DAINTREE RIVER CRUISE CENTRE FOR SALE!

Daintree River Cruise Centre – An Iconic, Lucrative Tourism Business!

 

The iconic Daintree River Cruise Centre is officially on the market! The retirement of Far North tourism pioneers, Lee & Janet Lafferty has created an extraordinary opportunity for buyers to secure one of the most famous, “Must See” tourist attractions in North Queensland. This business sits rightfully in popularity alongside the Great Barrier Reef, the Kuranda Train and Sky Rail, frequented by both international and domestic tourists wishing to experience the ultimate tropical wilderness adventure.
 

                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be sold as a going concern with an extensive list of Licenses, Equipment & Chattels included in the sale:

 

·         WIWO 364 days per year eco-tourism business

·         A prime, flood free, Daintree river side position

·         The 5165m2 freehold property: Lot 5 on RP 27758

·         A business model that has been tried, tested and famously successful since 1987

·         4 marine vessels, stock and equipment

·         Irreplaceable marine & tourism permits & licenses

·         2 sanctioned jetties + a rainforest boardwalk entrance

·         A 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom family residence + work shed

·         A second shop building + staff accommodation

·         A rare opportunity indeed!

 

The mighty Daintree River flows through some of the oldest rainforest on earth and is inhabited by the other prehistoric icon, the Salt Water Crocodile. Daintree River Cruises offer tourists and locals the best chance of coming face-to-face with the last living dinosaur.

 

The current owners have reduced their work load to a 20 hour week with long term, enthusiastic support staff. Could be managed or easily run by a “hands on”, husband and wife team + staff. You can be as busy as you want, or an absentee owner.

 

This truly is a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to secure a well-established, eco-friendly and easily run business. The business plan is simple. It works. It is highly profitable. It has so much more potential in the future with the fresh energy of a new buyer to take over the reins. The potential lies in a multitude of future opportunities; for example: tapping into souvenir sales, the addition of a café, or the creation of a hub for travelling self-drivers and tourists.    

 

This is a fantastic opportunity to change your life and enjoy a wonderful working lifestyle in Tropical North Queensland…a perfect way to employ your entire family! Alternatively, a superb opportunity for existing enterprises to acquire a well-run, lucrative and established complimentary business.

 

Go to http://www.daintreerivercruisecentre.com.au for a look at the Daintree River Cruise Centre website.

 

  Inspections welcome by appointment. Contact the selling agent, Debbie Aldred of RE/MAX Cairns on mobile 0402 969 316 email debbiealdred@remax.com.au

Paradise Found!

We are a funny lot up here in FNQ.... we can often get carried away with life and its tribulations and forget just how lucky we are. Sure we have had a late wet, heaps of wild windy weather this past few months but man, how good was the weather over the past weekend?

Deb & I awoke on Sunday morning with intentions to go fishing!
Where exactly; it had not been decided yet!

But on checking the tide charts, decided to head south to the Johnstone Rivers. The reasoning here was twofold - its winter and the tide had already peaked early with a low at approx. 11am. Winter fishing up here can be a bit tough, especially in our rainforest fed rivers. Cool nights means cooler water temperatures and that fresh flowing down from our coastal mountains can be well below the magic 23C (the minimum average temp. required for old bucket mouth, the mighty barramundi, to feed actively). Sure they are still about but their sluggish activity leads to docile hunting behaviour. Obviously its much easier to catch fish on lures, when they are actively hunting for food.

That's not to say that fishing is a fruitless pastime during winter, its just that you must consider other options as well and not just get singularly focussed on barra alone. And hence my decision to head south to the Johnstone....this river also holds good stocks of the likes of trevally, bream, cod, queenies and flathead, all prime cool water targets.

Bruce Highway heading south...Walsh's Pyramid in the background

Sunrise over the Yarrabah Range

Flowering sugar cane ready for harvest

Driving south along the Bruce Highway the morning vista was absolutely stunning. Hardly a cloud in the sky, Walsh's Pyramid standing proud and piercing the blue, and the flowering sugar cane shining in the early morning sunlight. The drive was awesome. Upon arrival at Innisfail the river was as flat as glass, our excitement was at its peak as we launched under the new Jubilee Bridge and readied our gear for the day.

Jubilee Bridge...Innisfail (South Johnstone River junction)

New marina, Innisfail

Yours truly casting to mangroves

Readers will know that I am heavily into sussing out these new soft plastic things at the moment, good mate Keith Graham and I have been giving them a fair run of late, with great success. I figured that under these conditions, cool clear water, clear blue skies and a falling tide, one of the new Zerek Cherabin prawns would be a good choice. So off we headed downstream to the salt...the water was 19C!

Deb chose a new 4" Z-man Swimmerz in green ( as well as taking out about a dozen hard bodies lures) - Deb likes to change regularly, I like to keep to one or two lures only for the day!

First lizard for the day

It wasn't long before a quality lizard darted from the muddy bottom and scoffed my Zerek. I was not quite prepared for this so soon in the drift and I subsequently failed to hook up. I should also mention that I was field testing a new nano rod from Adrenalin Fishing tackle, maybe this was the reason that I failed to hook up. These rods have quite a different feel to them, being quite a bit heavier than the  high modulus graphite rods that I usually prefer, their "flexibility" was quite a surprise.

Deb catching up on email etc..sand bar, Johnstone River mouth

Deb and I had had a late start this day, so a stop for morning tea / coffee and home made high fibre muffins was in order (yes, Debbie cooked them while I was packing the boat)...yummy! What does a dedicated Real Estate agent do when she is within mobile phone range...check her emails and messages and negotiate a few contracts of course...TRUE!

Lets head back upstream and do this drift again I asked...why not!
After all, I had landed one flattie but missed another two on the strike....new rod....new lure...just plain unlucky...who knows!

Deb's first lizard for the day

Now that's quality fishing!...check out that new rod.

Deb's little trevally on a blue 3" bomber

It wasn't long before another subtle strike had my new rod bending over....working these lightly weighted cherabin lures sure was an exciting way to fish. Cast to the shallow bank, let it sink, flick the rod / lure in an enticing, life like manner....these lures are amazing to see swimming in the clear water. They are so lifelike...and the flatties were loving them. I was fast becoming used to the strange action of my new rod too. Cast...sink...flick flick...sink...pause...flick flick...hook up!

And these were quality flathead too as the pics hereabouts are testament to this fact. We decided to stay downstream that day and fish the sandy flats - both on the run out and run in tide. We looked for flowing water where the currents would bring bait fish and prawns to any flathead waiting in ambush - things like mangrove points are a good start as are drop offs and gutters. The tally was mounting.

Deb even managed a little trevor on a 3" blue bomber...her lure of choice, as well as a nice 60cm flattie. In all we landed 5 lizzards, dropped a couple right at the boat as missed hooking up to another 5 that I genuinely saw lunge at my lure. It was a great day; and one made so memorable in the fact that we deliberately changed out strategy to suit the conditions...and most of all, it paid off handsomely. We did try a half hearted effort on one of my favourite barra banks on the incoming tide but it was not to be that day.

Another lizard!

The Zerek Cherabin does it again

Close up of that lure

Just being on the water this day was rewarding enough (I'm sure that you have heard that said before) but this day it was true...check out these pictures, what a paradise we live in!

PS... after getting used to my new rod, understanding its flexibility and feel, and after landing some quality flatties who offered a spirited fight on light tackle, I LOVE IT!

Catch you on the water!
Regards, Les

www.fishingcairns.com.au

The bird life was beautiful too!

Now that's a nice piece of water

Cape York Adventure!

"Hi Les....its Kim here mate. Just wondering whether you are available to guide on my very first charter with my new game boat starting on 30th of this month." "Err let me think, when?" "I will fly you up to Weipa on Friday, collect you from the airport and then board the Duyfken...the clients will be arriving later that evening and we will set off, head up the coast and fish the usual places - Wenlock, Ducie, Jackson etc....are you in?"

"Hold on, I'll have to think about it......Lock me in!" Well that took me all of about 10 seconds and I was committed!

The Duyfken - at the wharf in Weipa

The flight to Weipa was uneventful, Kim met me as promised and we were soon at the wharf and climbing over trawlers to get to the Duyfken. She is a beautiful 52ft game boat (I think this is right) and this was to be her maiden charter under Capt. Kim Andersen's watch. The plan was for a complete wash down; anybody who has been to Weipa and Cape York will know that that bloody red dust gets into everything, in readiness to greet our clients. Thank goodness the Duyfken is equipped with high pressure gurneys fore and aft, its was a breeze! (Note...that red dust is what the wealth of Cape York is created from, bauxite, and it is mined by huge open cut scrapers and shipped to China & Gladstone for processing into Aluminium.)

So after packing away our fishing gear, filling up with fresh water, a brief intro and the lines were thrown...just like in the movies. It was exciting stuff as we steamed out of Weipa harbour at first light next morning. It would be a fairly uneventful cruise out the leads, past Duyfken Point, and up the Gulf to our mooring location that evening. The outriggers were lowered, the TLD25's rigged with pushers and a flat line out the back with a deep diving raider. We had a couple of half-hearted hits, landed a couple of school mackerel but did not sight a sail.

Steaming up the coast.

Next morning we dropped off the dories near the beach and cruised out to a few marks that Kim had collected over the years....reef and structure in deeper gulf waters. They just had to hold fish!

Mark - a quality golden

Phil and his first red!

A cobia...on a gulp plastic squid

Les - now that's a nice golden trevally

Those gulps again...bust ups galore too!

 I think it was about 25 seconds before the first bite....and Phil was on. Now in these remote reefs it could be anything from a red, nannygai (small & large mouth), stripey, fingermark, cod, trevally (about a dozen different varieties) cobia, tuna, sharks, reef jacks and more.....and we caught them all. Pics hereabouts show the variety and the quality. Bent rods, screaming reels, aching backs and arms was the order of the day. Even our cook, Mark, got into the action with soft plastics....gulps and squid things gigged off the bottom got slammed. And soon it was time to head back to the beach, pick up the dories from their safe anchorage and steam north to our next night's stop over. Man I wish we hadn't caught so many quality fish, even with strict catch and release guidelines, we needed to stock up on a few fillets for our needs, the task fell to me to do the filleting.  While Capt. Kim was up in the driving position, Mark the cook preparing the evening meal and the guests (Steve, Kev & Phil) just lazing around having a few quiet beers. It doesn't get much better that that!

Its amazing how eager and enthusiastic everyone is bright and early in the mornings!

At 6:00 am it was a buzz....half naked bodies rushing to the back deck (err...loo) a quick coffee from the shiny new coffee making machine (bloody good stuff too), breaky, sun block and we were off.

Cruising the coast - chasing the tuna schools

Phil and a nice longtail...15 minutes on the light spin gear

Days seemed to blend into days....did we hit the marauding schools of longtail tuna, or the barras in the creek that day. Who cares, it was all on for the young and the not so young! We caught tuna and macks, barracuda & trevally, jacks and cods......and heaps of barra too!

Check out that lure - Qantas colour!

Capt. Kim & Kev...using those plastic things!

One day we found a willing school of barra sitting amongst the timber, right on the change of the tide, and we landed 25 barra in succession. We cast deep divers to undercut banks and shallow runners to mangrove edges. We even had a go at those new rubbery things generically called "Transam's"...Capt. Kim swears by them. I just swore AT them Ha Ha. I did manage to hook up to some monster fish in deep water using them but unfortunately, the hooks pulled after spirited deep water runs. On one occasion I pumped a sizable fish to a few metres below the boat - I saw its huge bronze flash and almost caught one of the biggest fingermark that I have even seen. A quick turn of its head and it was free....darn.

At this stage we were in the Mapoon vicinity and within mobile phone range. It was amazing to see grown men scramble for their "mobile" device, anxious to check email but more importantly, post their latest photo to their Facebook page. Oh how times have changed...social media...its here to stay!

The river fishing was proving to be a bit challenging. There were fish about but they were not active in the cool conditions. Strong and persistent SE winds to 25 knots, drizzling rain and water temps a lot lower than anticipated was the culprit we deduced. But by working the tides, either the flats on the
high tides or the gutters on the low, we found quality barra.

Kev and his PB....102

 

I suspect we still averaged 40+ barra a day. Kev still managed his personal best at just over a metre, Steve broke his barra virginity (know how he feels) and Phil had a ball on the reefies. We even has a session in a creek where hundreds of queenies were smashing bait all around the dories.

Muddies.....YUM!

The food was superb - thanks Mark! The highlight for me was the mud crab and seafood chowder; all ingredients was as fresh as, right down to the crabs (caught that day) and the cobia the previous one.
We had lures smashed by monster fish, at one stage while sight casting to dozens of hungry barra smashing jelly prawns at a creek mouth, my 30lb braid was cut by fish - at least 3 barra crossed my line simultaneously and twang, it was broken without a hit to the lure itself. We actually stayed there fishing for over two hours while dozens of barra boofed along the facing mud bank / along the river front and into the channel itself. This was an amazing session and although we only landed about 20 fish, to see such a bio mas of predator and prey in the raw was spectacular. It was here too that I lost a monster barra and my treasured Qantas coloured flat jack lure (they were working a treat up there!)

Other favourites included the deep diving shads, shallow running shads, gold bombers and those darn "transams"....come on boys, what do we call these bloody things?

The mother ship offers quality accommodation. She sleeps 10 people is comfort, has two bathrooms and heads, plenty of fresh water, air-conditioning, a huge double lounge / dining area an was home away from home.

Capt. Kim and Les in the "wheel house"

Capt. Kim knows his stuff....he has been operating in these waters for many years and many of you may know him from the Mantaray days. He is also one of the best game boat skippers operating out of Cairns during the peak heavy tackle black marlin season....the Duyfken will be returning to the east coast in September to pursue these monster blacks. Kim is also keen on exploring the near shore blue water options in the Gulf....hence those outriggers and pushers. There are black marlin, sailfish and other light tackle sportfish species available and Capt. Kim has pioneered this fishery.

So if you are looking for that very special trip to remote Cape York / Gulf waters...check out Kim Andersen's Duyfken Sportfishing Charters....light tackle, reef, river lure & fly, awesome! Fact - we landed over 40 different varieties on this trip.

 

NOTE - on Kim's very next charter he managed his first sailfish...congratulations mate.

 PS - upon my return to Cairns the weather here has been absolutely miserable. After such a magic week in the Gulf I was anxious to take Debbie fishing locally....its been too wet, too cold. maybe next week.

Catch you on the water, regards Les
www.fishingcairns.com.au