Aussie tourist destination Cape Tribulation has been cut off from visitors for ... trends now
One of Australia's most popular tropical vacation paradises is in danger of shutting up shop with its main access road still largely impassable, buried under landslides three months after a cyclone hit the area.
Cape Tribulation, which uniquely provides easy access to two World Heritage-listed sights - the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest - has been almost completely cut-off since flooding following December's Category 3 Cyclone Jasper.
The 4.2m of rain dumped on the region caused mounds of earth to slide onto the Cape Tribulation Road, leaving it impassable from the south.
What is frustrating locals, however, is that months later work to keep it clear goes at a snail's pace and is erratic.
A massive landslide caused by flooding in the wake of December's Cyclone Jasper has cut off Cape Tribulation
With only a trickle of traffic able to get through at unpredictable opening times, Cape Tribulation's economic lifeblood of tourism has dried up leaving around 200 businesses in peril of shutting.
One business in peril is Cape Trib Camping with owners Julian and Jackie telling Channel Nine's A Current Affair on Thursday that they and many others were near the end of their tether.
'Emotionally and financially I think it'll be the end of the town for a lot of people shortly if drastic action doesn't happen,' Julian said.
'If we don't get a date for when the road reopens, we will shut our doors,' Jackie added.
'Cape Trib camping will have to close. We cannot stay open without tourists, without a road we have no business.'
Locals are blaming the Douglas Shire Council for not clearing the road quickly enough after the flooding subsided and not dedicating enough resources to keeping it clear.
'We expect some disasters but we also expect people will be competent in their response to those disasters,' said
