Cairns

Introduction

Cairns, the prime gateway to Tropical North Queensland is the ideal starting point for travellers wanting to explore the Great Barrier Reef, rainforest, outback and the vast wilderness of Cape York Peninsula.

Despite all these attractions outside Cairns, you’ll be seriously tempted to extend your stay in this sophisticated modern city.

With its tree-lined streets, Cairns boasts great shopping malls, efficient transport, sophisticated hotels, cosmopolitan restaurants, cafes and nightclubs and a lifestyle that is in keeping with contemporary city living.

For retail therapy you’ll be in seventh heaven. Cairns boasts an excellent range of outlets and shopping centres whether you’re after designer sunglasses, hip fashion and jewellery, or souvenirs and gifts from crystals to boomerangs. Don’t miss the night markets on Cairns Esplanade for a shopping treat.

Dining is a high point in Cairns and local eateries offer an eclectic choice of Australian and international cuisine. The highlight of most menus is the region's fresh seafood and unusual tropical fruits.

As for entertainment there are excellent theatres, galleries, nightclubs and the glass-domed Reef Hotel Casino with four separate gaming areas and a luxury five star hotel.

Another pleasant surprise is how close and accessible everything is in Cairns. The airport is only a few minutes drive from the city centre and visiting cruise liners and yachts moor at a marina and wharves only a block away from the main centre.

Cairns is Australia's unofficial northern capital. Located between the crystal clear waters of the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range and the World Heritage rainforest area of the Daintree Forest it is superbly situated for adventure holidays with a difference.
Cairns began in 1876 as a port for inland goldfields and developed into one of Australia's most cosmopolitan cities. 
Wide streets and plenty of parks and gardens and a tropical environment with palms and tropical fruit trees growing beside the road, give it an unique, laid-back atmosphere which belies the enthusiasm of its residents. 
It is among the fastest growing cities in Australia and the wealth of natural attractions which surround it, and their promotion by the local tourism operators, have seen a ballooning in visitors to the region. 
As the gateway to the Cape York Peninsula, Cairns opens up a host of things to see and do. Giant anthills, waterfalls, billabongs and wildlife are everywhere. The rivers and streams are home to the Australian delicacy the 'Barramundi' a delicious eating fish, and to salt water crocodiles. 

Attractions

• The magnificent Daintree Forest area of Cape Yorke Peninsula was declared a World Heritage area in 1988.

• The Great Barrier Reef was listed earlier in 1981. The reef is the largest expanse of living coral on earth and stretches from the Tropic of Capricorn at Rockhampton to north of the Cape York Peninsula. The underwater reefs, the islands and cays and the golden beaches make it one of the world's premier natural attractions. Reef tour operators provide every opportunity to explore every facet of the reef. Snorkeling, diving, glass-bottom boat cruises and helicopter or small plane flights show the extent and diverse attraction of the reef.

• Behind Cairns, in the Great Dividing Range are the Atherton Tablelands and the beautiful towns of Atherton and Kuranda. 

• Set high in the rainforest Kuranda was linked to Cairns by rail over a century ago. The train still meanders through tunnels and across stilted bridges over ravines to Kuranda and has become one of the great railway journeys of the world. The markets at Kuranda are famous for their diversity and value of local art, craft, fashion and produce. 

• The area around Kuranda is rich in aboriginal culture and traditional legends and stories are told in dance and song in a theatre owned and run by aboriginals. 

• The spectacular Barron Falls nearby are a must for photographers and a cruiser operates on the Barron River.

Activities

• There are many tours covering the major attractions such as 4WD tours and safaris, as well as tours to the nearby islands and Great Barrier Reef, tours are also available to the Rainforest areas. 

• Because of the Great Barrier Reef being on Cairns doorstep, scuba diving is one of the more popular activities in the area and there are many companies offering the hire of equipment, tours and other scuba diving accessories and necessities. 

• Fishing, golf and Adventure activities such as hot air ballooning, rafting, parachuting and many more are all catered for in Cairns.

Pub PJ Obriens 4031 5333 87 Lake

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Cairns

Cairns has taken the role as capital to Far North Queensland, and is backed by beautiful rainforest and only a short distance from the magnificent Great Barrier Reef. Whatever activity you want to get involved in you are likely to find it at Cairns, whether its bungee jumping, canoeing, horse riding, scuba diving, skydiving or white water rafting.

The main street along Cairns shoreline is the Esplanade, where you will find many of the accommodation places, and several restaurants. There are also plenty of pubs and clubs around here, with many offering live music and an almost guaranteed good time.

More restaurants and many of Cairns shops and shopping arcades can be found on the roads off of Sheilds Street, near Cairns Harbour. The Pier Marketplace hosts some wonderful little boutiques, although if you are looking for a bargain you should head here at the weekend when the Mud Markets are held. More weekend markets can be found along Spencer Street at the busy Rusty's Bazaar.

Around Cairns there are a number of historical buildings worth visiting, as well as the interesting Cairns Museum, Cairns Regional Gallery, and Royal Flying Doctor Service. For those of you who may not be brave enough to go out to the Great Barrier Reef, you can see plenty of sealife at the Undersea World.

There are some wonderful gardens around Cairns, and beautiful landscapes to see. It is definitely worth following the Esplanade Walking Trail along the pretty coastline (ignoring the brown sea around Cairns).

Just north of Cairns are the lovely Flecker Botanic Gardens, and the nearby boardwalk through some fabulous rainforest to the Centenary Lakes and Saltwater Creek with further rainforest within the Whitfield Range Environmental Park.

From Cairns there are various tours which you can join to the nearby rainforests and reef. Tours which are available include trips to the Atherton Tableland, Cape Tribulation, Cape York Peninsula, Cooktown, Daintree, Kuranda, Undara Lava Tubes National Park and of course the Great Barrier Reef, including Fitzroy Island, Frankland Islands and Green Island.

There is a range of accommodation around Cairns, situated around town as well as along the nearby beaches. Accommodation includes apartments, hostels, hotels, camping grounds and resorts.

Cairns

Cairns (including Fitzroy Island, Green Island, Redlynch, Smithfield and Yorkeys Knob)
The major centre in North Queensland and an ideal starting point for travellers wanting to explore both the tropical rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
If there is a city which sums up the aspirations of North Queensland it has got to be Cairns. North Queenslanders may well believe that they live in a tropical paradise with palm-fringed beaches, balmy days, easy living, spectacular rainforests, exotic fauna and flora and dramatic waterfalls, but they also want the riches that a modern society can provide. They don't want to be Robinson Crusoes. They want tourism, shopping malls, efficient transport, sophisticated hotels, restaurants and nightclubs and a lifestyle that is in keeping with a modern western city.

Cairns is a city driven by tourism. Its fundamental raison d'etre is to attract tourists and to provide them with a wealth of ways to spend their money - from gift shops, reef visits, snorkelling, Aboriginal artefacts and culture, nightclubs and forays into the hinterland to places like Kuranda and the Atherton Tablelands, opal shops, deep-sea fishing, adventure holidays to Cape York, seafood restaurants, white-water rafting, catamarans and helicopter joyrides.

Looking at Cairns today it is hard to imagine that just 20 years ago it was a sleepy little port from whence primary produce such as sugar, timber and beef were exported. It is located 1757 km north of Brisbane.

Captain Cook was the first European to see the site which is now modern-day Cairns. In June 1770 he sailed into an inlet which, because it was Trinity Sunday, he named Trinity Bay. A little further north Cook's ship the Endeavour went aground on the reef and he was forced to beach the vessel at the site now known as Cooktown.

Cook's landing obviously meant little as the area wasn't settled by Europeans until October 1873. The discovery of gold at Palmer River meant that port facilities were created at Cooktown.

In the next few years there were a number of gold discoveries in Far North Queensland. Cooktown was the only port servicing the area and the miners in the south, particularly those on the Hodgkinson field, began to look for a new and shorter route to the coast.

One miner, with the unimpressive name of Bill Smith, had worked around Trinity Bay as a fisher of beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers) before becoming a prospector. He was convinced that the bay would prove a suitable port. In 1876 he successfully cut a track from Trinity Bay across Freshwater and the Barron River to the Hodgkinson River goldfields. Smithfield to the north of Cairns was named in his honour.

At the same time the local policeman on the Hodgkinson field, an Inspector Douglas, was instructed to cut a track down to the coast. Douglas joined Smith on his return to Trinity Bay but he came down the south side of the Douglas River. Within the space of two months there were two tracks from the goldfields to the coast.

A small township was established on the present site of Cairns in late 1876 but it was short-lived because the land was swampy. Smithfield became the more important of the centres and within a year it had blossomed with eleven stores and hotels. It quickly gained a reputation as 'the wickedest town in Australia' and legend has it that Bill Smith, who became a publican in the town, made so much money from the gold miners that he had his horse shod with shoes of gold.

On 6 October 1876 the Porpoise arrived in Trinity Bay with a postmaster and customs officers aboard. The government were not slow in responding to the establishment of a new settlement. The public servants cut out an area for themselves near where The Esplanade now stands. At the time the whole area was covered with dense scrub.

On 1 November Trinity Bay was declared a port of entry and clearance. It was renamed after the then-Governor of Queensland, Sir William Cairns. In spite of these official actions Smithfield remained the more popular of the two settlements. By November its population had reached 150 and it was growing rapidly. The next year, however, Smithfield was totally destroyed by a freak flood on the Barron River. However, instead of moving to Cairns, most of the population resettled in Port Douglas, which immediately took the bulk of the maritime business away from Cairns.

By 1882 Cairns was suffering from a serious economic depression. The figures tell the story of the city's decline at this time. In 1877 £132 407 worth of gold passed through the port. Two years had snared 100% of the gold trade.

The town's revival occurred with the establishment of the sugar plantations in the Mulgrave and Russell River valleys in 1882. This was followed by the building of a railway from Myola (just beyond Kuranda) in 1886. The combination of a rail terminus and port sustained Cairns until tourism achieved a momentum of its own around 1980. Cairns was gazetted as a town in 1903, became a city in 1923 and the terminus for the Brisbane railway line in 1924. It was an important air and naval base during World War II. In 1984 the airport was upgraded to international standard thus giving the city the boost it needed.

Things to see:   

Check out this Site
Some locals have created a website http://www.destinationex.com which is truly remarkable. It has no advertising (at the moment) and yet boasts 800 pages of information on Tropical Queensland and over 200 videos. Read us and check them out as well.

Buildings
There is enough of the old Cairns left for the astute visitor to imagine what the city was once like. The most interesting buildings in town are in the Wharf Road, Abbott Street and Lake Street areas where you will find the famous Barbary Coast collection of buildings which indicate the maritime origins of Cairns. Their location close to the wharves, their wide verandahs and awnings extending over the footpaths, make them an important part of Cairns' streetscape. Principal among them are the two inns - the Barrier Reef Hotel and the Oceanic Hotel on Wharf Street.

Closer to City Place, the new centre of the city, are two outstanding buildings. The old Adelaide Steamship Company Building on the corner of Lake and Spence Streets is now owned by Quaids Real Estate but it retains its distinctive charm. The relief image of a steamship on the Lake Street side of the building recalls its previous owners.

One block further up Lake Street (on a corner of City Place) is Hides Hotel, a typical North Queensland grand hotel dating back to the 1920s. Built out of a combination of timber and brick, it once dominated the corner and was an important gathering point for the people of Cairns before World War II.

The Cairns Historical Museum
Opposite Hides is the elegant School of Arts building. Constructed in 1907 it now houses the excellent Cairns Historical Museum which has a good display of history relating to Cairns and the region. Its documentation of the town's history, from Cook's arrival through its maritime history and the arrival of the railway, is complemented by good displays of Aboriginal artefacts and an interesting video on the Great Barrier Reef. The building itself with its wide verandahs is an excellent example of the kind of architecture which buttressed Cairns' reputation for elegance before World War I. People interested in the history of Cairns should read Establishment Trinity Bay: A Collection of Historical Episodes available from the museum. It has interesting and well-illustrated chapters on aspects of the city's history including beche-de-mer fishing, the building of the railway to Kuranda, the racial mixture of Cairns and the establishment of Smithfield.

The Botanical Gardens
The Flecker Botanic Gardens in Collins Avenue, Edge Hill, are widely regarded as the most impressive botanical display in North Queensland with over 10 000 species and excellent views over Cairns. The gardens were started in 1886 and take their name from Dr Hugo Flecker, a keen botanist and biologist who established the North Queensland Naturalists' Club. Of particular interest is the Aboriginal Plant Use garden which consists of plants utilised by local Aborigines for medicine, food, weapons and shelter.

The Jack Barnes Bicentennial Mangrove Boardwalk
In 1988 another interesting botanical expedition was added to the city's sights with the opening of the Jack Barnes Bicentennial Mangrove Boardwalk. Located off Airport Avenue (the main route out to the airport) it allows visitors to explore mangrove swamps from elevated boardwalks.

The Cairns Marina
Another place in the city which is popular with tourists is the Cairns Marina where the game fishermen bring their marlin to be weighed. Cairns' long association with marlin fishing has attracted anglers to the area for decades. Zane Grey, the writer of American westerns, made a number of movies about game fishing off the coast of Cairns and the actor Lee Marvin was a regular visitor during the 1970s.

Other Sites in Town
There is also the Bulk Sugar Terminal, where tours are conducted regularly, Windows on the Reef - a sensory theatre which recreates the sounds and sensations of diving on the Great Barrier Reef - and the audio-visual display at the Royal Flying Doctor Service at Junction Street on Edge Hill.

Fitzroy Island
Fitzroy Island is a favourite with visitors. It has some 324 hectares of tropical rainforest, is almost completely surrounded by coral reef and possesses a mountainous peak which rises 271 metres above sea-level. There are a number of tours to the island every day and people wishing to stay at the expensive Fitzroy Island Reef Resort can arrange accommodation by contacting the resort on tel: (07) 4051 9588, fax: (07) 4052 1335

Green Island
For many years Green Island was one of Cairns' primary tourist attractions. A small, uninhabited island it once had nothing more than a jetty and a marine viewing point at the end of the jetty. The addition of a resort has detracted from its primitive charm. It now has a Marineland, a Barrier Reef Theatre, snorkelling trails and a range of eating facilities.

Green Island was the setting for an innocent pre-marital holiday for Joe Harman and Jean Paget in Nevil Shute's novel A Town Like Alice.

Accommodation on Green Island Reef Resort can be arranged by contacting the resort on tel: (07) 4031 3300 , free call 1800 673 366

Redlynch
Only a few kilometres from Freshwater on the Kuranda Railway line, Redlynch is famous in the literary life of Australia. The great novelist, Xavier Herbert, lived here for 34 years during which time he worked at the local pharmacy (on Saturday mornings) and wrote the mammoth Poor Fellow My Country. Published in 1975 it is still Australia's longest novel. Herbert lived opposite the railway station and wrote the tale in a shed behind the house.

Kuranda Railway
The journey on the Kuranda Train is delightful. The Kuranda railway is probably the most scenically beautiful railway line in Australia with one section actually running across the face of the Stony Creek Falls and other sections winding around the hillside and through no fewer than 15 tunnels. At various points there are views back across the Coral Sea. It was built by John Robb between 1886 and 1891 and is recognised as a masterpiece of railway engineering. In 1915 the Railway Station at Kuranda was completed.

Perhaps the perfect symbol of Kuranda's unswerving commitment to tourism is the way the Barron Falls are used. In the dry season the water over the falls reduces to a trickle. However, to provide the tourists with good photos, just before the tourist train arrives at Barron Falls Station someone opens one of the floodgates and, quite miraculously, the falls begin to fall. This is a phenomenon which is worth watching if you happen to travel to Kuranda by car.

Skyrail
This spectacular 7.5 kilometre journey over rainforest from the top of the escarpment to Caravonica Lakes Station north of Cairns must rate as one of Australia's most memorable tourist experiences. There is nowhere else on earth where you can travel across a tropical river, beside a huge waterfall and across untouched tropical rainforest and experience the beauty without damaging the landscape.

The Skyrail became a reality after years of on-going battles with environmentalists (it was argued that the construction would irrepairably damage the rainforest). The result is an experience which is beyond criticism. The Skyrail blends into the environment and offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience as it moves silently over the top of the rainforest canopy.

The first stop is the Barron Falls Station. Skyrail offers a glorious panorama of the Barron Gorge. It is then possible to alight from the cable car and walk to the cliffs for a better view of the Barron Falls.

Returning to the cableway, the passenger then passes over the top of the rainforest before arriving at Red Peak Station where, again, it is possible to break the journey and inspect the rainforest from a wooden walkway. The diversity of the rainforest is evident with palms, ferns, epiphytes and towering rainforest trees surrounding the station.

Tjapukai Cultural Theme Park
The Tjapukai Cultural Theme Park is a unique attempt to explain Aboriginal culture (in this case the society of the Djabugay and Yirrgandyji peoples) in a broad thematic way. It offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience Aboriginal culture through a Cultural Village (with Boomerang and Spear Throwing), a Creation Theatre (in which the story of creation is told in the Tjapukai language - with headset translations) , a History Theatre (an overview of Aboriginal history in the past 120 years) and Magic Space with giant murals. Visitors can experience all the performances in a 2 hour period at the Theme Park.

The Theme Park is a powerful statement of what it means to be an Aborigine.

The power of the experience rests on a strange mixture of the educational (each dancer explains a particular aspect of Aboriginal life ranging from the boomerang to the didgeridoo, songsticks, spears and clothing), a clever blend of ancient and modern in both the dancing and the singing, the enactment of a tribal legend which is easy to follow, a genuine rapport which the troupe establishes with the audience, a buoyant sense of humour, and a constantly reiterated theme of 'Proud to be an Aborigine'. The result is an entertainment which leaves the audience elated and educated.

Yorkeys Knob
The beaches to the north of Cairns are a delight. Once separate communities they are now commuter suburbsof the city. Of them all Yorkeys Knob has the most interesting history. It was named after a one-armed beche-de-mer fisherman who used the point as a base for his angling activities at the turn of the century. During World War II it became a popular haunt for American servicemen on R & R leave. Today it is one of Cairns more exclusive areas.