Daintree Rainforest Discussion

Guest · Guest

I see so many questions on this site about, What is the Daintree's Unique features etc.

Here is some interesting info i have found...

How the Daintree received it's name

The Daintree River and Rainforest was named after Richard Daintree, born 1832, died in 1878.

Following early education in his native Britain, Richard Daintree moved to Australia in order to seek a warmer climate. He found employment in the early 1850s as a geologist with the Victorian Geological Survey. During this time he took up photography and was one of the first scientists to employ this new technology in fieldwork.

Daintree moved to Queensland in 1864 having tired of the routine work involved in the Survey. After a pastoral venture, he persuaded the Queensland Government to establish their own Geological Survey. He became the first geological surveyor of North Queensland where he located rich mineral deposits and stimulated the opening up of the Cape River, Gilbert and Etheridge goldfields.

He prepared a collection of geological specimens for the London Exhibition of 1871 but the ship carrying them was wrecked off the coast of South Africa! Daintree and his family escaped unharmed as did his collection of photographs, which provided a successful exhibition and drew immigrants to Queensland. The show was so successful it led to Daintree being appointed Queensland Agent-General in London, a post he held vigorously for four years. When his health began to fail he moved to France for the winter but died in Britain in 1878 at the age of 46.

The Daintree River and Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland commemorate his life.

Why is the Daintree important

Australia has 15 world heritage properties. Five are in Queensland, one of the most naturally diverse places on earth.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988.

The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area is an outstanding tourist destination, and currently plays host to millions of tourists each year, and is estimated to generate over AUS $750 million each year.

It is one of a handful of sites worldwide which meet all four criteria for World Heritage Listing:

·represents a major stage of the earth’s evolutionary history
·is an outstanding example of ongoing ecological and biological processes
·contains superlative natural phenomena
·contains the most important natural habitats for conservation of biological diversity

The Wet Tropics contain one of the most complete and diverse living records of the major stages in the evolution of land plants, from the very first land plants to higher plants (Gymnosperms and Angiosperms), as well as one of the most important living records of the history of marsupials and songbirds. The property provides exceptional examples representing eight of the major stages in the earth’s evolutionary history including:

·Age of the Pteridophytes
·Age of the Conifers and Cycads
·Age of the Angiosperms
·the final break-up of Gondwana
·biological evolution and radiation during 35 million years of isolation
·the origin and radiation of the songbirds
·the mixing of the continental biota of the Australian and Asian continental plates, and
·the extreme effects of the Pleistocene glacial periods on tropical rainforest vegetation

The area protected under World Heritage listing covers an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres, stretching from Townsville to Cooktown, 75% of which is tropical rainforest an area equivalent to about the size of Sydney. Included are many national parks such as Daintree, Barron Gorge and Wooroonooran National Parks.

The World Heritage Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef meet between the coastal stretches of the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation to showcase a panorama of breathtaking beauty and exceptional biodiversity. It is the only place on earth where two World Heritage areas exist side by side.

---------------------------------------------

The canopy of the Daintree Rainforest is up to 45 metres above the forest floor. It is a food source for insects, birds and possums, and also serves as a habitat for species that live in the high trees such as snakes. These animals living in the canopy play a crucial role in the survival of animals that inhabit the rainforest floor by knocking down fruit from the trees.

On a principle level, rainforests are essential to human life because they turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Carbon dioxide in the air created by burning wood, car engines etc, is removed and stored in the leaves, branches, roots and stems of plants. This collecting of carbon dioxide helps reduce the amount of pollution in the air, and in turn assists in reducing the greenhouse effect.

But there is another, more scientifically minded reason that highlights the importance of the Australian Daintree Rainforest. Scientists are quickly learning that cures to diseases that affect humans can be found in the rainforest of the world, including the Daintree Rainforest. There are plants that live in these ecosystems that are found in extremely small numbers, and losses of these types of plants could mean losses of potential cures.

However, scientists looking for anti-cancer properties have only been able to test 1 in 10 tropical forest plants to date. Drugs used daily around the world have come from the rainforest, including aspirin. Tropical rainforests have provided chemicals used to treat muscular inflammation and tension, diabetes, malaria, heart conditions, rheumatism, skin conditions, and arthritis. Chemicals are found in rainforests that act as stimulants, tranquillisers, and contraceptives.

Researchers found a tree from the Malaysian rainforest in 1987 that was totally effective at killing the HIV-1 visus. Unfortunately, they were never able to find the tree again…but they’re still looking.

Even though we live in an age where we believe that science has all the answers and we know everything about the planet we live on, there are still plants and animals in the rainforests that have not yet been discovered by humans.

Hope some of this helps...