General News
19 August, 2026
Tribute to Shire ‘river man’
BRUCE Belcher was one individual who certainly loved his job.
When family, friends and locals celebrated Bruce’s life recently, his daughter Abbey spoke about the time, some 15 years ago, when she heard a radio host talking about people who really love their job. Those who look forward to going to work are enthusiastic and make other people happy there.
The radio presenter said he’d been to Daintree on the weekend and met one of these people.
Abbey said: “I knew instantly it was my Dad, Bruce.”
The presenter went on to say he met a nice man named Bruce, who wore no shoes, happily welcomed people onto his boat and thoroughly enjoyed showing people wildlife and talking about the Daintree River.
“This was my Dad to a ‘T’,” his daughter said.
In fact, Bruce Belcher was so happy on the river that on Christmas Day, the only day they closed the business, the family went out on the boat.
According to his family, he had an idyllic childhood on Mornington Island; hunting, camping, fishing and sleeping on the beach.
He talked fondly about these years and still cared for community members he grew up with that remain on the island. His parents have a plaque on the island and their time there will forever be a part of their family story.
Their life there was recorded in the manuscripts of Douglas Belcher, Bruce’s father. These have been published into a book ‘Windward Leeward’.
Bruce went to boarding school in Charters Towers out of necessity when he was 10, following in his older sibling’s footsteps.
Joined the Navy
The Navy was recruiting when he was 16 and he jumped at the chance to get out of boarding school and, when he later found out he got paid, he was ecstatic.
He travelled extensively. “Whenever I was planning a trip Dad had already been to the area, knowing the capital and the approximate population,” his daughter Abbey said.
“One night, while he was staying with me, I tried to offer him an extra blanket and he gently smiled at me as he regularly did.”
He replied: “Babe, I’ve slept on the cobblestones of Amsterdam.”
Abbey said they laughed. “I didn’t point out that he was nearly 70 and it probably didn’t count anymore,” she added.
Bruce and his wife Zona met in Adelaide in the mid-70s. They were free-spirited and he would hitchhike to Cairns each winter to escape the cold.
“Mum would hear from him when he reached his destination and see him when he returned in the summer,” Abbey said.
Meet mother-in-law in a sarong
Apparently, Bruce met his mother-in-law, for the first time at her house in Melbourne, wearing a sarong.
“Nan has told me this story so many times. She was shocked at this large, handsome, dark featured man wearing a sarong. However, she quickly came to love Dad, with his calm, caring and kind nature,” Abbey said.
Bruce loved Far North Queensland and after travelling so much with the Navy, he knew he wanted to settle here.
Zona was a well-to-do Victorian, who resided in Adelaide and at the time the family were surprised that he managed to convince her to come to Port Douglas for their honeymoon in the mid-80s, for a trial run to see if she would live here.
They loaded up the car with their belongings and Zona’s dog Sebastian and headed north.
They settled in the Four Mile Beach caravan park and she worked at Coconut Grove, while he worked at the chandlery ‘Shipshape’ where he met many fishing characters. The couple eventually bought a house at Mowbray and Bruce was offered a job driving tour boats on the Daintree River.
They eventually decided they would start their own business and Zona saw a house for sale in Lower Daintree, which had deep water anchorage. Bruce walked straight down to the river, while Zona visited the house which was an old structure with a yard full of rubbish. They placed a $50 deposit and moved in just as daughter Abbey started primary school in Mossman in 1995.
Luck eventually found them a perfect little tour boat on the Bloomfield River called ‘Mangrove Jack’. They acquired this vessel and started working from the western precinct near the Daintree River ferry.
Red tape challenges
Their plans to work from home had become challenging when they discovered the red tape involved in operating in a marine park and requiring a material change of use process with council. After several years, they were given the approvals needed and work started to construct a floating pontoon and the reception area. The ambitious couple conducted the first tour 2000 and happily operated from home from that point.
Staff members become family, and to this day, guests are treated as friends, with many people returning year on year for the experience that is so special.
“Dad was a creature of habit, only enjoying the simple things. We knew where he was and what he was doing based on the time of day, making his salad sandwich at 1pm, going for his beach walk with the dogs at 5pm, then making dinner and relaxing in his paradise,” Abbey said.
“The only change to this is when the football or cricket was on, which took precedence overall.”
According to family, Bruce did many jobs around the property, including the pool, the water, the rubbish and in the evening “checking on the irrigation, which was code for seeing a man about a dog,” Abbey said.
Loved the environment
Bruce loved and appreciated the natural environment, sharing his love of birds and animals with his children as they grew up. He had ‘welcome’ swallows nesting on his boats and recorded when the crocodile hatchlings emerged.
“I was once on the boat with him and a tourist who asked how old “Lizzie” was? Lizzie was a resident female crocodile who predominantly nested behind the island,” Abbey said. “Dad thought about it for a minute and told him her exact age and date of birth. All the passengers laughed,” she said
“Later on, I asked him if he knew why they laughed and he didn’t. I pointed out that they thought he was joking but, he wasn’t, he lived and breathed the river, even dreaming he was swimming with the crocodiles every night.”
Bruce spent several weeks in ICU in Brisbane at the end of his life and many of the nurses knew him as they had met him before. Even, at this stage, he had a reputation for being a real character, knowledgeable and friendly. Apparently one of the nurses said he invited her out dancing and another said she enjoyed his final tour that he conducted from his hospital bed believing he was in the place he loved so dearly. He was 76.
Longest serving river guide
To date Bruce Belcher is the longest serving tour guide on the Daintree River, earning respect from guides, drivers and competitors alike. He treated everyone the same and lived with the utmost integrity. “Mum and Dad were together for 50 years,” Abbey said.
“Mum once asked Dad if he would come to his funeral as a spirit and he, matter-of–factly, said he would not, and that he would find a football or cricket game to go to instead.”
At her father’s memorial, Abbey completed her tribute by saying, “so, even though Dad is not with us at the moment, he was the love of our life as a husband, father, grandfather and his memory will be with us forever.”
I’m off planning my next trip on the Daintree River, so for now it’s Gazza signing out.
Send your stories to gazza@cairnslocalnews.com.au
