Businesses in a remote rainforest community of Far North Queensland fear financial ruin unless urgent repairs can be made to the only road connecting them with the rest of the country.

Cape Tribulation, about 110 kilometres north of Cairns, was cut-off in December after heavy rain from Tropical Cyclone Jasper caused multiple landslides, including one that blocked the main road through the Daintree Rainforest.

An access road locals refer to as a “goat track” was carved around the landslip over the Noah Range to enable  approximately 120 Cape Tribulation residents to access the Daintree ferry and communities including Mossman and Cairns.

But the track over the Noah Range is only open at limited times and subsequent heavy rain has forced new closures, negatively impacting schools and businesses.

Tourism’s uncertain future

Kim Matulich, co-owner of an ecotourism accommodation business, said businesses would likely close if tourists could not return to Cape Tribulation.

“We will have to wind up within six months,” he said.

“We are a small business; we can manage but there other operators within Cape Tribulation who have smaller margins. 

“I don’t think they have long before they have to make that tough decision.”

Mr Matulich said the temporary access road over the Noah Range was unreliable and could only be accessed by four-wheel-drive.

Jeremy Blockey, who runs a tropical fruit farm at Cape Tribulation, said some children, including his grandson, would miss days of school because they weren’t able to get there.

On Monday, the six-year-old and another boy were taken on a half-hour boat trip to get around the Noah Range landslip for their first day of term.

“They did have a massive squall just offshore, which they just avoided, but that could’ve made the journey somewhat uncomfortable, and they would’ve arrived at school totally wet,” Mr Blockey said.

“This is not a sustainable situation.”

Rain interrupts road recovery

Douglas Shire Council Mayor Michael Kerr said further heavy rain since last month’s floods had “caused a lot of extra issues”, prompting fears from geotechnical engineers of a potential collapse of what remained of the road.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to get done as far as how they can pin the wall to stop the wall from collapsing before they can even start moving the debris off it,” he said.

Cr Kerr said helicopters and barges had been sent into Cape Tribulation with supplies, while locals were also being offered help accessing financial support.

Council in crosshairs

But Mr Blockey said he was sick of hearing the term “resilient” and wanted a return to normality.