Aussie tourist destination Cape Tribulation has been cut off from visitors for three months – as business owners fear for their futures

One of Australia’s most popular tropical vacation paradises is in danger of shutting up shop with its main access road still largely impassable, buried under landslides three months after a cyclone hit the area. 

Cape Tribulation, which uniquely provides easy access to two World Heritage-listed sights – the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest – has been almost completely cut-off since flooding following December’s Category 3 Cyclone Jasper.

The 4.2m of rain dumped on the region caused mounds of earth to slide onto the Cape Tribulation Road, leaving it impassable from the south.

What is frustrating locals, however, is that months later work to keep it clear goes at a snail’s pace and is erratic. 

With only a trickle of traffic able to get through at unpredictable opening times, Cape Tribulation’s economic lifeblood of tourism has dried up leaving around 200 businesses in peril of shutting.

One business in peril is Cape Trib Camping with owners Julian and Jackie telling Channel Nine’s A Current Affair on Thursday that they and many others were near the end of their tether. 

‘Emotionally and financially I think it’ll be the end of the town for a lot of people shortly if drastic action doesn’t happen,’ Julian said.

‘If we don’t get a date for when the road reopens, we will shut our doors,’ Jackie added.

‘Cape Trib camping will have to close. We cannot stay open without tourists, without a road we have no business.’

Locals are blaming the Douglas Shire Council for not clearing the road quickly enough after the flooding subsided and not dedicating enough resources to keeping it clear. 

‘We expect some disasters but we also expect people will be competent in their response to those disasters,’ said Lawrence Mason, whose family owns the Masons Cafe & Tours Cape Tribulation company.

Following a 90-day permit that allowed workers to push the soil into the ocean lapsed, all the dirt and mud removed has to be trucked out.

Cape Trib Camping owners Jackie and Julian say unless they get some certainty on the road into the tourist hot spot staying open they will have to shut their business

The road is often only open for short periods in the morning and afternoon but that depends on whether there are workers attending.

Sometimes it is only passable by 4WD and on other occasions, it is only permitted on foot. 

This has also prevented children from going to school for up to four days a week and has meant that they might not be able to get home when they do.

Under fire Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr has promised to have the road fully open to tourists by Easter, barring another ‘rain event’.

In a tense interview with Channel Nine A Current Affair host Allison Langdon, Mr Kerr said everything that could be done was being done but safety was the paramount consideration.

‘You know we have our staff, the civil engineers we have doing the job up there, as much as we possibly can when it’s safe to do so,’ Cr Kerr said. 

‘We can’t get lots of people on this slide because it was a dangerous sit and was moving … we had to do it quite slowly and gently.’ 

Cape Tribulation boasts it is where the UNESCO World Heritage-listed sights, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest, meet

Cr Kerr said the promise of an opening before Easter had been conveyed to residents despite claims made to A Current Affair that no such undertakings had been made. 

In a statement provided to Channel Nine the council said work on the road ‘is being prioritised to ensure residents have safe access in and out of Cape Tribulation and neighbouring Daintree communities’.

‘Following weeks of ongoing assessment to safely secure the site, crews are working towards opening road access through Noah Range to Cape Tribulation to all vehicles, residents and visitors, during daylight hours within weeks,’ the statement said.

‘Rate relief is available via the financial relief measures Council announced on 31 January.

‘Council is committed to improving engagement and communications with residents and businesses impacted by this disaster and supporting the promotion of sustainable tourism back to our beautiful region post this disaster.’