Sharing the dream with the indigenous people of Cape York

Balkanu and Cape York Institute partners with Qld Govt Dept of Environment Resource & Management (DERM) to commence the construction of the Greatest Walk in Cape York Peninsula – the Dreaming Track.

Its the creation of a 2,000km walking track traversing the beautiful unspoilt areas on eastern Cape York Peninsula that winds its way from the Daintree rainforests in the south - through mountains, savannah plains, wetlands and stunning coastline – to the most northern tip of Australia.

Cape York Peninsula is one of the last preserved tropical regions in the world, with 137,000 sq km of tropical landscapes and 4,000km of remote coastline. is home to extraordinary biodiversity providing habitat to 3,000 recorded plant species and over 500 species of terrestrial vertebrates. The land meets an equally diverse coastline and ocean, with the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef running parallel to the east coast.

The Dreaming Track will be one of the great walks of the world, it is estimated to attract 20,000 to 50,000 visitors per annum, who will be able to enjoy the experiences and challenges of this great natural landscape that cover both aboriginal land and national parks.

Through the Dreaming Track, the traditional owners and indigenous people of Cape York Peninsula will proudly showcase the wonders of their lands, sharing stories of an unbroken history between land and its people.

The Dreaming Track will include guided shorter walks of 1-6 days duration, through to more challenging interconnected walks of 2 weeks or longer. Each walk can be accompanied and guided by indigenous land owners, after all, the land has a story, told best by it's people.

The Track will contain 5 sub regions, each distinct in every way.

1. Rainforest experience
2. Outback experience
3. Cascades, coastline and cultural experience
4. Shelbourne Dunes experience
5. Great North experience

The development of the Dreaming Track will bring economic growth through service development, stimulate jobs, create ownership, empowerment to the people to break away from welfare dependency.

The development and operation of the Dreaming Track will create of three categories of jobs

• Construction - an estimated creation of 140-180 jobs in the first 5 years
• Ongoing maintenance - will sustain 25-60 jobs annually
• Business opportunities – up to 700 jobs would be created as a result of the income generated from tourist dollars spend each year in North Queensland.

The Dreaming Track is a walk through history, the world's oldest culture and some of the world's most natural and unspoilt environment. The construction of this Walk will provide with comfortable modern facilities yet care is taken to ensure we preserve the unique beauty of the land, its spirit and cultures of the Aboriginal peoples of Cape York.

We invite you to share the Dream.