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Enjoy our definitive guide to the weekend events around the Douglas Shire and beyond….

Enjoy our definitive guide to the weekend events around the Douglas Shire and beyond….

Following an architectural redesign and 20-month build, Silky Oaks Lodge has emerged from its chrysalis with a fresh, contemporary style featuring soaring ceilings, slowly turning fans and generous open-air spaces designed to welcome in the sights and sounds of the rainforest.
The new experience starts even before check-in, as guests making the 50-minute journey to Silky Oaks Lodge along the Great Barrier Reef Drive can tune in to Baillie Lodges’ new Luxury Redefined podcast for a virtually escorted arrival. Timed to align with the drive from Cairns Airport to the lodge, the podcast offers a personalised introduction to the destination and its people, from Baillie Lodges Founders James and Hayley and Silky Oaks Lodge Manager Sonya Boaden to Walkabout Cultural Adventures’ First Nations guide Juan Walker and commissioned artist Catherine Nelson.
The main lodge and 40 guest suites have been recreated to reflect the Baillie Lodges style in cool, contemporary luxury with king beds, premium finishes and now-famous attention to detail. Generous in- and outdoor lounging spaces feature specially designed furniture and commissioned artworks offer a real sense of the destination. An in-suite bar is stocked with local gourmet treats. Private decks feature hammocks ready to sway in the afternoon breeze and outdoor baths invite gazing to the treetops.
Executive Chef Mark Godbeer heads up the Silky Oaks Lodge kitchen and has worked with the region’s producers to create a refreshing, daily changing menu ideally suited to the tropical climate. Breakfast, sunset drinks and canapés and dinner are included in the tariff, while a la carte lunch is available. A walk through the new Kitchen Garden reveals a very short ‘plant to plate’ journey.
An itinerary of included signature experiences includes morning yoga, rainforest walks and drifting in the Mossman River. Silky Oaks Lodge is centrally located to many of the broader region’s natural attractions, making it a hub for adventures in the Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge, Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef, the Atherton Tablelands and the wilderness of Cape Tribulation. The lodge has established partnerships with the region’s premium local operators to offer guests a swag of experiences from Indigenous guided hikes and snorkelling the reef to scenic helicopter flights.
Baillie Lodges Founder James Baillie said it was personally very special to bring a new generation of guests to Silky Oaks Lodge under the Baillie Lodges banner.
“The property has always held a place in my heart as I was the general manager there in the mid-1990s, so having it under our own brand is a circle completed” Mr Baillie said.
“It’s now a very different time for Queensland tourism, and we’re thrilled to invest in the destination and its operators and bring a stylish and contemporary vibe to the luxury lodge and to offer so many ways for our guests to experience the tropical north,” he said.
Set adjacent to the World Heritage-listed wilderness of the Daintree National Park and along the banks of the gently flowing Mossman River, Silky Oaks Lodge offers guests a stylish rainforest escape, with experiences spanning river-snorkelling, driving safaris, Indigenous guided walks, the lodge’s own Healing Waters Spa and access to Port Douglas and the Great Barrier Reef.

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Police are appealing for public assistance to a traffic crash that occurred on the Captain Cook Highway, near Wangetti, at around 1.00am this morning.

Special trading arrangements for shops in the Mossman and Port Douglas area should be extended another year before changing to tourist area hours, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

What’s on around the Douglas Shire this weekend?

“We approach yet another Australia Day – the national day that most nations celebrate their identity and/or birth – with continued human confusion and muddle about both. Geographically we are certain about what Australia is. Humanly we are not.”

Welcome to the weekend-here’s your guide to what’s on around the region!

“When the Government loses trust in government, small wonder that most of the population does likewise…”