Wet Tropics of Queensland

Wet Tropics of Queensland
UNESCO World Heritage Site
	Forest near Daintree. Queensland
Location	Queensland, Australia
Includes	components: Main; Malbon Thompson and Graham Range; Curtain Fig; Lake Barrine; Lake Eacham; Russell River; Hugh Nelson Range; Malaan; Moresby Range; Cowley; Kurrimine Beach; Mission Beach; Edmund Kennedy; Paluma Range;
Criteria	Natural: (vii), (viii), (ix), (x)
Reference	486
Inscription	1988 (12th Session)
Area	893,453 ha (3,449.64 sq mi)
Coordinates	15°39′S 144°58′E / 15.650°S 144.967°ECoordinates: 15°39′S 144°58′E / 15.650°S 144.967°E
	Components in Queensland

The Wet Tropics of Queensland is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforests on Earth.^[1] The forests date from the Mesozoic era when the climate of Australia (and the world) was much more tropical than today. Originally, the rain forest area covered a much wider area than today. Today it is just a narrow strip along the east coast of Queensland. It starts just north of Townsville and continues to just south of Cooktown, a distance of about 450 km (280 mi).

The wet tropics cover an area of 894,420 ha (2,210,160 acres) in 730 separate blocks of land.^[2] It includes 41 national parks covering185,000 ha (457,145 acres).^[3] About 80% of the site is tropical rainforest. It is interesting because it is very old forest, and is a living record of 415 million years of evolution, going back to Pangea and Gondwana. All of Australia's marsupials, and many of its other animals, evolved in tropical rainforests, and many of their closest surviving ancestors still live in the Wet Tropics of Queensland.

Wet Tropics Of Queensland Media

Barron Gorge in Barron Gorge National Park
Josephine Falls (Wooroonooran National Park, Queensland, Australia)
Daintree Rainforest, 2011
The musky rat-kangaroo is a marsupial species only found in the Wet Tropics ecoregion.