Wet Tropics of Queensland - Features

Features

The World Heritage Area includes Australia's highest waterfall, Wallaman Falls.

The site contains many unique features such as over 390 rare plant species, which includes 74 species that are threatened. There are at least 85 species that are endemic to the area, 13 different types of rainforest and 29 species of mangrove, which is more than anywhere else in the country. 370 species of bird have been recorded in the area.

The endangered Southern Cassowary and rare Spotted-tailed Quoll are some of the many threatened species, while the Musky Rat-kangaroo is one of 50 animal species that are unique to this area. Other rare animals include the Yellow-bellied Gliders and Brush-tailed Bettong.

90 species of orchids have been noted. Australia's rarest mammal, the tube nosed insectivorous Murina florious bat is also found here. Stockwellia or Vic Stockwell's Puzzle tree Stockwellia quadrifida (Myrtaceae)—rare large trees only in restricted areas of "well developed upland rain forest" in the Wet Tropics. The present–day descendants of, and very similar to, the ancient Gondwanan fossil species, which is considered the ancestor of all Eucalyptus species diversified from it into so many different Eucalyptus forms today.

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