About Daintree

Park features

Daintree National Park (CYPAL) is the traditional country of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people. The national park (CYPAL) is comprised of two sections—Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation.

Mossman Gorge

Much of the Mossman Gorge section of Daintree National Park (CYPAL) consists of the rugged, largely inaccessible slopes of the Main Coast Range, and Windsor and Carbine tablelands. It is these steep mountain ranges that trap moisture blown in from the ocean and ensure frequent rainfall, maintaining the rainforest and ultimately feeding the Mossman and Daintree rivers.

Tall, dense rainforests cover the lowlands and stunted, windswept montane rainforests occupy the mountaintops. To the west of the Main Coast Range, open forest and woodlands grow on the drier, western slopes. The park provides a home for a wonderful variety of rainforest animals including tree-kangaroos, musky rat-kangaroos, Australian brush-turkeys and Boyd's forest dragons.

Over millions of years, the Mossman River has carved a steep-sided valley from the upper reaches to the coastal lowlands. Through this valley, crystal-clear water cascades among large granite boulders which have been washed down from the hills during times of heavy flood.

Cape Tribulation

Cape Tribulation, Daintree National Park (CYPAL) features long sandy beaches, rocky headlands and steep mountain ranges intersected by numerous creeks and rivers. One of Australia's last extensive stands of lowland rainforest is found here. Impenetrable ranges, rising steeply from the coast, are blanketed with dense upland rainforests supporting many ancient plants and animals.

The Cape Tribulation section (about 17,000ha) of Daintree National Park (CYPAL) stretches in a narrow, intermittent strip from the Daintree River in the south to the Bloomfield River in the north. The McDowall Range, rising steeply from the coast, forms the western boundary.

A visit to this area gives you a rare chance to experience two of Australia's most significant World Heritage sites—the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics world heritage areas. Both are valued for their exceptional biological diversity.

• Read more about the nature, culture and history of Daintree National Park (CYPAL).

Looking after the park

As part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Daintree National Park (CYPAL) contains outstanding examples of major stages in the earth's evolutionary history, its continuing biological evolution and its exceptional beauty. It also provides habitat for many rare and threatened species.

Please minimise your impact on this special place by taking the following measures:

• Please slow down when driving through cassowary habitat and watch out for cassowaries and their chicks at the roadside.
• Take your rubbish—including food scraps—with you when you leave.
• When boating, go slowly over seagrass beds—dugongs feed here.
• Stay on walking tracks at all times—this reduces the risk of injury, prevents disturbance to native vegetation and reduces erosion.
• Obey signs and regulations—they are in place to protect this area for conservation and nature-based recreation.
• Please do not dispose of foreign material or waste from chemical disposal units in the bio-cycle toilet systems.

See the guidelines on caring for parks for more information about protecting our environment and heritage in parks.

Park management

Daintree National Park (CYPAL), is jointly managed by the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, in accordance with an Indigenous Management Agreement and other land management arrangements.

The area is also managed in collaboration with the Wet Tropics Management Authority, for the purposes of nature conservation and nature-based recreation. It is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and is adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

In 1981 Cape Tribulation National Park was declared, protecting 17,000ha of the Daintree area's remaining rainforest. It was amalgamated into Daintree National Park in 1995. With the combination of Cape Tribulation and Mossman sections, Daintree National Park (CYPAL) now encompasses 73,500ha.

Tourism information links

Mossman Gorge Centre
www.mossmangorge.com.au
212R Mossman Gorge Road, Mossman QLD 4873
ph (07) 4099 7000
email walk@mossmangorge.com.au

For tourism information for all regions in Queensland see Queensland Holidays.