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Australia - South Queensland - Daintree Rainforest
and Cape Tribulation
The Daintree Rainforest is over one hundred and thirty-five million years old – the oldest in the world. Approximately 430 species of birds live among the trees, including 13 species that are found nowhere else in the world.
North of Cairns in
tropical far North Queensland, the Daintree is one of the most diverse and beautiful examples of Mother Nature in the world. It is home to the largest range of plants and animals on earth, and all are found within the largest chunk of rainforest in Australia - an area spanning approximately 1200 square kilometres.
This World Heritage Listed area contains the highest number of plant and animal species that are rare, or threatened with extinction, anywhere in the world. The Daintree Rainforest is a unique area, precariously balanced between the advances of development and the warnings of environmentalists.
The Daintree Rainforest contains 30% of frog, marsupial and reptile species in Australia, and 65% of Australia's bat and butterfly species. 20% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. And it all lives in an area that takes up 0.2% of the landmass of Australia. The Daintree Rainforest's addition to the World Heritage List in 1988 in recognition of its universal natural values highlighted the rainforest as being:
• An outstanding example of the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history
• An outstanding example of significant ongoing ecological and biological processes
• An example of superlative natural phenomena
• Containing important and significant habitats for
conservation of biological diversity . |