity and examples of superlative natural phenomena.

Most of the land included within the Wet Tropics World Heritage boundaries is government controlled crown land, either national park or state forest. However a small amount of freehold private land, less than 1%, is also included within its boundaries. This private property has some limitations imposed on how it can be used. World Heritage listing in the Daintree community has created a transition from primary production to ecotourism, as many local residents have come to depend on the rainforests for their livelihood.

For more information about the environmental battle to save the Daintree read the article Daintree Blockade by Lloyd Nielsen

The World Heritage Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1981 as an outstanding example of a major stage of earth’s evolutionary history. It also represents significant ongoing geological processes, biological evolution and man’s interaction with his natural environment. The entire coastline and coastal waters off the Daintree Coast are within this World Heritage area.

• is the worlds most extensive coral reef system and largest World Heritage property extending over 2000 kilometres and covering 348 000 km/2 in a broken maze of around 2900 individual reefs, of which 760 are fringing reefs along the mainland or around islands.
• supports the most diverse ecosystem known to man, which is thought to reflect the maturity of the system having evolved over millions of years.
• contains extensive areas of seagrass, mangrove, sandy and muddy seabed communities, inter-reefal areas, deep oceanic waters and island communities providing habitat for many diverse forms of marine life such as an estimated 1500 species of fish, 360 species of hard, reef building corals, 4000 mollusc species, 1500 species of sponges as well as anemones, marine worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, dugong, turtles and sea urchins. Is also a breeding ground of world significance for several turtle species and for humpback whales that migrate from Antarctica to give birth in warmer waters.
• provides a natural record within its reef structure of sea level changes, climate history, geomorphic and oceanographic processes and environmental conditions.

More information on both these world heritage listed sites can be found at www.environment.gov.au

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