Daintree Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary (formerly Cooper Creek Wilderness) is a 67 hectare World Heritage-listed property located in Diwan, near the Daintree National Park. The land is protected as a Nature Refuge under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act, 1992, and with its World Heritage status, this freehold Nature Refuge is one of the best-protected portions of land in Australia.
The sanctuary is predominantly made up of complex mesophyll vined rainforest. There are a number of primitive flowering angiosperms, ferns and palms that provide evidence of the evolutionary development of the rainforest from the Jurassic era. 455 plant species have been recorded as existing within the property, along with over 113 invertebrate, 10 fish, 7 amphibian, 87 bird, and 31 mammal species, as well as 21 reptile groups. Among its inhabitants are southern cassowaries (Casuaris casuaris), musky rat kangaroos (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), Bennett’s tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus bennettianus) and many other fauna.
Owner Prue Hewett’s conservation efforts are made possible through funding derived by a sustainable ecotourism wildlife walk business she runs on the sanctuary, her primary goal is “participation in a community that resides in harmony with its surroundings and is valued by Australia as an exemplary model of rainforest habitation based on conservation and sustainable ecotourism”.
