A new ferry capable of taking more cars across the Daintree River into the World Heritage-listed rainforest is expected to be operational within four years but there are concerns sensitive sites are already struggling to cope with visitor volumes.
Douglas Shire Council this week voted to replace the existing three-lane ferry with a wider vessel capable of taking four lanes of cars across the river at a time.
The decision aimed to address frustration from commuters and tourists who could be forced to wait up to two hours during the winter peak season before getting a place on the ferry.
Neil Hewett is a director of Daintree Rainforest Pty Ltd, a company that privately manages a portion of the wilderness area for education and tourism and said he was "very concerned" about the potential for increased traffic in the area.
"All it's doing is displacing the very large numbers from the queues into the [rainforest] without actually providing the attraction with the tools that are necessary to properly manage that increased influx," Mr Hewett said.
"There is already evidence of serious environmental degradation from the intrusion of the public into places that they ought not to be going.
"It's only going to be amplified by the opening up of the bottleneck of the ferry."
Daintree visitation as a threat
A 2019 management plan for the Daintree National Park warned the capacity of "key visitor nodes" in the park "may not cope with increasing visitation".
A spokesman for Queensland's Department of Environment and Science (DES) said the number of people heading into the Daintree "varies considerably across the range of visitor sites" in the national park.
"As many visitors are day visitors, it is difficult to determine annual visitation," the DES spokesman said.
In the 2020-21 financial year, cars and utes made more than 83,000 river crossings using the ferry, according to council data.
For some years leading up to the pandemic, that annual figure was above 100,000.
Tourism Port Douglas Daintree CEO Tara Bennett said the wider ferry would reduce wait times but would not substantially increase the number of visitors crossing the river.
Almost half of all respondents to a council survey in 2018 indicated they were unsatisfied with the ferry crossing, with wait times the main complaint.
Mr Hewett said most travellers only spent a short time, in some cases about two hours, north of the Daintree River in the national park.
He said ferry fees could be "staggered" to encourage visitors to spend longer in the area, rather than attracting high volumes of day-trippers.
"[The environment] is too complex to be able to capture in a drive to Cape Tribulation, turn around again and go back out again without actually getting out of the car," he said.
"That style of tourism, which is kind of choreographed by government policy, contributes very poorly to the conservation economy that the community relies on."
In addition, the Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation previously expressed concern about tourists venturing to culturally sacred sites against the wishes of the Eastern Kuku Yalanji traditional owners.
Ms Bennett said tourism in the region had "purposely been developed with Port Douglas in mind as the base" for visitors.
"That was always to manage the Daintree experience," she said.
"We would like to see a lot more overnight visitation but, at the moment, there is only a set amount of carrying capacity and I understand accommodation across the river is very heavily booked."
New ferry to last until 2050s
The council previously consulted the community on a proposed bridge across the river or the addition of a second ferry but it conceded neither was likely to receive environmental approval.
"It's an internationally known destination so it's really important we get this right for our tourism and I'm quite sure the state and federal governments realise that," Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr said.
The DES said under the park management plan, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was able to plan strategic actions to cater for increased visitation.
The $6.5 million ferry replacement project included infrastructure works to address traffic issues at crossing points on either side.
However, a council report anticipated wait times would still blow back out to current levels by 2053.
"If you look at the type of roads that are across there, I certainly wouldn't want to be putting a lot more traffic over what that 2050 mark is," Cr Kerr said.
"But if we look at the way things are going, they're saying we're going to have drones flying around by 2030 for the Olympics.
"I think by 2050 we'll be looking at other methods rather than just a ferry going across the river."
