Page 259 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

NOR THERN QUEENSLAND  257

4Daintree
National Park
@ from Port Douglas. n Port
Douglas (07) 4099 5599 or 13 74 68.
∑ npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daintree
Daintree National Park, north
of Port Douglas, covers more
than 76,000 ha (188,000 acres).
The Cape Tribulation section
of the park is a place of great
beauty, and one of the few
places where the rainforest
meets the sea. Captain Cook
named Cape Tribulation in
rueful acknowledgment of the
difficulties he was experiencing Tropical Myall Beach in Daintree National Park
navigating the Great Barrier
Reef. Today, it is a popular spot popular walking spot. Many 6Green Island
with backpackers. 19th-century buildings still g from Cairns. n (07) 4031 3300.
The largest section of the park line the street, such as the 7 ∑ npsr.qld.gov.au/
lies inland from Cape Tribulation. Courthouse Hotel, and the parks/green-island or
It is a mostly inaccessible, modern shopping centres ∑ greenislandresort.com.au
mountainous area, but 5 km have been designed to blend
(3 miles) from Mossman lies with the town’s original Green Island is one of the few
the Mossman Gorge, known for architecture. inhabited coral cays of the Great
its easy and accessible 2.7-km The original port was set Bar .
Bar
Barrier Reef (see pp220–21)rier Reef (see pp220–21)rier Reef
(1-mile) track through up during the gold rush of the Despite its small size (a walk
the rainforest. 1850s, but it was superseded around the entire island takes
by Cairns as the main port of about 15 minutes), it is home
the area. A disastrous cyclone to a small scale eco-resort.
5Port Douglas in 1911 also forced people to Green Island’s proximity to the
* 3,500. @ @ n 23 Macrossan St move elsewhere, leaving the mainland means its coral is not
(07) 4099 5599. population at less than 500. as colourful as the outer reef, but
The construction of the it offers snorkelling from shore
Situated 75 km (47 miles) luxurious Sheraton Mirage and visitors can spot sea turtles
from Cairns, Port Douglas Resort in the early 1980s feeding on sea grass from the
was once a tiny fishing heralded the beginning of a long jetty. Its accessibility by a
village. Today it is a tourist new boom, and now a range ferry trip from Cairns makes it
centre, but it has managed of accommodation and popular with day trippers.
to preserve some of its restaurants is on offer (see The islands Marineland
village atmosphere. p488 and p516). Melanesia complex has daily
At the end of Macrossan Port Douglas is an alternative crocodile feeding shows and is
Street is the beautiful Four- departure point to Cairns for home to Cassius, the world’s
Mile Beach, which is a very Great Barrier Reef tours. largest crocodile in captivity.

Green Island, a coral cay at the heart of the Great Barrier Reef