The rainforest area, named after Richard Daintree, is loosely defined as the area between the Mossman Gorge and the Bloomfield River. It contains 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, and 65% of Australia’s bat and butterfly species. 18% of bird species in the country can be found in this area. There are also over 12,000 species of insects. All of this diversity is contained within an area that takes up 0.1% of the landmass of Australia.
The World Heritage listed Daintree National Park is home to one of the oldest living rainforests on the planet. Part of the forest is protected by the Daintree National Park and drained by the Daintree River. The roads north of the river wind through areas of lush forest, and have been designed to minimize impacts on this ancient ecosystem.

The World Heritage listed Daintree National Park is home to one of the oldest living rainforests on the planet, and originated on the super continent Gondwana approximately 260 million years ago. The diverse landscape of the Daintree region comprises a great variety of vegetation including complex mangroves, coastal heather on sand, widespread Eucalypt woodlands and the most luxuriant tropical rainforest in Australia.

Today the Daintree contains plant life representing some of the earliest land plants such as ancient cycads and conifers from the Jurassic period. It also contains primitive angiosperms which are the flowering plant families that are known as fossil plants representing among others original eucalypts, citrus, holly, heath and mistletoes to name a few.
It is home to a great variety of mammals and birds many of which are not found anywhere else in Australia such as the Southern Cassowary and Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo.