Cassowaries assist in seed dispersal by spreading the rainforest seeds via their droppings. According to information obtained at the Cassowary Summit in Cairns last week, Cassowaries are known eat the fruit of some 248 different types of rainforest trees.

The seedlings planted over the past two years are now well established with some trees now between 3 to 4 metres high and the subsequent plantings are also doing well. The 8 hectare block, located on Cape Tribulation Road at Diwan, was initially cleared for development before it was purchased by the Queensland Government in the 1990s as part of the government’s Daintree Buy Back Scheme.

A Memorandum of Understanding is in place with the EPA’s Queensland Parks and Wildlife Department to revegetate the block of denuded land in the Daintree. Before planting, the Discovery Centre staff embarked on a weed eradication program.

Local school children are encouraged to collect seeds and the Daintree Cassowary Care Group plays a crucial role in propagating thousands of trees for revegetation. Additional plantings will continue in conjunction with groups such as Rainforest Rescue and the Daintree Cassowary Care Group.

The multi award winning Discovery Centre is a world-class interpretive facility nestled in the heart of the rainforest, just 10 kilometres north of the Daintree River and boasts a spectacular Aerial Walkway leading to a 23m high Canopy Tower.

The tower provides viewing of the very top of the rainforest canopy, while the walkway allows unprecedented access to the mid level rainforest. For international visitors, Audio-Guides are available in 6 languages.

An accredited Wet Tropics visitor Information Centre, the Daintree Discovery Centre also carries Advanced Eco-Tourism Accreditation and is open daily from 8.30am to 5pm.

The sweat! The sun! The bugs! But the trees, my goodness, the trees! Tree planting isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

This June, my partner Jon and I had the opportunity to do some re-generation work in the Daintree for Rainforest Rescue. We worked alongside David Cook, the Daintree Conservation Project Officer (a lovely man), as well as Conservation Volunteers Australia (a diverse group of eager planters) as we planted 4,000 trees over two weeks. We planted two sites: one of which was a residential property that had been bought back by the Queensland Government; the other site was a privately owned and inhabited site that was mostly covered in Guinea Grass, a weed which the owner was more than happy to replace with rainforest trees.

There were many different native species of trees that we planted on each property, inter-mingling them all to try and re-create the biodiversity already found in untouched areas of the Daintree. The trees were just seedlings, “babies” as David Cook calls them, and each one needed to be planted with care. The gentler you are with the trees the more likely they are to survive, so we did our best to nurture the seedlings as they were introduced to their new homes.

The trees may be small when they start out, but they do grow quickly in the tropical climate. We visited sites that Rainforest Rescue planted over a year ago, and the progress is amazing. The best part is: the trees aren’t going anywhere. Ever. I only wish I could live for a few hundred years so I could see these re-generated areas turn into the lush rainforest areas that surround them; filled with all kinds of wildlife. On one of the sites we were lucky enough to see a male cassowary and his two babies one morning as they poked around the newly planted trees finding fallen cassowary plums to munch on. If I come back as a cassowary in my next life, I know I will most definitely make my home amongst some of the trees that we’ve planted.

As a couple of city folk who walked into the Plant a Rainforest Project without too much tree experience, we feel really proud and excited about what we were able to accomplish in two weeks. The entire project is so simple and effective and it’s run by a great group of dedicated and passionate people. Time and money raised by Rainforest Rescue is directly translated into putting trees in the ground—ground that really needs trees. It doesn’t get much more simple than that.