Forest Creek wetlands

The extensive drainage and clearing of coastal swamps in Queensland, mostly for sugar cane, is yet another reason we must save the Daintree. 

Driving along the Queensland coast, the most common sight is cattle and cane. Then you get to the Daintree River. On the north side of the Daintree River, mangroves hug the banks and and wetlands extend over the Daintree River delta. In the last 5 years, we have purchased 33 properties in the Daintree Lowlands (between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation). Now we're aiming to save one more and protect the rainforest and wetland ecosystems at Lot 68 Forest Creek Road. 

The vegetation on neighbouring Lot 70 Forest Creek Road, Forest Creek.

The rainforest on both Lot 68 and previously purchased Lot 70 Forest Creek Road is important in maintaining a vegetated wildlife corridor across the landscape as the property is a component of a significant and extensive tract of forest from the mangrove wetland delta of the Daintree River to the Alexandra Range and Thornton Peak to the immediate north.

The boundary of Lot 68 is close to the Daintree River.

Both of these properties contain swathes of Regional Ecosystem 7.3.10c: Mesophyll vine forest with scattered feather palms (Archontophoenix alexandrae) in the sub-canopy and seasonally inundated lowland alluvial plains. 

The northern bank of the Daintree River contains good biodiversity and good fish habitat, including an isolated population of McCullough’s rainbow fish (Melanotaenia maccullochi) which is morphologically distinctive. The location is also home to endangered species of frogs.

The majority of Lot 68 and 70 is mapped as Aquatic Conservation Significant (riverine wetlands).

Gilgai microrelief is a feature of these properties. This occurs when the clay soil layers shrink and swell during alternate drying and wetting cycles. This gradually forces 'blocks' of subsoil material upwards to form mounds. This effect allows trees to grow on the mounds, increasing the mounding effect with the stabilising influence of their roots. The tree species that are able to grow here are dependent on the level of mounding versus inundation, with specific species able to live on the raised mounds and the alternating ponded areas being largely vacant of trees; creating a cryptic feeling environment. Many of the successful plant species here have survived the unusual conditions by developing aerial roots and spongy raised lenticles as access oxygen, as it is limited in the anaerobic soil.

Ecologist Kristopher Kupsch surveying native plants. 

The sites are seasonally ponded, containing palustrine wetlands in the lower reaches bordering the Daintree River delta. The forest in this region is dominated by swamp box (Lophostemon suaveolens), melaleuca spp. with brown gardenia (Atractocarpus fitzalanii) and red beech (Dillenia alata) often dominant in the understorey.

Red Beech (Dillenia alata) is more common in lowland forests, particularly on coastal lowlands.

Large Broad-leaved Paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia). 

Fan Palm (Licuala ramsayi). 

Broad-leaved Paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia)

A Matters of State Environmental Significance (MSES) report identified Lot 68 as having core habitat for the endangered Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) which is listed as endangered under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Cassowaries are most often found in rainforest but also use melaleuca swamps, mangroves to find food and as connecting habitat. 

Tropical wetland provide habitat for a range of creatures 

Fan Palm (Licuala ramsayi) and Broad-leaved Paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia)

Ponded wetlands (on poorly drained alluvium soils) fill during the wet season creating seasonal swamps. 

Climbing Pandanus (Freycinetia percostata)

Climbing pandanus (Freycinetia percostata) was identified within paperbark dominated forest its southern limit is at the Daintree River thus this occurrence is at its geographical extreme. It is listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.