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Cairns

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Cairns
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Cairns Travel Guide

Queensland is where sun-drenched Australian adventures begin, and the rainforest-clad city of Cairns is the adventure capital of the Sunshine State. Legions of dive-boats whoosh out to the Great Barrier Reef from this tropical coastal city, and a veritable army of backpacker minibuses transports enthusiastic young travellers towards their first skydive, bungee jump, balloon ride or white-water rafting safari.Surprisingly, this tourist hotspot was founded as a supply depot for gold miners, but locals soon cottoned on to the fantastic tourist potential of the surrounding landscape. Modern Cairns trades heavily on its proximity to the remarkable biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest, both on the UNESCO World Heritage list.There are few other places where you can sip an espresso in a waterfront café at breakfast and be combing the rainforest for crocodiles, cassowaries and platypuses by lunchtime, or dive with reef sharks at noon and be gambling on a casino roulette wheel by teatime.Tour companies provide excellent transport connections to the surrounding rainforest and mountains. You can ride a train through the rainforest canopy to Kuranda, or track down some of Australia’s most remarkable wildlife in the Atherton Tablelands or the dense Wet Tropics Rainforest of the Daintree. Indeed, many visitors use Cairns just as a staging post for more rugged adventures to Cape Tribulation or the wilds of Cape York.Great Barrier Reef trips feature on almost every itinerary, from low-key snorkel tours to backpacker party boats and high-speed catamarans that promise to zip you out to the coral with minimum fuss and effort. Understandably, this is one of the most popular places in the world to learn to scuba dive.Cairns has earned a reputation as a party town, but behind the backpacker bars and hostel barbecues, it is a small country town at heart, with a busy farmers market, old-fashioned Aussie pubs and a manmade lagoon that fills the role of public beach. If you feel the need to escape the tourist hubbub on the seafront Esplanade, the rainforest spills into public parks and nature reserves around the city limits.
  • Cairns History
From a rough-and-ready backwater that was home to only the hardiest pioneers, Cairns has evolved into a tropical, cosmopolitan success story.Aboriginal peoples had lived in this region for thousands of years before British and other European settlers turned up.The first European to discover the site of what is now called Cairns was Captain James Cook, who sailed up the coast of northeast Australia in June 1770. It was a difficult region to explore and Cook didn’t linger, sailing north after repairing his ship.It was another 100 years before Europeans returned to the region. The discovery of gold to the west prompted an influx of miners and Cairns was established in 1876.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. Construction of the track and its later expansion attracted huge numbers of immigrants.In 1903, Cairns was officially declared a town, with a population of 3,500, before being listed as a city in 1923.The development of agriculture, sugar cane and dairy industries led to its continued growth in the early 20th century.During WWII, Australian and Allied troops were based in the city. When Singapore fell, over 7,000 people fled the region and headed south, many of them never to return.Tourism started in earnest after WWII, helped along by the opening of the international airport in 1984 and the convention centre in 1996. Since then, Cairns has grown in leaps and bounds.
  • Did you know?
Cairns was named after Sir William Wellington Cairns, the Queensland governor at the time of the city’s foundation. Cairns is the meeting point for two UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest. The Olympic torch travelled on the SkyRail rainforest cable car and the Great Barrier Reef on its way to the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
  • Weather in Cairns
Cairns enjoys a tropical climate, which means weather can sometimes be erratic. While the city experiences a dry season and a wet season, cyclone season runs from spring to autumn, three quarters of the year.Summer: (December to February) mark the wet or monsoon season. Temperatures can reach 31°C (88°F) and it’s also hot and sticky. This season provides the best time to visit the nearby rainforests, when the foliage is luxurious and the rivers and waterfalls are fully flowing. This is also when underwater visibility is best, making it the perfect season for divers and snorkelers to visit.Autumn: (March to May) is when the dry season resumes, with temperatures averaging between 22°C-29°C (71°F-84°F), both day and night.Winter: (June to August), with its cooler weather and lower humidity, is popular for sightseeing and whale-watching. Prepare for high accommodation and travel costs as this is peak tourist season.Spring: (September to November) witnesses the transition from the dry season to the wet season, and with it, plenty of humidity. Thunderstorms are common, but if you’re willing to brave the weather, you can see the Great Barrier Reef come alive in November when the coral spawns.

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