The Best of the Rainforest and Reef at Your Doorstep... The World's Oldest Living Rainforest

The Greater Daintree Rainforest has existed continuously for more than 110 million years. The balance of Primeval Forest and the intrusion of civilisation is extremely delicate. Most importantly, it represents the largest surviving tract of tropical lowland rainforest on the Australian continent, remnant of Gondwana land.

The Douglas Shire is a small rural region on the coastline of North East Australia. It is the only place in the World where two World Heritage Areas meet - the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Daintree Rainforest. Over 80% of the Shire is World Heritage listed.

Boasting beautiful beaches, untouched rainforest, river systems, urban land, farmland and Aboriginal land, the Douglas Shire’s economy is built on a relatively new tourism industry and an established agriculture sector.

The Shire accommodates a million visitors a year and produces cattle, a variety of fruit crops and a million tonnes of sugar cane. It also has one of the oldest intact surviving Indigenous communities in the world – the Kuku Yalanji.

The beauty of the Daintree region is due to the variety of nature featured, a total of 8 wildlife habitats - billabong, open grass land, mangroves, riverine, low land rainforest, creeks, cane to estuary habitat. Of Australia's 36 mangrove species, 28 are found in the Daintree. The majestic Daintree River is home for estuarine crocodiles, over 200 species of fish and 70 crustaceans.

The Daintree Rainforest contains 430 recorded species of birdlife (over half the bird population of Australia).

"In two hectares of Daintree Rainforest there are more species of trees than you would find in all of North America or Europe" - Dan Irby, Mangrove Adventures.