The Daintree Rainforest

When you cross the Daintree River and enter the Daintree Coast, the journey to Cape Tribulation is a stunning scenic drive through World Heritage Rainforest and the Daintree National Park. The rainforest on the Daintree Coast is believed to be the oldest rainforest in the world having been continuously covered by rainforest for more than 135 million years.

The Cow Bay rainforest has been classified as An Outstanding Cassowary Habitat Zone by scientific researchers Crome and Moore in 1993. In the lowland and swamps of western Cow Bay the population density of cassowaries is as high as in the best habitats in Mission Beach. This means that you have a good chance of sighting a cassowary while you are staying on the Daintree Coast.

Visitors are often surprised to find residential communities where they expected to see uninhabited ‘wilderness’, but part of the rainforest that you drive through in Cow Bay is privately owned freehold land.

There are many different ways that you can explore the rainforest on the Daintree Coast. Some local residents offer guided rainforest walks on their own property, and your support enables the local community to thrive on ecotourism. The businesses who offer guided walks provide a variety of rainforest tours — 2 hour, half day and night walks. Night walks provide a special opportunity to interact with the nocturnal life in the rainforest, and you will be surprised how much you see with a trained guide by spotlight.

“It's such a different experience to the day walk, and it's just awesome to walk right underneath sleeping birds that are so you close you could reach out and touch them!“
Lindy Mills, Melbourne, Victoria

If you would like to get into the rainforest canopy and view the rainforest from above, there are several options — climbing the Canopy Tower and the aerial walkway or travelling on a series of ziplines or flying fox cables.

If you would prefer to explore the rainforest independently, there are a number of self guided walk options on the Daintree Coast. National Park boardwalks provide interpretation signage and you can refer to the Guided Activities for more information. There is a 3 kilometre Orange Rope Walk at Crocodylus Village; a self guided rainforest regeneration walk at The Bat House; and self guided walks accompanied by multi–lingual audio–guides at the Daintree Discovery Centre. There is also a self-guided walk through low-lying rainforest and mangroves on the Daintree River - Daintree Rainforest and River Boardwalk.

If you would like to visit interactive displays and learn more about the area, there are three interpretive centres located on the Daintree Coast — The Daintree Discovery Centre, Daintree Entomological Museum and The Bat House, which are open daily, except for The Bat House which is closed on Mondays.