Tropical North Queensland's natural attractions near Cairns

Cairns and surrounds in Far North Queensland offers so much for the nature lover to enjoy with its unique and beautiful flora and fauna and its spectacular marine life.

David Attenborough, world renowned naturalist, described his visit to the Wet Tropics as "One of the most magical experiences of my life".

"Where the rainforest meets the Reef" - the lush Jungle of the world's most ancient rainforest, and second in size to the shrinking Amazon, the Daintree/Cape Tribulation National Park adjoins pristine beaches fringing the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Both the Daintree rainforest and the Reef are a "must do" for visitors to Far North Queensland.

Unlike countries with ancient man-made buildings from which many of our visitors come, Australia has a different history - an ancient natural heritage which includes the Australian Aboriginal people who are the most ancient civilisation on earth with a history going back over 40,000 years.

The Flora of the Daintree includes more families of plants with primitive flowering species than anywhere else in the world.

There are many towering trees in the Wet Tropics that are over 3,000 years old.

There are at least 70 animals and more than 700 plants in the Wet Tropics that are found nowhere else on earth.

Among the beautiful fauna you will discover The Australian Duck-Bill Platypus, the smallest Kangaroo in Australia the Musky-Rat Kangaroo, the tree-climbing Lumholz tree-Kangaroo, the Red-Legged Pademelon, the Agile-Wallaby, the Long-Nosed Bandicoot, the Green Ringtail Possum and the Lemuroid Ring Tail Possum.

Other mammals you might see at Misty Mountains include: - The Spectacled Flying-Fox, Little Red Flying-Fox, Microbats, the White-Tailed Rat, the Yellow-Footed Antechinus and Atherton Antechinus, the Bush Rat and the Australian Dingo, regarded as the purest breed of dog in the world.

The amazing variety of frogs will enchant you - Ranging from the beautifully coloured Orange-Thighed Tree Frog to the Little Red Frog, the Green-Eyed Tree Frog, the common Frog, Robust Frog, Common Nursery Frog, the Graceful Tree-Frog and the Northern Dwarf Frog.

At night you are lulled to sleep by the symphony of beautiful frog calls in the rainforest and creeks.

The butterfly population in the Wet Tropics includes over 40 species, including the Hercules Moth, which is the largest moth in the world. The splendid colouring of the Ulysses butterfly will have the camera working overtime as will the large Cairns Bird-Wing butterfly.

You will have the opportunity to photograph the rainforest flora, fauna and marine-life unique to this beautiful part of the World.

We don't feed the animals or birds as requested by the caring National Parks officers.

To see the Far North Queensland rainforest birds, animals and reptiles, including the crocodiles, snakes and Boyd's Forest Dragon, we suggest a visit to the Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas is an absolute must - we have provided a link at the bottom of this page to their Web site. (AND they do an unforgettable champagne breakfast with the birds).

Bird Watching - The following birding information is courtesy of the wettropics website - (You will find a direct link at the bottom of this page) - There are at least 137 species of closed forest dependent (rainforest and mangrove) birds in the Wet Tropics 23 bird species are either endemic to the region or are largely confined to the Wet Tropics region 13 species are known to be strictly endemic to the Wet Tropics and 9 of them are from the uplands with the other 4 ranging down to lower altitudes.

We have hand chosen our own favourite natural attractions and the links on the bottom of this page are especially for you.

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