The Daintree Rainforest Of North Queensland
The Daintree Rainforest is a living museum!
It is over one hundred and thirty-five million years old - the oldest continuous living tropical rainforest in the world. It contains one of the most complete and diverse living records of the major stages in the evolution of the land plants, from the very first plants on land to the higher plants. It also provides one of the most important living records of the history of marsupials and the songbirds, containing species that are older than human life itself. The Daintree Rainforest is also internationally recognised as being very significant in one particularly important stage of the earth’s evolutionary history, namely the origin, evolution and dispersal of flowering plants.
The Daintree Rainforest in Tropical Far North Queensland is home to the largest range of plant and animal species that are rare, or threatened anywhere in the world and abounds with bio-diversity, containing 30% of all frog, marsupial and reptile species in Australia, and 65% of Australia's bat and butterfly species.
The Daintree Rainforest is also significant in terms of bird populations with 20% of all bird species in the country found in this area. Approximately 430 different species of birds live in the rainforest, including 13 species that are found nowhere else in the world!
In recognition of its universal natural values and to ensure the long term preservation of this fragile eco-system, the Daintree Rainforest was added to the World Heritage List in 1988.
Four criteria are used to assess whether an area containing natural heritage should be included on the World Heritage List. The Daintree Rainforest is exceptional in that it is one of only twelve natural World Heritage sites worldwide that meet all four criteria.
These criteria are, that the site:
- Be an outstanding example of the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history
- Be an outstanding example of significant ongoing geological and biological processes and man’s interaction with his natural environment
- Be an example of superlative natural phenomena, and
- Contain the most important and significant natural habitats where threatened species of animals or plants of outstanding universal value live.
The Daintree area is adjacent to another World Heritage site of equal importance, the Great Barrier Reef making it the only place in the world where two natural World Heritage Listed sites meet…The reef meets the rainforest!
Credits: Article by Craig and Dianne Pocock.
