Queensland’s newest trail following ancient trade and travel routes opens

It’s been years in the making and plagued by delays, but the first section of a multi-million-dollar ecotourism trail in far north Queensland is officially open to the public.

The 7.8-kilometre dual mountain biking and hiking route winds through rainforest from Palm Cove Jetty to the Ellis Beach foreshore, north of Cairns.

It’s the first instalment of the 94-kilometre Wangetti Trail, and the full $47 million project is expected to become a major international tourism drawcard.

Ancient route

The bridges over the streams and gullies in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area may be new, but the path has been travelled for tens of thousands of years.

For traditional owner Djabugay man Richard Bing creating the formal trail on the ancient travel and trade route brings it “back to life”.

“Families that used to come down the mountain to visit all the family on the coastline … when they came down to visit, there was an old trail that was already set here for us,” he said.

“I’m very emotional to think about it because the stories need to be told.”

A long walk here

Construction began in mid-2023, a year after it was initially scheduled to open to the public and five years after it was first announced.

Queensland’s Tourism and Sports Minister and Member for Cairns Michael Healy said the delays were due to the COVID-19 pandemic and record-breaking flooding from Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

Construction was challenging with large boulders to navigate, 17 bridges, which had to be installed via helicopter to reduce environmental impact, as well as dealing with rubbish dumped in the forest over the decades.

Construction on the remaining 86km is expected to be completed by 2026.

But Mr Healy said the existing budget wouldn’t cover it.

“I don’t know how much more we’re going to need,” he said.

Global industry

The Wangetti Trail will be one of the few extended hiking and cycling routes in tropical rainforest in the world, according to Mark Olsen, the chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

He said looking at other long trails in Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as international treks like the Camino, most travellers stayed for multiple nights before and after their hike.

“People want to spend time in the destination, they’re setting themselves up for the walk, they want to acclimatise to the temperature and the condition,” he said.

“For that half a million visitors a year who are coming into Palm Cove, if only 10 per cent of them are extending their stay, it’s an extra $5 million a year of visitor expenditure here in the region.”

Adam Fletcher from Adventure Sport North Queensland said there was also a growing interest in combining cultural and adventure tourism.

“There’s certainly an increasing appetite for understanding the cultural and traditional values of areas where recreational activity occurs,” he said.

Mr Bing said the Wangetti Trail would allow for more storytelling.

“Connecting non-Indigenous people to our stories, and trying to get it out there, so that our stories get carried on,” he said.

This post was originally published on here