A Douglas Shire Council (DSC) forum held at Diwan heard the concerns of residents living north of the Daintree River on Thursday. 

About forty people including business owners, public sector employees and residents attended the forum at the Diwan Sports Shed, along with DSC mayor Julia Leu and councillors Abagail Noli and David Carey along with CEO Linda Cardew.

A wide range of topics were discussed including the possibility of electricity supply across the Daintree River, issues with the Daintree Ferry and concerns over economic sustainability of life in the Daintree. 

Other issues including control of wild pigs and dogs, planning and response to cyclones and flood events and tourism promotion were also discussed. 

Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours managing director Sheena Walshaw said at the forum that it was vital to get the Daintree back on the international tourism radar. 

“In tour brochures there you used to be able to find a two or three-page spread just on Daintree and Cape Tribulation, now we just don’t exist in those pages any more,” she said. 

The effect of self-drive tourists now mainly conducting day trips north of the Daintree River instead of multi-day trips was also raised. 

Council was also lauded for its planning for and response to Cyclone Ita. 

The possibility of using unmanned aerial drones to survey storm damage and coordinate cleanup was also raised but ruled out by Linda Cardew, who said she had expressed interest in the idea at a recent LGAQ conference but found drones were too expensive and limited in their range to be effective for the purpose.

Although the effectiveness and pricing of the Daintree Ferry has been hotly debated in media recently, the forum showed there was still widespread support for the service, according to Ms Walshaw and Cr Leu. 

“I feel there was a broad consensus to retain the ferry,” Cr Leu said. 

Cr Leu and the other councillors said the forum was an unexpected success, with two more planned in the future. 

“I think it was a fantastic forum,” said Councillor David Carey. 

“There are issues up on this side of the river which some of us in the council were previously aware of but now at this forum council is aware of a broad reach of issues in a collective sense.

“We’ve opened the lines of communication and we’re aware of the priority issues.”