Channel 9

Fun Facts​

• Daintree Rainforest is estimated to be at least 180 million years old. This would make Daintree the world's oldest tropical rainforest.

• Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites and are the only two of these UNESCO sites in the world that meet.

• There are more than 3,000 plant species in Daintree Rainforest and more than 395 considered to be rare or threatened species.

• Rare species that can be found in Daintree Rainforest include the cassowary, Ulysses butterfly, and the white lipped tree frog.

• Daintree Rainforest is home to more than 12,000 different insect species.

• Of all the mammal species found in Australia, 34% can be found in Daintree Rainforest.

• 40% of the birds, 28% of the frogs, and 65% of the ferns found in Australia can be found in Daintree Rainforest.

• The traditional people of Daintree Rainforest were the Kuku Yalanji people.

• There are plants able to exist in Daintree Rainforest that cannot exist elsewhere on earth.

• In the 1980s Daintree Rainforest was threatened by logging and other activities but protection as created by having it listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Saltwater crocodile watching is a popular activity in Daintree. Visitors can also enjoy day trips, river cruises, and four wheel trips through the forest if they choose.

• The Daintree Rainforest is so old that it predates the Amazon Rainforest by tens of millions of years.

• It is estimated that at least 400,000 people visit Daintree Rainforest every year.

• One of the most famous plants of Daintree Rainforest is the idiot fruit - a rare flowering plant considered to be the most primitive of its kind. It was discovered in 1970 and was further proof of how old the rainforest really is.

• The ancient plants growing in Daintree Rainforest are referred to as 'Green Dinosaurs'.

• Daintree Rainforest is home to a variety of venomous snakes, colourful birds, frogs, mammals, insects, lizards and many scaly reptiles.