Tag: Daintree River Crossing

Today’s results of Douglas Shire Council’s consultation on the Daintree River Crossing Option confirm that 66% of Douglas Shire residents and ratepayers prefer a two-ferry service compared to 33% of people who choose a bridge. 1% prefer a single ferry.
These results consolidate the excellent work completed by the previous Council under the leadership of Julia Leu as mayor. The new consultation has wasted a year of time and resources. The previous Council approved the two-ferry option on December 3, 2019. New ferries would have been operational on July 1, 2021, in seven months time. Now, this will not happen, as a new contract needs to be signed before the contractor can commence construction of the new ferries.

The survey results are in with Douglas Shire preferring a two-ferry crossing over a bridge at the Daintree River. The detailed results, released on Douglas Shire Council’s website today, revealed a majority of those who completed the Daintree River Crossing Survey preferred a two-ferry service with 66% of the count, compared to 33% of people who chose a bridge.

Two meetings were held in Mossman on Friday October 2, 2020 as part of Douglas Shire Council’s public consultation on the Daintree River Crossing Options Report. DouglasNews.Network summarises the key outcomes and issues arising from the two Mossman meetings.

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”.

“Many years ago, I put a petition to the Douglas Shire Council to build more speed bumps to Cape Tribulation to protect the cassowaries and other wildlife, and to slow the traffic and speeding. This was very successful.
Imagine what it would be like if a bridge went across. Endless traffic….”

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.