The concession fares that give locals close to a free ride across the Daintree, I argue must be maintained,  as tourists pay most of the annual cost to keep the ferry operational,  and from an accounting point of view, there is probably little reason why the concession crossings cannot be also offered to Cairns residents as well as Douglas residents. The tourists that currently keep the ferry funded, are from interstate or overseas, and only a few are Cairns residents.  Ferries across the Hawkesbury River are provided as a free Council service in places like Lower Portland, by way of comparison. At close to $20 for a return fare, its not a small deal if you have to make regular crossings, or, if you live at Ayton or Wujal Wujal, so the concession system must be defended  for all locals, not just the select few.

Douglas already suffers a bad deal in terms of public transport, and any attempt to fuel to hike the ferry crossing price for locals in unfair, and unnecessary.

The Master Planning of the area around the Daintree Ferry was one of the most notable failed achievements of the DSC over the last few years. The refusal to fund a coordinated plan was something I campaigned against regularly. The bad decisions about the location, size and funding of the ‘loo with a view’ was a litany of stuff ups. The costs of the incomplete and legally embroiled ‘loo with a view’ have seen legal bills almost matching builder’s costs. Its a mess from start to finish, that hopefully the new CRC will fix, as its seems the petty politics of the DSC have gridlocked the issue, both in and out of paralysis.
There should be no large toilet block just 400m from an existing toilet block needing renovation. A small toilet for users of the northern pontoon is maybe warranted, but it should be part of a ticket booth complex.
The order to vacate the premises, (with the premises), as stemming from an older DSC decision to remove the former ferry shop and café is to me poorly considered.. I apologise for the approximate figures, but the DSC could have kept the old shop and bought it for around the same price as just one year’s rent and it would covered the purchase and the former councils refusal to bypass the advice of a traffic engineer for the ferry is, quite frankly, not the ideal example of how governance out of Cairns surely could not be any worse than this DSC gem.
The ‘shanty town’ of make shift river cruise desks is another tribute to the DSC’s
inability to get things done. And the first thing needing doing is the drawing of a simple plan to include:

• Permanent river cruise booking desks.
• An interpretive centre and café.
• Toilets for commercial users in a commercial centre.
• Wharfing for the river cruise operators dedicated to commercial use.
• Northern bank off loading pontoon.
• Safer car queuing expansion on the northern bank.
• A northern bank toilet.
• Landscaping and beautification of the ferry approach zones.
• Renovation of the existing toilet block and upgrade of its water and sewerage service.

Any water’s edge area is a mine field of differing government interests and private sector stakeholders. Its for this reason that the Daintree waterfront gateway should maybe be handled in a similar way to the Port Douglas waterfront, in the community design by enquiry, followed by a private public partnership to build, own and operate the needed facilities.
Under the CRC and if elected, this project must have its planning commenced and its construction funded, as I had been pushing to achieve from 3 years back. Regrettably, every time I had found some agreement about proceeding, some one found a spanner to slip in the spokes. There will be no more spanners, please.

The amalgamation means the ferry crossing the Daintree will soon to be under CRC control, meaning that Cairns residents as well as Douglas residents should be given concession passes to cross on the ferry (read concession to mean close to free).
About 90% of the traffic on the Ferry has been tourists and of the percentage of visitors, we will need to ascertain how many are Cairns based, to see what sort of impact the added concession will have on ferry income, but my intuition says not much will change if Cairns residents get a ferry concession. The stupid DSC system that sees you needing to update a your photographic ferry card every two years must be changed, to link it with other services, such as library services, to afford simplicity and potentially to apply when the Mossman Gorge access is limited to locals, plus the cards should be given 5 year currency like your driver’s license.
The contract for the ferry has some 9 years to run. It is highly likely that the massive sand bank slowly moving across the ferry’s path will one day make the operation of the ferry impossible, requiring the planning of a bridge in years to come. Recently applied EPA sound law restrictions preventing dredging of the ferry path after the midnight close of the ferry, has made the dredging even more difficult without causing potential major problems of traffic delay.
The old argument that the ferry was a limiter to growth was in fact mythical in so far as it’s the winding Alexander Range Road that is the weak link in the traffic issue and it has a traffic use by date approaching faster than potential blockages at the ferry. At least the bigger new ferry is not causing major traffic delays since installed.
I was opposed to selling the old ferry for a mere $60K when it would have , once stripped of its wheel house, made an ideal, flood proof pontoon for the river cruise industry. The incompetence that saw the new ferry not ordered in time to replace the old, was reflective of the DSC’s hopeless management of its one and only monopoly business and the DSC records are full of my objections over the poor timing, blame gaming and general managerial paralysis, that is the DSC’s history over the Daintree Ferry and its approaches, and if elected, and with CRC support, all the above problems must be solved. Whilst I have my objections, I admit to I include myself in a council that achieved bugger all in sorting the Daintree Gateway. It must be sorted. Soon.

CONTACT ROD DAVIS: vote@roddavis.org

MOBILE: 0418 235561 or HOME: 0740 994434

MAIL: PO BOX 714, Port Douglas, 4877.