An up-market tourist destination and stepping off point to the Great Barrier Reef, Mossman Gorge and the rainforests around Daintree.
Location: 67 km north of Cairns
Events: Every year Port Douglas attracts tourist and locals alike to two significant festival periods. The Port Douglas Carnivale is held during the end of May and runs for 10 days over two weekends beginning with the Macrossan Street Parade attracting over 10,000 people.
The second festival period is held in October and November and begins with Porttoberfest North Queensland's own Beer Festival around the middle of October. In late October the Go Troppo Arts Festival, kicks off and ends with The Sunset in the Park Music Festival held on the last weekend of October .
In November Port Douglas turns into an athletes' village to host The Great Barrier Reef Marathon Festival.
Kitesurfing is popular at the southern end of Four Mile Beach, particularly during the winter months when trade winds blow from the South.
Port Douglas is near the Great Barrier Reef. Numerous companies run daily trips from the marina to the outer reef and the Low Isles for scuba diving and snorkelling. Port Douglas is also well known for its many restaurants, golf courses, and five star resorts.
Places of interest: Flagstaff Hill; Four Mile Beach;Great Barrier Reef; Dickson Inlet; Court House (1879); Low Isles lighthouse (1878); Wetherby Station, one of the oldest working cattle stations of Far
Brief history:
Port Douglas began life as a wild frontier town filled with itinerant seamen and prospectors heading to and from the Palmer River gold diggings. The town was established in 1877 when Christie Palmerston cut a road through the rainforest and down the mountain range. Within a decade, it had overtaken Cairns as the most important port on the north Queensland coast. When the gold ran out in 1886 and the miners moved on to Papua and New Guinea, the town fell into decline but remained the port for the sugar mill at Mossman until 1958. By that time, the local tourism industry was well established.
Origin of name: in the early days the settlement at Port Douglas was known as Island Point, Terrigal, Port Owen and Salisbury. The latter title derived from Lord Salisbury, the British Prime Minister at the time, however that name was also replaced after a visit by government officials, who bestowed the present name in honour of John Douglas, then Queensland Premier.
Mossman Gorge is a very accessible and scenic section of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Strangler figs and epiphytic plants flourish and the crystal-clear Mossman River cascades over granite boulders. Visitors can stroll along the 400 metre river circuit track to viewing platforms over the Mossman River, or take the 2.7 kilometre loop track through lush, green rainforest. A suspension bridge runs across Rex Creek close to where it enters the Mossman River, linking the carpark area to a 2.4-kilometre circular rainforest walk. The river is safe to swim in and the walking trail is well marked. Make it even easier and catch the shuttle bus for the 2 minute ride from the Gorge centre to the walking trails.
Mossman Gorge is home to the Kuku Yalanji people, the area's traditional Aboriginal landowners who strive to protect their natural heritage as they share its unique qualities with visitors. Guided bushwalks are available that give a rare insight into the special relationship the local indigenous people have with the rainforest, while traditional dance performances and artefact displays portray their rich cultural heritage.Much of the 56,500ha Mossman Gorge Section of Daintree National Park includes rugged, largely inaccessible slopes of the Main Coast Range and Carbine Tableland, adjoining Mt Windsor and Mt Lewis. It is these steep mountain ranges that trap moisture blown in from the ocean and ensure frequent rainfall, maintaining the rainforest and ultimately feeding the Mossman and Daintree Rivers.
Tall, dense rainforests clothe the lowlands and stunted windswept rainforests occupy the mountaintops. To the west of the Main Coast Range, open forest and woodlands grow on the drier western slopes. The park provides a home for a wonderful variety of rainforest animals including tree-kangaroos, musky rat-kangaroos and Boyd's forest dragons. Over millions of years, the Mossman River has carved a steep-sided valley from the upper reaches to the coastal lowlands. Through this valley, crystal clear water cascades amongst large granite boulders which have been washed down from the hills during times of heavy flood.
