The iconic Daintree River is under repair after floodwaters caused erosion in its lower reaches.

Tree-planting and earthworks have strengthened the river’s banks near the Daintree Village, where land washed away in record floods in recent years.

Terrain NRM’s Jen Mackenzie said almost 9000 young plants were now helping to stabilise the bank along two stretches of eroded land, where rockwork is the new foundations.

“There was nothing left to hold the soil in place in these sections,’’ she said. “The vegetation had been washed away and the erosion was only getting worse.”

Terrain NRM has been working with landholders and contractors on Disaster Relief Funding projects, jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Grazier Barry Osborne is one of a number of landholders in the Daintree region whose river frontage has been part of the project. Mr Osborne said big floods had taken their toll on riverside land in the Daintree’s lower reaches.

“With two record floods in the last four or five years, the river has cut into the land,’’ he said. “There was a 10m-high bank here years ago but there is hardly any bank at all now and the river has moved in about 30m, creating big washouts.

“This is loamy, sandy soil so floods knock the country around badly.”

Streambank on the Daintree’s Stewart Creek has been repaired as part of a $2.1 million disaster recovery project at nine sites across the Wet Tropics.

Terrain NRM is managing the project, with eligible works jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Queensland governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

Stage 1 of the project has identified sites for urgent repair in three different Wet Tropics council areas – Douglas Shire Council, Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Hinchinbrook Shire Council.

Douglas Shire Council and Terrain NRM have worked closely on the Stewart Creek remediation project, which is located on council land only a few kilometres from the Daintree village hub.

The site on Stewart Creek Road suffered streambank erosion, resulting in significant soil loss and vegetation removal. The erosion led to sediment run off into the Stewart sub-catchment of the Daintree River and ultimately the Great Barrier Reef.

Almost 450 tonnes of rock was used along 23 metres of streambank as structural reinforcement at the site of the erosion. Revegetation efforts will be completed on the site when the wet season commences.

Terrain NRM Project Manager Jen Mackenzie said the project is the first of five projects in the Douglas Shire associated with Stage 1 funding. The shire was badly affected by battering monsoonal rains during the 2018-2019 wet season.

“An entire section of creek bank had fallen into the creek,” she said. “This project was time-critical to ensure the erosion didn’t escalate. We’re not only repairing the damage, we are ensuring the streambank is more resilient for similar flooding events in the future.