Wet Tropics of Queensland

Site information

• Official name: Wet Tropics of Queensland
• Location: Queensland, Australia
• Type: Natural
• Year of inscription: 1988

The Wet Tropics of Queensland are celebrated for their rich biodiversity. The protected area begins on the northeastern coast and continues for 450 kilometers. Composed chiefly of tropical rainforest, the total area covers 894,420 hectares. That area encompasses forty-one national parks and forest reserves, including Barron Gorge National Park, Cedar Bay National Park, Daintree National Park, Girringan National Park, and Wooroonooran National Park.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988 because of their spectacular landscapes and forests and in homage to a history that goes back millions of years. The area is also significant because it connects with the Great Barrier Reef, which is known for its spectacular coral reefs and high levels of biodiversity. In addition to hosting 30 percent of all marsupials in the world, the Wet Tropics of Queensland are home to large percentages of Australia's flora and fauna. The site hosts 60 percent of butterfly and bat species, 40 percent of bird species, 37 percent of conifers, 30 percent of frog and orchid species, and 25 percent of rodent species. Over time, the protected area has been expanded from 14 to 65 percent, and more than two hundred million visitors come to the area each year.

History

The history of the area can be traced back two hundred million years when Pangaea broke apart during the Jurassic Period to create Gondwana and Laurasia. While the latter formed into what became Europe, North America, and Asia, the former became Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australasia, the Arabian Peninsula, and the subcontinent of India. Traces of that Gondwanan ancestry are still evident in the Wet Tropics of Queensland where descendants of early plants survive. That evidence is most clear at Cooper and Noah Creeks in Daintree and in the refugial areas of the mountains. There is also evidence of plants of Asian and Gondwanan heritage that have been traced back to the period in which the Australian and Asian plates collided fifteen to twenty million years ago.

The Nywaigi people were displaced by Europeans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1940, they were relocated to Great Palm Island. In 1999, the Nywaigi purchased the Mungalla Station property located in the Herbert River Valley that was part of their ancestral land. In 2001, the Mungalla Aboriginal Cooperative for Business was established to manage the area, which is unpopulated, and ensure cooperation with scientists working in the area. In all, there are eighteen rainforest Aboriginal clans that still live in the Wet Tropics of Queensland.

Bellenden Ker was designated as a national park in 1913, and designation of Hinchinbrook Island (1932) and Lake Barrie and Lake Eacham (1934) followed. When consideration as a World Heritage Site was first proposed in 1966, there was considerable opposition. Authorities in Queensland believed it threatened future development, and efforts were met with blockades, protests, petitions, and even lawsuits.

The history and biodiversity of the Wet Tropics of Queensland are so rich that the area has been described as a "living museum." The rainforest sees more rain than any other place in Australia. For instance, Bellenden Ker experienced 12,461 millimeters of rain in 2000 and averages 8,140 millimeters per year. Topaz averages 4,424 millimeters a year, and Babinda sees 4,287 millimeters. Cyclones are also common in the rainforest, including Winifred (1986), Rona (1999), Larry (2006), Yasi (2011), and Ita (2014). The area boasts the highest mountains in Queensland, including Bartle Frere South Peak, Bellenden Ker Centre Peak, Mount Fisher, Thornton Peak, and Black Mountain, ranging in size from 1,337 meters to 1,622 meters. Major river catchments are located on the Anan River, Bloomfield River, Normanby River, Daintree River, and Mitchell River. The waterfall with the longest single drop in Australia is Wallarman Falls (305 meters high).

Logging has been banned within the Wet Tropics since 1987. However, fire and climate change continue to pose major threats, as do fragmentation and the introduction of invasive species. The Wet Tropics Management Plan established management authority in 1988. The area is managed jointly by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Wet Tropics Management Scheme with input from Aboriginal groups native to the rainforest. Funding is provided by the Wet Tropics Management Authority. The Scientific Advisory Committee and the Community Consultive Committee provide advice and represent the public interest. Legal protections were instituted in 1993 with passage of the Queensland Wet Tropics World Heritage Protection and Management Act and supplemented the following year with the enactment of the Commonwealth Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Conservation Act. In 1999, the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was passed, stipulating that ministerial approval is needed for actions having a major impact on the area.

Significance

The Wet Tropics of Queensland satisfy Criteria vii, viii, ix, and x of the World Heritage requirements as a site of outstanding global importance. Acceptance on the grounds of Criterion vii is based on the natural beauty of the forests, wild rivers, waterfalls, rugged gorges, and coasts known for their breathtaking beauty. The Hinchinbrook Channel is home to the greatest number of mangroves found in Australia. The area hosts a wide range of plants, marsupials, and songbirds, including a number that are endangered. Meeting standards for Criterion viii and ix results from the unique look the area allows into the evolution and ecology of the rainforest over a period that spans fifty to one hundred million years. Traces of the Gondwanan forests that once covered Australia and large parts of Antarctica may still be seen.

Standards for Criterion x are met through the large numbers of flora and fauna that have survived basically intact. Nearly all the world's marsupials are believed to have originated in this area. Scientists come from all over the world to study evolutionary patterns of sclerophyll flora and marsupial fauna, and the region provides unique opportunities for study because the rainforest has a dry season and experiences cyclonic events.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland are home to 3,000 species of vascular plants from 224 separate families. Some 576 species and 44 genera are endemic to the area. There are 107 mammal species living in the Wet Tropics, and 11 of those are endemic. Two others are monotype endemic, meaning that they are one-member species. Animal species include kangaroos, flying foxes, bettongs, quolls, bandicoots, bats, antechinus, pademelons, and koalas. The Wet Tropics are also home to two species of tree kangaroos. The cat-like Lumholtz's s tree kangaroo survives on the leaves and fruits from the canopy of the rainforest in Kirrama and Daintree. The Bennett's tree kangaroo prefers the high and low areas of the Daintree River. More possums and gliders are found here than anywhere else in Australia, and several species are endemic, including the Herbert River ringtail, the lemuroid ringtail, the rare white colour morph, the green ringtail, and the Daintree River ringtail. Some 368 bird species are found in the area, including 11 that are endemic. One of the most interesting birds is the iconic cassowarrie. This endangered flightless bird is related to the ostrich and the emu and is identified by its distinctive blue and purple head and neck and its red wattle and amber eyes. Of the 113 reptile species living there, 24 are endemic and 3 are monotype endemic. Among the 51 amphibian species, 22 are endemic.

Bibliography

Barnes, Megan, et al. "Evaluating Protected Area Effectiveness Using Bird Lists in the Australian Wet Tropics." Diversity and Distributions, vol. 21, no. 4, 2015, pp. 368–78.

Chandler, Jo. "Ghosts of the Rainforest." New Scientist, vol. 223, no. 2980, 2014, pp. 42–45.

Grice, Anthony C., et al. "Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Knowledge and Values Combine to Support Management of Nywaigi Lands in the Queensland Coastal Tropics." Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 13, no. 1, 2012, pp. 93–97.

Metcalfe, Daniel J., and A. J. Ford. "A Re-evaluation of Queensland's Wet Tropics Based on Primitive Plants." Pacific Conservation Biology, vol. 15, no. 2, 2009, pp. 80–86.

Metcalfe, Daniel J., and T. J. Lawson. "An International Union for Conservation of Nature Risk Assessment of Coastal Lowland Rainforests of the Wet Tropics Bioregion, Queensland, Australia." Australian Ecology,vol. 40, no. 4, 2015, pp. 373–85.

Wet Tropics of Queensland. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. whc.unesco.org/en/list/486. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

"World Heritage