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An involvement with local Aboriginal people that began as a friendship is now part of the ethos of the Maloneys' business. Besides guided walks, guests, who range from bird watchers to honeymooners, can take Aboriginal art classes, buy pieces on exhibit by local Aboriginal artists or listen to a didgeridoo demonstration by one of the indigenous staff members. Traditional smoking ceremonies—believed to have spiritual cleansing properties—are held when new staff join, and in the spa, a traditional blend of lemon myrtle leaves and gum leaves is burned before each treatment. Local plants and Aboriginal remedies are featured throughout the treatments, which are based on the Australian-made Li'Tya product line. Ocher, highly valued by indigenous tribes in ceremony and art, is plentiful on the property and is used to detoxify and soothe, while such plants as wild lime and ginger are ingredients in other preparations. The Maloneys' daughter Kelda, the resort's spa manager, says the emphasis is on a holistic experience. "It's not so much how the buildings look. It's the experience that makes it five star," she says.
On her first trip to Australia from her home in Taiwan, Soyoung Yuan says, she and her husband deliberately chose eco-friendly accommodations wherever they went: "We want to make sure our money is going to an organization that is going to make a positive impact." Although she thinks the lodge could improve its green attributes, Yuan is impressed. "It's very in harmony with the environment," she says. As hundreds of bats wheel through the evening sky, tour guide Ian Worcester steers his small boat through the placid waters of the nearby Daintree River, spotting leaflike shadows that, on closer inspection, turn out to be azure kingfishers. Flowers that bloom for just one night a year open underneath the drooping branches of native cherry and nutmeg trees.
As the scent of ylang-ylang floats on the breeze, Worcester points out a dark swath of forest where he once lived on the banks of a tributary in a shack with no walls and, until a neighbor ran an extension cord to his place to power a lamp, no electricity. "I used to fish from my lounge room," he says wistfully. Such accommodation might sound sweet to some, but if taking eco-holidays is about being immersed in natural beauty with some indulgence along the way, the Daintree lodge hideaway is a happy choice. Green ants or not.