Twenty-eight years ago, Michele Lamond started treating residents living north of the Daintree River for all manner of illnesses and injuries, out of the back of a Holden Jackaroo.
The Director of Nursing of Cow Bay Primary Health Centre put so many k’s on the odometer of her four-wheel drive, driving around the rainforest’s bumpy backroads, she joked that she ‘blew up’ the engine.
‘They told me, they’re not giving me any more cars!’ Michele said.
With the nomadic nurse model clearly not sustainable for a community of nearly 1000 people, in the early-2000s, the then-Douglas Shire Council gifted the former Visitor Information Centre at Diwan to Queensland Health, as a stand-in base of operations for Michele.
Old Cow Bay Primary Health Centre next to new building opened August 2025
The old timber building provided a base for Michele to operate from, but it was never designed to be a medical facility.
Treatment spaces were too small, door frames too narrow, and there was a lack of storage.
There was no privacy, as patients waiting their turn to see a doctor on the benches outside the clinic could literally hear the previous patient’s entire consult through paper-thin walls.
The toilet was external and attracted creepy crawlies including snakes and goannas.
And cassowaries, while amazing to look at while wandering through the ancient rainforest, had a habit of charging the former clinic’s glass windows.
Nearly three decades later, standing outside the shiny new medical centre that has been officially opened as her new workplace, Michele is amazed at the difference.
The new purpose-built centre has a larger, more welcoming indoor waiting area, more spaces for specialist appointments, greater patient privacy, is better equipped for health emergencies, and has a new helicopter landing pad.
‘It’s the most amazing feeling: the whole facility is just so beautiful,’ Michele said.
‘Everyone we've had coming to visit and work out of here in the past two weeks keeps asking 'are we still in Cow Bay, or is this just a different universe we've just walked into'?’
The new medical facility has been designed to be ‘rainforest-proof’, fitted out with solar panels, battery banks, multiple fuel and water tanks, to make it energy efficient and self-sufficient in severe weather for up to two weeks without power.
There is even a charging station for electric vehicles, for exclusive use by Queensland Health staff such as specialists visiting from Cairns.
‘It’s incredible to have a proper facility to work out of,’ Michele said.
‘It’s like we’ve finally reached the 21st century, and I don’t have people knocking on the door of my home at 2 in the morning needing stitches, like in the old days when I worked out of my car.
‘They can come here, knowing that they have privacy, and can sit in air-conditioned comfort while we look after them.
‘Or, if it’s an emergency, we have a dedicated helipad that the rescue helicopter can now land out, in front of the medical centre, and transport patients straight inside.’
Long-time Daintree resident Dawn Gray congratulated everyone involved in getting the new clinic up and running.
‘There were no medical facilities at all when I first moved to the Daintree 38 years ago until Michele came,’ Ms Gray said.
‘Michele faithfully looked after the locals and tourists’ cuts, removed fishing hooks, cared for pregnant women, men caught in floods, and we really love her.
‘It’s such a great opportunity to know that as well as a health centre, it’s a place we can come in natural disasters.
‘In Cyclone Jasper (in December 2023), people who were badly hurt, could not even make it here.
Leena Singh, the Chief Executive of Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, said the new health centre was designed in response to community needs.
Ms Singh noted that it was a huge logistical undertaking to deliver the facility, which included more than 200 trips on the iconic Daintree ferry to deliver raw materials to the construction site.
‘By listening to local voices, we are improving access to quality healthcare in a state-of-the-art facility - with space for visiting doctors and clinicians, and a helipad for emergency retrievals,’ she said.
‘This centre reflects our determination to overcome logistical and weather-related hurdles to build a stunning facility in the heart of the Daintree.’
The new Cow Bay Primary Health Centre is open at 69 Tea Tree Road, Diwan.
Read more about the clinic including its services and contact details.