Some Aboriginal walking tracks and camp sites in the Douglas Shire, North Queensland

Abstract

The Douglas Shire is a small coastal shire in the wet tropics of North Queensland, lying between Buchan Point in the south and Bloomfield in the north.  It is dominated by steep rainforest-covered mountains with a narrow coastal strip, rising from sea level to 1370m in only 6km.  Annual rainfall varies from 1000mm in the south to 3750mm in the north. It is a very well watered district with four main rivers and several good creeks, all of which are very fast-flowing.  Before clearing began, two-thirds of the Shire was under heavy tropical rainforest, the other third was timbered grassland (eucalypt and wattle) with some melaleuca and mangrove swamps.  There are also beaches, sand ridges, mangrove-lined rivers and creeks, and some salt pans.