When early explorer George Elphingstone Dalyrimple made his discovery of the Daintree River known, and in particular the massive stands of red cedar timber he found, a timber rush soon followed.

This discovery was heard of around the world, and a man on the other side of the world, who could at best be described as suffering a mid life crisis decided to become part of it. Henry Joseph Niau was a well to do estate owner in southern France. He had a beautiful wife and two young daughters, a six year old and a nine year old. Upon hearing of this far off land of opportunity, Henry Niau decided to sell his plantation and set sail for Australia. On arrival in Cooktown, Niau found himself a small sailing boat and single handedly navigated into the upper reaches of the Daintree river where he took selection over two square miles of land, today known as Tranquility on the Daintree.

He immediately set about finding a house site in the rainforest, cleared it and built a small timber cottage for his family. Unfortunately, with few practical skills and little local knowledge, the house he built was in constant need of repair. It rotted and leaked and was unable to withstand the rigors of life in the tropical Daintree rainforest.

His next task was to clear his land and with the aid of Chinese laborers from the nearby Palmer River goldfields, Niau cleared the land by hand. He sold the red cedar timber he cut and made a handsome profit.

Initially considering sugar cane as the principal crop, he decided on corn after the promised sugar mill in Mossman failed to eventuate. Soon his property was tall waving stands of corn.

Unfortunately, one week prior to his first harvest, a bush fire devastated his crop.

Never the less, he persisted and planted his fields out with corn again. This time, before he could harvest his second crop, the Daintree flooded and wiped it out.

The following year, things took a further turn for the worst. A band of marauding Aboriginals known as the Myalls were making their way down the Daintree river attacking any settlers that they came across. It didn’t take long before they ventured onto the Niau farmlands and many skirmishes ensued. In fact it became so dangerous that Niau was forced to barricade his small family in their house, guarding against surprise attack 24 hours a day.

A month later, things took a further turn for the worst as the whole family came down with fever. In between bouts of fever and illness, the entire family, including the two daughters, had to take turns peering into the darkness guarding against a surprise attack.

After enduring this for a further month, Niau was forced to abandon his plantation. With heavy hearts the little family sailed down the beautiful Daintree River for the last time. They resettled at Neutral Bay Sydney, where Henry Joseph Niau died one year later at the age of 48 in 1888.

The eldest of the two daughters, Josephine, later writes a book about their life called “The Phantom Paradise” which was published in 1936. In this book she describes the Daintree River as the “river of lost hopes and broken dreams” after what it did to her family, leaving them broke and destitute and having killed her father.