Category: Daintree River Crossing Options

The Douglas Shire Council is currently conducting a poll on a bridge versus a two-ferry option. The actual consultation is restricted and people have told us that information being presented is insufficient and misleading. Many people do not regard the process as free, fair and transparent, as it looks like a deliberate push for a bridge under the guise of consultation. Push polling is a common tactic used to get people to support one side of a poll over the other.

Douglas Shire Council hosted a public consultation meeting on Monday, as the first of seven community meetings concerning the Interim Report from Council on the Daintree River crossing options. The meeting’s specific focus was the “financial and services aspects of a bridge or two ferries.”

We acknowledge the Eastern Kuku Yalanji Bama as the rightful custodians of this land, and we seek to assist the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation in achieving the aspirations of the custodians..
Jabalbina have asked that their letter (to UNESCO) not be published. DSSG respects that request, has removed it from DSSG websites and social media and asked any others who have published it to do the same.

As a retired Community Development Worker experienced in social research for community organisations and local government, I believe it is important to explore the current research/survey methodology being undertaken by the Douglas Shire Council.

The Daintree River Crossing Options Report prepared by the Douglas Shire Council is not an economic analysis that governments would use to determine if an option is worth funding. Cost Benefit Analysis reports are used to show if a project generates a net public benefit or cost. The Cost Benefit Analysis shows: Two Ferry Option yields a $6.817 million net benefit while the Bridge Option yields a $40.644 million net cost.

A coalition of organisations made up of Douglas Shire Sustainability Group, the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre, the Queensland Conservation Council, The Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation have collectively written to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to raise concerns about development threats to the Daintree Lowland Rainforest…

There is something inherently human in the practice of ritual.From the sacred rituals of spirituality and worship, to the obsessive urgings of bedtime door-lock checks, rituals bookend the important cycles in our lives and they reinforce the gravity of occasions and locations for which our high regard must never become diminished.

A “Save the Daintree, Again” campaign is being launched by a coalition of local and national conservation groups who see the push for a bridge over the Daintree River, coastal road upgrade and reticulated electricity as a threat to the areas’ Outstanding Universal Values, the foundation of its World Heritage Listing.

Contrary to the Douglas Shire Council’s claim in its Daintree Crossings Options Paper that “no significant environmental or hydrological studies (are) required to obtain approvals (for a bridge)”, the Qld Department of Environment and Science have informed DouglasNews.Network that any impact on the National Park and World Heritage Area “….would require thorough assessment under the relevant State and Commonwealth legislation”.

Questions about the legality, process and cost of Douglas Shire Council’s decision to suspend the Daintree ferry contract and to explore a bridge remain unanswered… but will naturally surface given that this was the biggest contract ever awarded by the Douglas Shire.