Sounds of the Daintree rainforest

Nestled in Australia’s Wet Tropics region, the Daintree Rainforest contains the oldest continuously surviving rainforest on earth, more than 10 million years older than the Amazon. Just one hectare of the 120,000 hectare forest can contain over 30,000 species of plants and animals. It is only a small remnant of a much larger forest that covered vast swathes of the Australian continent. This small patch of rainforest has seen dinosaurs, ice ages, great migrations and early humans over the aeons.

Reaching the Daintree is fairly easy as the roads are good and the ferry works around the clock. You can stay in lodges and campsites on its edge and you can go for short walks in the rainforest to explore it. That is good enough for most people, but of course I wanted to record nature and wildlife sounds so I had to go much further.

Luckily I had done my research and hired a capable 4×4 vehicle. Once I got off the paved roads I was already in a very different landscape. It was time for river crossings, steep climbs and descents, muddy sections and very uneven tracks. Which is exactly what I was looking for, because up until the last town there had been quite a bit of traffic. I needed peace and quiet so I could record the sounds of the Daintree.

I drove up and down the forest track looking for suitable spots to record. When I found something that looked promising, I parked the car safely and walked into the bush. I had to be very careful about potential hazards though. Venomous snakes, stinging plants (this is the land of gympie gympie), paralysis ticks and all kinds of other dangers awaited me. Luckily I was able to avoid them and found a handful of decent locations for recording.