SUMMARY OF HISTORY OF DAINTREE UNDER PAST GOVERNMENTS

• 1978 - Quaid 750-block subdivision in Cow Bay approved (State Liberal/National Party Government).
• 1981 - Cape Tribulation National Park declared (but with future road reserve excised) (State Liberal/National Party Government).
• 1983-1984 - Built Cape Tribulation to Bloomfield road. (State Liberal/National Party Government).
• 1988 - World Heritage listing of Wet Tropics (Federal Labor Government).
• "Daintree Rescue Plan" (State and Federal Labor Governments).
• Funding of 13.5 million for buy-back to match Federal funding. (State Labour Government and Federal Labour Government).
• 1993, July - Moratorium on grid power north of the river (State Labor Government).

• Establishment of Alternative Energy Advisory Group with $5M (State Labor Government), and the setting up of 3 RAPS trial sites in the Daintree.
• 1995, November - Declaration of "No new Grid Power across the Daintree River" (State Labor Government).
• 1996 - Establishment of the Daintree RAPS scheme, for a $15,000 rebate for Renewable Energy installations north of the Daintree River. (State Labour Government).
• 1996, March - Cancellation of RAPS Scheme (State Liberal/National Party Government).
• 1998, June 13 - Queensland Election yields a "hung" parliament - after much "to-ing and fro-ing", the Labor Government finally is granted political power; party platform is "no grid power to the Daintree". However, they are kept in power by the vote of one independent Member of Parliament.
• 1998, July - Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment report (all 777 pages of it) on the provision of grid power to the Daintree released. Despite intensive review, the final version of this document has been set aside, as the Queensland Labor Government has restated its commitment to providing RAPS instead of grid electrification.
• 1999 - Because of lack of agreement about funding for buy-back, the State and Federal Governments commission a further study - the Daintree Futures Study, which recommends providing grid power to the Daintree and a convoluted and complex series of land acquisition processes, designed to avoid direct "buy-back"!
• 2000 - The State Labor Government, under the Electricity Act, withdraws the ability of Ergon Energy (formerly Far North Queensland Electricity Board - FNQEB) to distribute grid power to the area north of the Daintree.