Neil Hewett
Director – Daintree Rainforest P/L
- Daintree Rainforest P/L
- daintreerainforest.au
- Cooper Creek - Diwan
- Since 1988 – 34-years
What attracted you to the Daintree Coast?
The quality and quantity of the cleanest freshwater I had ever encountered and the luxuriance and beauty of what that water sustained.
Where did you previously live?
Lajamanu in the Tanami Desert, NT.
What made you/your family move here?
My family owned a property at the highest and most central portion of Australia’s wettest place – Thornton Peak on Wundu Creek, which was the perfect holiday offset against the harsh and arid environment of the Tanami Desert.
Having worked as an Outdoor Educator in remote Indigenous homelands over seven-years, I had come to yearn for a natural habitat to fill with the remainder of my lifetime’s memories, for all the evident advantages that were sorely lacking within my own culture.
Given a choice, I would reside within the Cooper Valley and with the unprecedented decision to compulsorily inscribe 160-acres of freehold property into Australia’s successful nomination for World Heritage-listing (and the previous landowners’ willingness to sell), my dream for a permanent inhabitancy in my preferred part of the country came to fruition.
What do you like to do with your time here?
Managing freehold World Heritage property comes without the budgetary allocations and indicative funding that government WH-land-managers enjoy.
Indeed, when forestry was prohibited by WH-listing, the unimproved capital valuation of our freehold property was increased by 630%, making cost-recovery for the fulfilment of statutory WH management obligations even more challenging.
Restrictions on potential land-uses are severe, beyond WH obligations and the only feasible way to derive cost-recovery is from a very limited and genuine eco-tourism.
Despite these challenges, around 500,000-visitors cross the ferry annually and around half-a-percent book a guided walking tour upon our portion of WH-estate. When I’m not conducting 2-hour or 4-hour guided walking tours, I am scrutinising the forest for deeper insight and understanding, to better distinguish the quality of our presentation services to discerning travellers from around the world.
What changes have you seen whilst living here?
I have seen a lot of people come and go.
I saw the imposition of World Heritage-listing into an environment of unrivalled ecological importance, only recently registered with a series of rural-residential sub-divisions and all the turmoil that the collision of these two changes generated.
I saw the establishment of the school and health-clinic.
I saw the over-allocation of Commercial Activity Permits to Cairns and Port Douglas day-tour operators, with a latent capacity of 770,000-visitors-per-year, ended through a Ministerial moratorium and the subsequent construction of visitor facilities and infrastructure to cater for that over-allocation.
I saw both the construction of the pub and its ultimate closure.
I saw the ‘de-maining’ of the Bailey Creek Road and the subsequent sealing of the road from the ferry turnoff to Cape Tribulation.
I saw car rental agencies in Cairns & Port Douglas remove ‘4WD-only’ from crossing the ferry and visitation subsequently swing 70% away from organised tours into free-and-independent (self-driven) travellers.
I saw the QLD Government excise the area from electricity distribution entitlement, imposing stand-alone systems only and I saw school enrolments plummet by around 80% as the resident community grew to around 500-properties.
I saw the managerial neglect that allowed the declared Indigenous Sacred Site (EN:C53) across our WH-property and adjoining lands desecrated and irreversibly degraded by chronic intrusion of the public-at-large.
On a daily basis I witness the gaping ecological vacancy left by the forced removal of Kuku Yalanji inhabitants and the devastating damage caused by the estimated 60,000-feral-pigs that now occupy that vacancy.
Most significantly and rewardingly, I have seen progressive changes in myself, family and community, as we all became more and more familiar and knowledgeable of the wondrous environment that we call home.
What is something you wish you knew about before moving here?
Roof-guttering in a rainforest should be avoided.
For more information on Daintree Rainforest Pty Ltd & Cooper Creek Wilderness, visit:
https://daintreerainforest.au
https://coopercreek.com.au
https://www.daintreerainforestfoundation.org
https://www.astrayliana.com.au