The Daintree Lowland Rainforest is a remarkable yet vulnerable part of the world’s oldest tropical rainforest. Approximately half of these rainforest lowlands have been cleared since European settlement, leaving behind fragmented pockets of habitat that still support an extraordinary diversity of ancient plants, threatened wildlife and species found nowhere else on Earth. Discover why these remaining rainforest refuges are so important and how protecting them helps reconnect and strengthen this globally significant ecosystem.

The area known as the Daintree Lowland Rainforest is a narrow strip of tropical coastal lowland rainforest extending for approximately 70km between the Daintree River Estuary and Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland. Bounded by the mountains of the Great Dividing Range to the west and the Coral Sea to the east, the lowlands range from a narrow fringe to around 23km in width. It is located two hours drive north of the city of Cairns.

In many parts of this coastal corridor, the hilly slopes of the Great Dividing Range fall quite steeply into the Coral Sea, creating one of Australia’s last extensive areas of tropical lowland rainforest and mangroves.

Approximately half of the rainforest in these lowlands has been cleared since European settlement – click here to read more about the History of Development in the Daintree. The remaining rainforest is of exceptionally high biodiversity and conservation value.

Widely acknowledged by scientists as the oldest tropical rainforest in the world, the Daintree is estimated to have been evolving and thriving for as many as 180 million years.

The Daintree Rainforest contains an almost complete record of the evolution of plant life on Earth and has more ancient families of flowering plants than anywhere else in the world, including the entire Amazon jungle. From a total of 19 primitive flowering plant families on Earth, 12 families are represented in the Daintree region. This exceptional concentration of ancient plant lineages provides one of the most complete living records of plant evolution anywhere in the world.

The Daintree is part of the broader Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, a globally recognised landscape of outstanding biodiversity and evolutionary significance. The Wet Tropics has been recognised as the second most irreplaceable natural World Heritage Area on Earth and the sixth most irreplaceable protected area globally due to its exceptional concentration of endemic and threatened species.

The Idiospermum australiense (aka the Idiot Fruit), which is only found in the Daintree Rainforest, is one of the rarest and most primitive flowering plants known and scientists believe is a vital link for the search into the origins of flowering plants.

There are 39 rare or threatened species of plants found in the Daintree National Park such as the vulnerable Trailing sundew (Drosera prolifera), the near-threatened Giant-leaved stenocarpus (Stenocarpus cryptocarpus), and the critically endangered Yellow penda (Ristantia pachysperma).

The Daintree National Park is also home to some incredible animals including 10 rare or threatened species of animals such as the near-threatened Bennett’s tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus bennettianus), the endangered Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii), and the critically endangered Eastern curlew (Numenius madagascariensis).

In fact, the Daintree is home to 30% of Australia’s frog, reptile, and marsupial species, 65% of Australia’s bat and butterfly species as well as 18% of all bird species. Not to mention the 12,000 insect species!

Many of these plant and animal species are endemic to the region, meaning that they are found nowhere else on the planet. Protecting and restoring the remaining lowland rainforest helps reconnect fragmented habitat, create wildlife corridors, and support the long-term survival of these unique species.