Cairns City Guide - Overview

That Cairns is one of Australia's most popular tourist destinations would be highly surprising if you were to examine the city alone without considering its wider context. Cairns has no famous city landmarks, and does not even have a beach thanks to the first white settlers who cleared away the apparently useless mangrove swamp on the coastline, exposing the sand to the ravages of erosion. 

Cairns' prime saving grace is that it is located within striking distance of two World Heritage listed sites (the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest), and also has excellent transport links that make it an easily accessible base from which to explore these sites.

Cairns was established in 1876 as a service port for gold miners in the Atherton Tableland to the west. Its subsequent growth was largely thanks to its selection in 1892 as the starting point of a freight railway carrying goods to and from the Tableland. Another significant moment in Cairns' more recent history was its selection in 1984 as the site of an international airport, a decision which sparked the boom in tourism that is so evident in the city today.

Cairns is now a bustling tourist centre with countless excursions to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest available, and the money brought by tourism has even meant that a 4,800 sq m artificial saltwater lagoon could be built in 2003 to make up for the absent beach.