This article originally featured in the Wanderer. I wrote it after taking a trip of a lifetime to Cape York – the most remote and beautiful place I've ever seen.
It’s dusk in the tropics. The deafening chirp of thousands of cicadas provides the perfect cover as we tiptoe along the rainforest track in search of the shy and elusive spotted cuscus.
We’re in Iron Range National Park – over 750 kilometres north of Cairns in Cape York Peninsula – one of Australia’s largest lowland rainforests. We’re closer to Papua New Guinea right now than we are to Cairns, and the wildlife here reflects this. Thanks to a land bridge that connected the two countries around 6000 years ago, the species up here share more in common with our northern neighbours than with the rest of Australia.
Our headlamps are aimed high into the canopy in the hope of catching the reflection from the bulbous eyes of the fascinating but notoriously shy tree-dwelling marsupial.
Suddenly, a glint high up in an ancient fig tree brings us to a stop. The eyes of the spotted cuscus are illuminated as the beautiful creature skillfully maneuvers through the rainforest canopy in search of the most succulent shoots.
A couple of trees over, something else catches our eye – are they stars? Why are they moving? Our resident ecologist and former Head Ranger at Daintree National Park, Jeremy Little, fills us in. They’re fireflies, and they light up the trees like fairy lights. As we walk further along the rainforest track, we’re delighted to discover a magnificent green tree python constricting a branch. It’s vivid and muscular, and it’s courteous enough to pose for some glamour shots.
This place is nothing short of magical.
A rich and ancient culture
We’re on a 10-day educational trip to one of Australia’s most spectacular, diverse and remote regions, and there’s a lot to fit in. The Wilderness Society is campaigning alongside Traditional Owners for a World Heritage nomination for the Cape, and we’re ready to soak it all in.
We begin our journey in Cairns, winding our way through the lush Wet Tropics and the Great Dividing Range. The thin strip of emerald green rainforest that hugs the coastline quickly dissipates to reveal drier woodlands and endless savannah.
First stop, Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival at Ang-Narra festival grounds about 330 kilometres north-west of Cairns. This biennial event has been running for over 35 years and attracts more than 5000 people, 20 communities and 500 dancers. It’s a captivating display of the many different dances and traditions of Australia’s rich Indigenous culture and leaves a deep impression on anyone lucky enough to visit.
Indigenous management
A short 15 minute drive north along the development road from the festival and you’ll find the most accessible of the abundant rock art in Quinkan Country – Split Rock. The rock art scattered around Quinkan Country is recognised by UNESCO as being among the top 10 Indigenous art sites in the world and dates back between 15,000 and 30,000 years.
To discover some of the more inaccessible hidden rock art, you’ll have to organise a local Indigenous guide. This can be arranged at the Quinkan Regional Cultural Centre just up the road from Split Rock.
Further up the development road is our next destination, The Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). We are staying at the Chuulangan campgrounds, just near what was once called the “Wenlock Outstation”.
The Kuuku I'yu Northern Kaanju people are the custodians of some 840,000 hectares of pristine country around the Wenlock and Pascoe rivers. From riparian rainforests to open savannah to extensive lagoon systems, the diversity of landscape is simply staggering. The campgrounds are very comfortable at ‘Chuula’ with hot showers, toilets and plenty of space. It’s pet friendly too, but keep a keen eye on them, there are snakes everywhere.
The Wilderness Society is a firm believer in supporting IPAs as being included in part of a World Heritage nomination on the Cape. Gavan McFadzean, our Northern Australia Campaigner, explains why:
“The declaration of a World Heritage Area would pave the way for a new economic future for Cape York – one where protecting, managing and showcasing the Cape’s spectacular natural and cultural environment is the foundation for growth in jobs and new enterprises.
“These are vitally needed in a region in which Indigenous people suffer serious disadvantage. Yet at the same time their homelands provide a great competitive advantage to them in developing a sustainable regional economy for the 21st century”
Lockhart River
Our next stop, Lockhart River, is a small and remote community with it’s fair share of challenges. The people of Lockhart face many hardships in health, economic and social development, yet their rich, proud culture shines through in spades.
This is embodied at the Lockhart River Art Centre – an internationally-renowned Indigenous art gallery and workshop featuring works of local Indigenous artists. The art here is irresistible, and all the proceeds go to the artists and back into the running of the centre.
As part of the oldest continuous human culture on earth, it’s already clear that Indigenous cultural life remains rich, unique and strong on the Cape.
Astounding biodiversity
North of Lockhart River is Iron Range National Park and Chili Beach. This is where the forest meets the sea. Camping at Chili Beach is like having your own slice of paradise – coconut palms line the pure white sands as the rainforest forms a curtain of green just beyond the dunes.
In Iron Range National Park you can find cassowaries, cuscus, eclectus parrots, palm cockatoos, fig parrots and many more unique species.
Cape York's biodiversity is staggering – it contains half of Australia's bird species, one third of the country’s mammal species, and one quarter of the species of frogs and reptiles. To give you an idea of the pristine nature of the Cape, conservation scientists and Indigenous knowledge holders have identified five new species last year alone. It’s truly mind-blowing stuff.
Australia Zoo of the north
We venture inland from the coast once again on our way to Australia Zoo’s research station, Bertihaugh, in the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve.
Thirty kilometres from our destination, we make a quick stop at Moreton Telegraph Station – one of a handful of stations in the more remote parts of the Cape that provide the essentials and an opportunity to call home or grab a few supplies.
Not long after Moreton, we arrive at the Bertihaugh gate and start the 80 kilometre journey to our campsite (these are the sort of distances you deal in up here!) by the Wenlock River through open forest, vine thickets, and prehistoric cycad groves.
Australia Zoo’s research facility hosts guests from all over the world, from scientists, to students and even just interested volunteers. The wet season is when most of their work is done – tagging and studying the local saltwater crocodiles that inhabit the Wenlock. Over dinner, our host tells us a story of a ‘saltie’ they tracked in the wet season that walked over 10 kilometres inland from lagoon to lagoon. I’m glad it’s the dry season.
As I’m setting up my tent for the evening, I observe tiny gliders scurrying around the trunks of a towering eucalyptus tree feasting on yellow blossoms. I’m momentarily distracted from the glider show by a tawny rocket frog that lands on my foot mid-hop, it’s a little beauty.
The diversity of the landscape at Bertihaugh only exists due to the well-draining bauxite in the ground, and mining companies plan to extract it. The only way they can do this though is through strip-mining, a devastating process that involves removing the entire top level of bauxite down to about 10 or 20 metres over an area spanning thousands of hectares. You can only imagine the impact this will have on the forests and the little gliders and rocket frogs that call it home.
Waterfalls and endless grasslands
The next day we arrive at Eliot Falls in Jardine River National Park, we’re within a stone’s throw from the tip of Australia now.
The falls are spring fed from remnants of wet seasons past. Floating down the freshwater streams and jumping off the waterfalls is outrageously refreshing after a long, hot day of driving on endless dirt roads. It’s quite literally an oasis.
From here, we double back towards Cairns to the Africanesque plains of Lakefield National Park. Anthills dot the grasslands of Nifold Plains to the horizon and provide a dramatic backdrop to a spectacular sunrise as flocks of red-tailed black cockatoos screech overhead and brolgas dance around waterholes. This is a must-do if you’re travelling in Cape York.
World Heritage awaits
Our last stop is at Joy Marriott’s property in Lakelands. Joy is a savvy farmer who sees the benefits in diversifying her investments into small agriculture and tourism. She’s a supporter of World Heritage and it’s easy to see why – her vast property could be nominated itself, with tree kangaroos in secluded rainforest gullies, unexplored rock art caves and pristine woodlands.
Joy’s outlook is as refreshing as the view from the open-air shower at the campgrounds she recently built by her lake for backpackers.
By comparison with other natural World Heritage Areas, Cape York contains larger rainforests than the Daintree, more old growth than Tasmania, more river biodiversity than the Franklin, larger reef systems than Ningaloo, bigger wetlands than Kakadu and larger dune systems than Fraser Island.
A nomination would be a great way to protect this special part of our country. Whatever the outcome, get to Cape York Peninsula as soon as you possibly can. It’s a place every Australian must see.
