110 Cape Tribulation Rd

We thought this landscape was lost forever…
Turns out, it was waiting for you.

With your help we can begin a new era of restoration.

To plant more trees, we need seedlings, land, and you. 110 Cape Tribulation Rd is 30 hectares (75 acres) of former sugarcane land consisting of around 5 hectares (12.5 acres) of naturally regenerated habitat and 25 hectares (62.5 acres) that can be restored. Perfect for replanting a rainforest, one seedling at a time.

Turning back time.

For much of the past 25 years our primary focus was the forever protection of intact Daintree Rainforest habitat. With our supporter’s help, Rainforest Rescue purchased small parcels of rainforest to protect them from the impact of development.

This is a great strategy because it works. With now almost 300 acres protected, it has provided vital habitat and connectivity. However, times have changed and while purchasing and protecting rainforest forever is effective, it is inherently a passive act—we must do more, we must now be active.

This is not because our ambitions have grown. It is now impossible—or wishful thinking—to ignore the environmental and biodiversity crises which we all face, and which demand our ever-greater action.

Our hope has been that one day we can significantly increase the number of trees planted and the area of rainforest restored. To do this we need capacity to grow and plant… and land to restore into rainforest.

That day has come, and with your help we can replant a rainforest from scratch.

We have done something very similar which started almost ten years ago with Lot 46— now restored and renamed ‘Kurranji Bubu’.

Coupled with our regular community tree plantings at ‘Nightwings’ we’ve proven that it is entirely possible to regrow viable, lush rainforest habitat.

We now have the ideal site to do this at a greater scale: 110 Cape Tribulation Road.

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“This 30 hectare site at 110 Cape Tribulation Road was a former sugar cane farm, and its cost of $425,000 makes this purchase the largest in our history. The board has committed to this purchase with a deposit recently paid. This is indeed a new era. This is your vision coming to life; and as one of our most trusted and loyal donors, I urge you to support this today.”

— Rachel White, Chair of Rainforest Rescue

Your vision coming to life

It is only because of visionary supporters like yourself who have given us the means to build the most productive and largest native nursery in the Wet Tropics that we can achieve all we have. With this new nursery we now have the ability to propagate up to 150,000 trees a year, which is an almost twelve-fold increase in our seedling capacity.

However, we can’t do anything with the seeds—or anything with the trees—without somewhere to plant them. So, we need land, and lots of it. This is why we’ve identified 110 Cape Tribulation Road as the perfect location to launch this new chapter.

Why 110 Cape Tribulation Rd?

It’s 30Ha (75 acres) of former sugarcane land.
It has around 5Ha (12.5 acres) of naturally regenerated habitat.
It has a very significant 25Ha (62.5 acres) that can be restored: it’s rare and threatened ecosystem designations will provide habitat for the regional and migratory species that rely on these ecotypes for their very survival, and
It has a high-profile location on the main road to the Daintree Ferry which will be the ideal spot for an information centre on the Daintree and for future community planting days.

Time for transition

Our local area has been faced with very significant economic changes and challenges, including the recent closure of the sugarcane mill here in Mossman, just south of the Daintree. Many landowners have been hurt by this change, and we feel for them.

Yet, the harshness of this new reality means there is indeed land coming onto the market that is ripe for new methods and purposes.

In a few years, this will become a part of what will drive the new Green Economy and help transition a region that has been utterly dependent on government-subsidised sugarcane farming, to one that leads the way in restoration and climate-positive agricultural programs.

It is a bittersweet twist that this change can become exactly the kind of activity which will help amplify the kind of environmental change we want at a local level and at a national level.

However, whilst this means that now and in the years to come, there will be an increasing number of sites that were once agricultural land coming onto the market. Properties such as 110 Cape Tribulation Road, with its intact habitat to conserve and with room alongside to restore, are still relatively rare.

A site survey also reveals that prized ecosystems at 110 Cape Tribulation Road exist and is quite rare due to the ubiquity of sugarcane farming; the land is relatively flat aiding regrowth, it is within a flooding/ high tidal flood area and our assessment revealed that a tractor can easily be used for maintenance… another requirement for scale.

DONATE TODAY

You to the rescue

We currently have approximately 12 months of land to plant at the Cow Bay Airstrip and ‘Nightwings’, and purchasing this project would provide crucial stability for our Nursery, Land management and a consistent supply of trees for sponsorship.

Thanks to incredible supporters like you, we know we can do this.

You’ve been with us every step of the way as we’ve gone from growth to adding programs that will make for a greener, cooler future for everyone.

When walking around 110 Cape Tribulation Road, it’s easy to imagine all the sugarcane and cattle farming that’s occurred in this area was once pristine rainforest.

Whilst it is not up to us, or our generation, to judge the deeds of previous generations, we have a very unique opportunity to do something magnificent; to re-create the kind of rainforest that once existed, and to create the kind of signal that our efforts—your efforts—will show that tangible action to protect what we all love is not just fantasy, it’s real.

When we think of the scale and enormity of the challenges that face us, we know that with your continued support, the question isn’t ‘can we do this?’, because we know we can, and we will.