This is a development which NQCC has paid a lot of attention to over the years in association with other environmental groups including ASH – Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook. Hinchinbrook Island near Cardwell is a large spectacular island National Park. It features jagged rainforest clad mountains, waterfalls and beautiful bays and beaches. Tourists in carefully regulated numbers can enjoy it via walking the 4 day Thorsborne trail or can pay shorter visits. It is separated from the mainland by the Hinchinbrook channel – a wilderness area of mangrove creeks and sea-grass beds and a vital habitat of the endangered dugong.
This area is also home to countless billions of sandflies and mosquitoes and as such conservationists had thought that it would be saved from inappropriate commercial development. Unfortunately, over the last 10 years commercial pressures in the form of a residential and tourist development known as Port Hinchinbrook have brought direct destruction to some of the mangroves together with major indirect impacts and pressures as a result of increased population and economic activity. The touted economic benefits of Port Hinchinbrook initially attracted some support from those locals who thought that these benefits would outweigh the environmental detriment, but these economic benefits did not meet expectations and more local people are realising the cost in terms of amenity and environmental destruction. A further major expansion of this development is now proposed but NQCC will be doing its best to prevent further environmental destruction in this area.