Beaches of the Daintree - Coconut

Around thirty kilometres north of the Daintree River Ferry is Coconut Beach. It is a glorious drive through the Daintree Rainforest crossing the Alexandra and Noah Ranges and many rainforest creeks.

Coconut Beach

The beach is just over two kilometres long and at low tide, the fringing reef is exposed.

Fringing Reef Exposed at Low Tide

Noah Range at South end of the Beach

The Fringing Reef Exposed

Soldier crabs are common beach inhabitants. They come out at low tide to feed by filtering food from the sand and rolling the sand into little balls. If they are disturbed they will scuttle back into their holes. 

A rare and fascinating inhabitant of certain types of pandanus palms in the Cape Trib area are the peppermint stick insects (Megacrania batesii). They are well camouflaged and hide in the ribs of the pandanus leaves. If disturbed they squirt a milky liquid that smells like peppermint. Chewed pandanus leaves indicate their presence.

Common plants found along Coconut Beach include the beach almond (Terminalia catappa) which  grows into a large spreading tree. The seeds are very light and dispersed by water. The leaves of this tree have many medicinal and other uses. The beach lettuce (Scaevola taccada) has edible leaves and pretty white fan flowers. Clusters of white berries then form on this low growing tree. Beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae) is a sand dune vine with pretty purple flowers. There are lots of young coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) growing on this beach.

Other common beach finds are cuttlebone, the internal shell of the cuttlefish and pumice from volcanic eruptions. Pumice is a light rock with holes from the gases that are formed during the eruption. It is able to travel vast distances across oceans to eventually wash up on a beach.

Noah Range and Mount Sorrow frame Coconut Beach and the rainforest spills down onto the beach. A creek runs into the ocean at the north end of the beach.

The north end of the beach has coral rubble from the fringing reef.