"It's what the ancestors would have wanted": a historic homecoming for the Daintree
Ten rainforest properties have been permanently returned to the care of their Traditional Owners. This moment has been decades in the making, and it happened because of you.
Today, we celebrate something extraordinary.
More than 28 hectares of endangered, irreplaceable Daintree lowland rainforest, including ten rainforest properties acquired by Save the Daintree, have been permanently transferred into Daintree National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land).
Protected forever
Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land, or CYPAL, is a unique category of protected area in Queensland where First Nations Traditional Owners hold Aboriginal freehold title to the land, while jointly managing it as a national park alongside the Queensland Government.
The land is now owned by Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation on behalf of Traditional Owners, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, and jointly managed with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
Country returned to the people who have always cared for it
Nine of these ten properties sit on the Bubu (Country) of Aunty Lyn Johnson, an Eastern Kuku Yalanji Elder who has watched this moment come together for years.
For the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, this is not simply a conservation outcome. It is a homecoming, Bama (people) once again caring for Bubu (Country), as they have for tens of thousands of years.
"It's what the ancestors would have wanted. It's what I want to see — Bama caring for Bubu,” she said.
"Having this Bubu returned to Bama allows healing to occur. It gives me hope for the future."
Kelvin Davies with Kuku Yalanji Traditional Elder, Aunty Lyn Johnson.
How we got here
This moment has been decades in the making.
In 1982, a controversial subdivision carved the Daintree Lowland Rainforest into hundreds of freehold lots, cutting some of the most critically important cassowary habitat on Earth out of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and leaving hectares of irreplaceable rainforest exposed and unprotected.
With your support, 36 properties have since been purchased and protected through the Save The Daintree program. While buying back this land gives it protection, our teams have worked tirelessly to take it one step further, incorporating it into Daintree National Park for the highest, most absolute form of protection there is.
Today, ten of those properties cross that final threshold.
Lot 3, Thornton Peak Road. One of ten properties transferred to the Daintree National Park today.
You made this happen
Here's what makes this milestone so remarkable. Tens of thousands of individuals, people making a choice, to Save the Daintree. Passionate supporters like you, who believed this rainforest was worth saving. Every hectare protected today exists because thousands of people chose to act.
This transfer is also the culmination of more than six years of collaboration between Gondwana Rainforest Trust, Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation, the Queensland Government and the Wet Tropics Management Authority. In 2021, a single property was transferred into Daintree National Park (CYPAL). Today's transfer of 10 additional properties marks a major expansion of that achievement and proof that this pathway works.
The oldest continuously existing rainforest on Earth.
A milestone, not a finish line
We celebrate today knowing the work isn't done. Hundreds of hectares of high-conservation-value lowland rainforest remain outside permanent protection, still vulnerable to the same fate this land so nearly faced.
But today shows what's possible when donors, conservation organisations, Traditional Owners and government move towards a shared goal. Every property we secure brings the Daintree one step closer to a permanently protected landscape that future generations will inherit, rather than lose.
As we celebrate this milestone achievement, we know one thing for sure. We couldn't have done this without you.
Thank you for making it happen.
There's still rainforest to save. Join us in protecting the next block!