Betty Hinton, 83, owns Floravilla Icecreamery and makes all her icecream using her special secret recipe. The recipe has never been written down, and will only be shared with the Icecreamery’s next owners.
Sounds of the Daintree Ferry
As one of only 14 vehicular cable ferries in Australia, taking the trip across the crocodile infested Daintree River is a unique tourism experience.
While the river can be obscured and passengers have to remain in their cars or buses, the unique sound of the journey creates a lasting impression.
The Daintree ferry from the south side bank, framed by earth moving equipment used for dredging the river after recent flooding.
A map of the Daintree region, showing public amenities, the ferry crossing, Cow Bay Village, and the unsealed road from Cape Tribulation to Wujal Wujal. The grey shading indicates areas classified as National Park. (©The State of Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management)
The view across the Daintree river from the southside public jetty, where tour boats are launched.
Concrete carpark and crocodile jaw entrance to a tour sales ‘office’ at the public jetty.
A winding sealed road (‘demained’ during the Mayoral term of Mike Berwick and therefore the responsibilty of Douglas Shire Council), leads away from the ferry landing site and up and across Mount Alexandra.
The view from the Mount Alexandra lookout on the way to Cow Bay, showing the Daintree River entrance.
The world heritage listed Daintree rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world, and contains many unique, ancient and yet to be identified plant and insect species.
Betty’s Floravilla Icecreamery at Cow Bay is visited by hundreds of tourists every day when the ferry is operating, and is a unique and welcome refreshment stop for many bus tours.
Ferry queues can be long during the high tourist season, frustrating both locals and visitors, with delayed, late in the day crossings upsetting connection schedules.
The ferry cable has a unique sound as it drags the vessel across the muddy river. The industrial sounds and wire cable mechanism are in sharp contrast to the bright painting on the wheelhouse that were added as part of the ongoing Daintree Gateway project funded by the Douglas Shire Council.
This watercolour (with enlarged detail) of Daintree rainforest species Acmera Graveolens is part of a series of 11 works by Betty Hinton that hang in the James Cook University library in Cairns. Betty’s work has also been hung at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
The Lost Girl 1961 