Cairns, Australia - RAINFOREST - 1 of 2

Although many people go to Cairns to visit the Great Barrier Reef, we decided to go on an adventure to the Rainforest, the OLDEST (yes, older than the Amazon), largest and most complex in the World (about 15 miles from Cairns). The Wet Tropics is one half of a unique relationship, as Tropical North Queensland is the only place where two natural World Heritage Areas meet – the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest. Interestingly, what looks like two separate environments are really one big lifeform as rainforest and reef were once connected. At one time, the rainforest stretched all the way out to the continental edge where the Great Barrier Reef grows today. It’s only in the last 500,000 years or so that rising sea levels flooded the rainforest to create the foundation of the reef.

Caines is a city with a little under 200,000 people. It has been a significant port since 1876 when sugar cane was important here and in WWII when it was a strategic staging location. It is also one of the world’s oldest cultures, with 20 rainforest Aboriginal tribal groups having land and cultural connections here. These days the economy is mostly tourism.

On the Wet Tropics World Heritage list since 1988, the rainforest stretches from Cooktown to Townsville in Tropical North Queensland, being a living museum of ancient plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world (many rare and endangered with some that have changed very little since prehistoric times.)

Why do the Wet Tropics Rainforest survive after millions of years? It’s due to a combination of moisture, temperature, wind direction and altitude. The prevailing south-easterly airstream in this region blows warm moist air towards the shore. This combined with the height and orientation of the mountain ranges in relation to the coastline has provided perfect conditions ensuring this unique ecosystem has survived dramatic changes in climate.

Water, water, everywhere...Rainforests play a vital role in the ongoing existence of human beings; they help to clean the air we breathe by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing the oxygen that we inhale. Rainforests also help to regulate the water cycle, can influence the local climate and are an important source of food and medicine.

We went to the World Heritage Kuranda Rainforest and Skyrail Cableway. We took the skyrail gondola over the tropical rainforest canopy for almost 5 miles, often barely clearing the treetops. It was a “botanically interesting area” with many diverse environments. The dense closed canopy formed by the larger rainforest trees often starves the forest floor below of up to 99% of available light and many plants have developed some unique adaptations (for example, the Strangler Fig tree grows from the top down, rather than the ground up) since in the rainforest, light means life.

The cableway has 2 mid-stations, at one of the stops we took the walkways to Barron Falls and Gorge and the other was Red Peak. Red Peak provided a walkway right through a land of tree and plants that we had never seen anywhere. I started to note all the names but there were hundreds. One of the interesting vines that climbs up for light and we saw and had to be careful of was the "wait-a-while" (or lawyer vine), a native Australian climbing palm or thorny vine that flourishes in rainforests. It is called "wait-a-while" because of its hook-covered stems that snag the skin and clothing of passing walkers, forcing them to stop and untangle themselves. It is very strong and long and is used to make cane. Another is the Queensland Kauri which grows tall and fast through the canopy, dropping its branched so that nothing can follow it up. Other plants like the Oskar and Pioneer species lie in wait for up to 20 years and then when they get a little light they take advantage of it. The basket ferns live “upon other plants”. Songbirds (Passeri) evolved right here in this ancient rainforest before spreading their songs across the world. There are more than 200 species of songbird in the rainforest and they all sing! Interestingly, some animals like geckos have existed here for 540 million years unchanged (who found that out?).

So with all the animals, where are the monkeys in all these trees? There are none because when Australia collided with Asia (45 million years ago) there was no land connecting them only islands and monkeys can’t swim so they didn’t get here.

Our other stop on the cableway was known as Dindin to the Djabuganydji people. Barron Falls is a sacred place that has been an important part of these people’s culture and stories for thousands of years. Although it was pouring while we were there, the benefit was that the tropical rains really gave life to the waterfall (see photos).

What did we see in the Rainforest? Many of the 633 species of vertebrate animals, 230 butterfly species, 2900 plant species (25% of which are found nowhere in the world). This place has 58% of the worlds 28 lineages of primitive flowering plants including 15 different types of fungi which are critical to the recycling nutrients to plants and animals (mushrooms, puffballs, jelly…).

Australia’s Wet Tropics Rainforest are an exceptional, natural environment. To protect these rainforests and ensure they are preserved for future generations, they were placed on the World Heritage list in 1988. To qualify as a World heritage site you must meet one criterion and this incredible place according to records, meets all 4: represents a major stage of the earth’s evolutionary history (the rainforests of Tropical North Queensland are like a window on how the world once was), provide outstanding examples of ongoing environmental processes (the rainforest landscape contains clues as to how our world continues to evolve), contain the highest quality of natural occurrences, or areas of natural beauty (Australia’s Tropical Rainforests are a place of exceptional natural beauty) and contain the most important natural areas for the conservation of the variety of life (Australia’s Tropical Rainforests are home to many rare and endangered plants and animals).

This living museum is the home of lush fern gardens, climbing palms, rare butterflies, birds and imposing rainforest giants, all of which are in constant competition for life-giving light. We passed by waterfalls, crossed 40 bridges, 15 tunnels and climbed over 1,000 feet to arrive in Kuranda (which used to be a logging and mining town), a nice local mountain village with many habitats that can be visited.
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