It should be considered a privilege to walk upon this land. With each step taken, nature takes you on a journey that extends well beyond human history.

The Wet Tropics of Queensland are a rarity on Earth. They are found along the northeast coast of Australia for 450 kilometres, encompassing around 894,420 hectares.

Stretching back millions of years, they give us an almost complete record of the Earth’s ecological and evolutionary history. The Tropical North Queensland rainforest literally gives us a glimpse into how the world once was.

Considered so vital to the functioning and understanding of our planet, the Wet Tropics were awarded World Heritage Status in 1988. Once declared, the managing agencies were legally obliged to protect, conserve, present and transmit to future generations the universal and outstanding values of this land.

Banana plantations.

The Wet Tropics are outstanding. Everywhere you look, there is life – layers of life. From every green imaginable in the artists pallet, to showy, brightly coloured tropical flowers that make you stop in your tracks.  If you close your eyes and just listen, you are enveloped by a symphony of sound. It’s fascinating.

When many of us think of Australia, we conjure up images of vast red deserts that extend as far as the eye can see. It may interest you that 40 million years after Australia separated from Gondwana, it was almost covered in rainforest.

As climatic conditions changed and the continent drifted northwards, the rainforests contracted. The World Heritage Centre states “by the time of European settlement rainforests only covered 1 percent of the Australian landmass”.

As European settlers cleared the land for agriculture the rainforest was further decreased to just a quarter of its size before settlement.

Parts of the Gondwana Rainforest have been reduced to remnants. The Mabi Forest found between the towns of Atherton, Kairi, Yungaburra and Malanda in North Queenstown, once covered the entire Atherton Tablelands. Only 2 percent of this unique and complex forest type now remains.

The Mabi Forest.

The fertile nature of the basalt-derived soils made the Mabi Forest region ideal for agriculture. It was a touch of geological luck that these remnants survived. Large basalt boulders litter the forest floor making the area very difficult to clear! The remainder of the Mabi Forest is listed as an endangered plant community and is officially protected.

One of the four Mabi remnants is home to the ‘Atherton Tableland’s most famous tree’ the fig (Ficus virens). This tree is one of the most visited sites within the Wet Tropics World Heritage Centre.

A curtain fig.

What makes this tree so unusual are its extensive aerial roots that drop 15 metres to the ground. This ‘strangler fig’ began life as a seed which would have been dropped into the host trees canopy. The tiny plant would have grown vertical roots which, over time would have reached the ground. Enriched by the soil, the fig developed aerial roots. Over hundreds of years these roots became thicker, eventually strangling the host tree and causing it fall. As the host tree rotted away, vertical roots descended from the fig’s trunk, forming this ‘curtain-like’ appearance.

This may sound rough on the host tree but it’s a life worth sacrificing. The fig has become an essential part of this Mabi remnant’s ecosystem, providing food, shelter and protection for a variety of animals. It’s truly remarkable, breath-taking – a natural cathedral that appears to rise from the ground.

Bracket fungi.

It’s not easy gaining World Heritage recognition. To gain the status of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ the Wet Tropics had to jump through many hoops. But even in a short time, it's easy to see why. They are aesthetically beautiful, forests that extend from mountains to palm littered, golden sand beaches, but it’s their contribution to biodiversity on this planet that makes them so vital and revering.

The Wet Tropics is one of the most diverse land-based ecosystems on the planet. The location of the rainforest, soil fertility and how much rainfall it receives, determines its features. The rainforests of northern Queensland are particularly rich.

These rainforests have a complex array of plant and animal life. Woody palms, fan palms, epiphytic ferns and strangler figs can all be seen growing in the lowland forests. As you move upland, the forests become characterised with tree layering and a greater tree species. You will also see trees with buttressing trunks, tree ferns, climbing vines and mosses.

Although only comprising 3 percent of Australia's native forests, rainforests provide habitat for 60 percent of butterfly species, 40 percent of bird species and 35 percent of mammal species. Many of these species are endemic to these rainforests - found nowhere else in the world. Plant derived medicines, and cultivated plants are also sourced from these forests.

We are only just beginning to recognise how essential areas like this are to the health of our planet and our own species. The Rainforest Aboriginal people, who were living in the rainforest for thousands of years before European settlement, instinctively knew the value, and understood these abundant, life-giving forests.

The Wet Tropics was one of the most inhabited areas of Australia, and the only area where Aboriginal people lived permanently. The environment provided everything they needed - spirituality, identity, social order, tools, food, medicine, and shelter.

The Wet Tropics Management Authority says, “there are still at least 20 Rainforest Aboriginal groups, 120 clans and 8 language groups, making up around 20,000 people with on-going connections to land in the Wet tropics Area”.

Rainforests and the biodiversity they hold within, have endured times in Earth’s history of climate stability and instability. They have just entered into a new period of human induced climate instability. Our planet is heating up – it’s already too hot.

Warning signs are becoming apparent. In November 2018 Australia experienced a heatwave. This was record-breaking heat - reaching a high of 42.6C. The city of Cairns is home to a large population of spectacled fruit bats. Their usual and effective cooling methods were not sufficient in this heat.

Researchers from Western Sydney University concluded that around 23,000 spectacled bats died in this event due to heat stress. Dr Justin Wellbergen, lead researcher believed this event was of ‘biblical scale’.

In an interview with the BBC, He went on to say, “the bats are like ‘the canary in the coal mine for climate change’. It raises concerns as to the fate of other creatures who are more secretive”.

In the past cyclones were often associated with mass deaths. But experts believe heatwaves are now the bigger threat. Being so visible, this event opens the eyes of many to the harrowing effects of a planet that’s too hot.

These amazing rainforests around the world need us to make the changes so life can continue and flourish. A baron world will be an unpleasant world. We hold the responsibility of life in our hands. I encourage you to do what you can to make a difference.

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