Gondwana Rainforest Trust accused of misleading donors about status of Daintree land
A not-for-profit is facing allegations of misleading donors by falsely claiming a block of land in the Daintree rainforest is at risk of development when the land is zoned for conservation uses.
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A not-for-profit is facing allegations misleading donors by falsely claiming a block of land in the Daintree rainforest is at risk of development when the land is zoned for conservation uses.
Gondwana Rainforest Trust claimed – as recently as last week on social media – that Lot 92 Cape Tribulation Road at Diwan is at risk of development.
“This is your chance to help save endangered species and protect this incredible rainforest,” a Facebook post on February 23 stated.
“We’re so close to securing Lot 92 and we only need $72,180 to reach our goal.”
The Gondwana Rainforest Trust is accepting donations with a view to purchase the 8.9ha block that’s home of the southern cassowary and a host of threatened plant species.
But according to Douglas Shire Council the block lies within a conservation zone and is not at risk of development.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch took aim at the solicitation of donations through claims the block was at risk of clearing.
“The claims being made by Gondwana Rainforest Trust are completely false,” he said.
“The local government planning authority has confirmed in writing that this land cannot and will not be developed.
“Yet Gondwana is still running a public misinformation campaign claiming that Lot 92 is zoned for development (which he said could lead to) well-meaning donors into thinking they’re ‘saving’ something that was never in danger in the first place.”
Lot 92 Cape Tribulation Road lies within a general conservation zone meaning the site cannot be lawfully developed or altered.
The trust was running up to 24 sponsored Facebook advertisements through two Facebook accounts including one that featured Sir David Attenborough, despite there being no evidence that he has endorsed the campaign.
However it appears to have scaled this back to 13 after Mr Entsch went public with his concerns.
The David Attenborough post has also been removed.
The Far North MP said he was heading to the Daintree this week to meet with local residents and discuss ongoing conservation efforts.
“For decades, we have seen outsider groups parachute into the Daintree and dictate to the locals as if they don’t belong there,” he said.
“I will be up there meeting with the community, hearing their concerns, and standing with them against these deceptive fundraising tactics.
“The people who live in the Daintree deserve to be respected, not vilified by self-serving activist groups.”
Mullumbimby registered entity Gondwana Rainforest Trust according to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission posted an income of $1,855,393 in the last financial year.
Mr Entsch advised donors who had made financial contributions to ask for their money back.
Gondwana Rainforest Trust responded by stating there were several factually incorrect statements made by Mr Entsch.
“The fundamental one being that based on historic aerial imagery, he states that Lot 92 was not lawfully cleared in the past,” a Trust spokesman said.
“This is incorrect and undermines the credibility and validity of other statements and the allegations.
“Publicly available aerial imagery from the 1980s and as recently as 1994 clearly show that this property was completely cleared in the past.”
In the early 1980s Quaids Real Estate subdivided large parts of the Daintree and sold off blocks many of which were cleared before the declaration of a World Heritage Area in 1988.
This declaration coincided with the first sale of Lot 92 for $100,000.
A black and white aerial images of Lot 92 Cape Tribulation Road taken in 1982 show the land largely devoid of trees, which Gondwana claimed as reason for the block being at risk of further clearing.
But according to Douglas Shire Council, under a conservation precinct created under the Cape Tribulation and Daintree Coast Local Plan, which Lot 92 is a part of, land use rights for development only apply if clearing is maintained and was lawfully established.
No maintained clearing exists on this lot.
On March 3, Gondwana Rainforest Trust announced on social media that the organisation had acquired Lot 92 and the land was now “protected forever.”
The Leichhardt MP said the Gondwana Rainforest Trust had been running a similar fundraising campaign for Lot 463 or 99 Black Bean Road Cow Bay, despite having already purchased the property in May 2024 for $330,000.
A Trust spokesman said the organisation “always negotiates a legal right to purchase properties prior to fundraising and in some circumstances, the legal title of a property can be transferred prior to our fundraising target being met”.
“On this occasion, while the title of Lot 463 has been transferred to Gondwana Rainforest Trust prior to our fundraising target being met, our public appeal for this project is, and always has been, to ‘purchase and protect’ the property,” the spokesman said.
“As has been clearly stated in our appeal, our fundraising target not only includes a proportion of the overall acquisition cost of the property, it also includes the cost of protecting it by having it legally gazetted as a nature refuge as well as the cost of managing the property for conservation.”
Mr Entsch has reported Gondwana Rainforest Trust to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and has called on relevant authorities to launch a formal investigation into the organisation’s practices.
According to publicly available property records, since 2021 Gondwana Rainforest Trust has spent $2.4m to acquire more than 60ha of land in the Daintree area.
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