Cairns
Cairns is a city in the Cairns Region, Australia. It is on the east coast of Far North Queensland; the city is the 5th-most-populous in ranks 14th overall in Australia. Cairns was founded in 1876 and named after William Wellington Cairns, Governor of Queensland from 1875 to 1877, it was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but declined when an easier route was discovered from Port Douglas. It developed into a railhead and major port for exporting sugar cane and other metals and agricultural products from surrounding coastal areas and the Atherton Tableland region; the population of the Cairns urban area at the 2016 Census was 144,787. Based on 2015 data, the associated local government area has experienced an average annual growth rate of 2.3% over the last 10 years. Cairns is a popular tourist destination because of its tropical climate and access to both nearby tropical rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Prior to British settlement, the Cairns area was inhabited by the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people, who still claim their Native Title rights.
The area is known in the local Yidiny language as Gimuy. From 1770 to the early 1870s the area was known to the British as Trinity Bay; the arrival of beche de mer fishermen from the late 1860s saw the first European presence in the area. On the site of the modern-day Cairns foreshore, there was a large native well, used by these fishermen. A violent confrontation occurred in 1872 between local Yidinji people and Phillip Garland, a beche de mer fisherman, over the use of this well; the area from this date was subsequently called Battle Camp. In 1876, hastened by the need to export gold mined from the Hodgkinson goldfields on the tablelands to the west, closer investigation by several official expeditions established its potential for development into a port. Brinsley G. Sheridan surveyed the area and selected a place further up Trinity Inlet known to the diggers as Smith's Landing for a settlement which he renamed Thornton. However, after Native Police officers Alexander Douglas-Douglas and Robert Arthur Johnstone opened a new track from the goldfields to Battle Camp, this more coastal site became preferable.
Battle Camp was renamed Cairns in late 1876 in honour of the Governor of Queensland, William Cairns. The site was sand ridges. Labourers cleared the swamps, the sand ridges were filled with dried mud, sawdust from local sawmills, ballast from a quarry at Edge Hill. Debris from the construction of a railway to Herberton on the Atherton Tableland, a project which started in 1886, was used; the railway opened up land used for agriculture on the lowlands, for fruit and dairy production on the Tableland. The success of local agriculture helped establish Cairns as a port, the creation of a harbour board in 1906 supported its economic future. On 25 April 1926, the Cairns Sailors and Soldiers War Memorial was unveiled by Alexander Frederick Draper, the mayor of the City of Cairns. During World War II, the Allied Forces used Cairns as a staging base for operations in the Pacific, with United States Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force operational bases, as well as a major military seaplane base in Trinity Inlet, United States Navy and Royal Australian Navy bases near the current wharf.
Combat missions were flown out of Cairns in support of the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. Edmonton and White Rock south of Cairns were major military supply areas and U. S. Paratroopers trained at the Goldsborough Valley. A Special Forces training base was established at the old "Fairview" homestead on Munro's Hill, Mooroobool; this base was known as the Z Experimental Station, but referred to informally as "The House on the Hill". After World War II, Cairns developed into a centre for tourism; the opening of the Cairns International Airport in 1984 helped establish the city as a desirable destination for international tourism. According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 144,787 people in Cairns. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.9% of the population. 67.9% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 4.0%, New Zealand 3.1%, Papua New Guinea 1.5%, Philippines 1.2% and Japan 1.1%. 76.9% of people only spoke English at home.
Other languages spoken at home included Japanese 1.6%, Mandarin 0.8%, Italian 0.7%, Korean 0.7% and German 0.6%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 32.1%, Catholic 22.4% and Anglican 13.2%. Cairns is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a coastal strip between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range; the northern part of the city is located on Trinity Bay and the city centre is located on Trinity Inlet. To the south of the Trinity Inlet lies the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah; some of the city's suburbs are located on flood plains. The Mulgrave River and Barron River flow within the greater Cairns area but not through the CBD; the city's centre foreshore is located on a mud flat. Cairns is a provincial city, with a linear urban layout that runs from the south at Edmonton to the north at Ellis Beach; the city is 52 km from north to south. The Northern Beaches consist of a number of beach communities extending north along the coast. In general, each beach suburb is at the end of a spur road extending from the Captain Cook Highway.
From south to north, these are Machans Beach, Holloways Beach, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Park, Trinity B
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia; the land is flat and about half of the area is used for grazing cattle. The undisturbed eucalyptus-wooded savannahs, tropical rainforests and other types of habitat are now recognized and preserved for their global environmental significance, but native wildlife is threatened by introduced species and weeds. In 1606, Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken reached Australia as its first known European explorer, discovering the Cape York Peninsula. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa, on the western shore of Cape York – This was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, it marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. Edmund Kennedy was the first European explorer to attempt an overland expedition of Cape York Peninsula, he had been second-in-command to Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1846 when the Barcoo River was discovered.
The aim was to establish a route to the tip of the peninsula, where Sydney businessmen were attempting development of a port for trade with the East Indies. The expedition set out from Rockingham Bay near the present town of Cardwell in May 1848, it turned out to be one of the great disasters of Australian exploration. Of the thirteen men who set out, only three survived; the others were speared by hostile aborigines. Kennedy died of spear wounds within sight of his destination in December 1848; the only survivor to complete the journey was an aborigine from New South Wales. He led a rescue party to the other two, unable to continue; the peninsula was reached in 1864 when the brothers Francis Lascelles and Alexander William Jardine, along with eight companions, drove a mob of cattle from Rockhampton to the new settlement of Somerset where the Jardines’ father was commander. En route they lost most of their horses, many of their stores and fought pitched battles with Aborigines arriving in March 1865.
The west coast borders the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast borders the Coral Sea. The peninsula is bordered on three sides. There is no clear demarcation to the south, although the official boundary in the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007 of Queensland runs along at about 16°S latitude. At the peninsula’s widest point, it is 430 km from the Bloomfield River in the southeast, across to the west coast just south of the aboriginal community of Kowanyama, it is some 660 km from the southern border of Cook Shire, to the tip of Cape York. The largest islands in the strait include Prince of Wales Island, Horn Island and Badu Island. At the tip of the peninsula lies Cape York, the northernmost point on the Australian mainland, it was named by Lieutenant James Cook on 21 August 1770 in honour of Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, a brother of King George III of the United Kingdom, who had died three years earlier: The point of the Main, which forms one side of the Passage before mentioned, and, the Northern Promontory of this Country, I have named York Cape, in honour of his late Royal Highness, the Duke of York.
The tropical landscapes are among the most stable in the world. Long undisturbed by tectonic activity, the peninsula is an eroded level low plain dominated by meandering rivers and vast floodplains, with some low hills rising to 800 m elevation in the McIlwraith Range on the eastern side around Coen; the backbone of Cape York Peninsula is the peninsula ridge, part of Australia’s Great Dividing Range. This mountain range is made up of ancient Palaeozoic rocks. To the east and west of the peninsula ridge lie the Carpentaria and Laura Basins, themselves made up of ancient Mesozoic sediments. There are several outstanding landforms on the peninsula: the large expanses of undisturbed dunefields at the eastern coast around Shelburne Bay and Cape Bedford-Cape Flattery; the soils are remarkably infertile compared to other areas of Australia, being entirely laterised and in most cases so old and weathered that little development is apparent today. It is because of this extraordinary soil poverty that the region is so thinly settled: the soils are so unworkable and unresponsive to fertilisers that attempts to grow commercial crops have failed.
The climate on Cape York Peninsula is tropical and monsoonal, with a heavy monsoon season from November to April, during which time the forest becomes uninhabitable, a dry season from May to October. The temperature is warm to hot, with a cooler climate in higher areas; the mean annual temperatures range from 18 °C at higher elevations to 27 °C on the lowlands in the drier southwest. Temperatures over 40 °C and below 5 °C are rare. Annual rainfall is high, ranging from over 2,000 millimetres in the Iron Range and north of Weipa to about 700 millimetres at the southern border. All this rain falls between November and April, only on the eastern slopes of the Iron Range is the median rainfall between June and September above 5 millimetres. Between January and March, the median monthly rainfall ranges from about 170 millimetres in the south to over 500 millimetres in the north and on the Iron Range; the Peninsula Ridge forms the drainage divide between the Gulf of Car
Mareeba Shire Hall
Mareeba Shire Hall is a heritage-listed former town hall at 136 Walsh Street, Shire of Mareeba, Australia. It was built from 1960 to 1961 by Ernest William Lepinath, it is known as Former Mareeba Shire Hall. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 October 2013; the former Mareeba Shire Hall in Walsh Street was constructed in 1960-1961 for the Mareeba Shire Council. It was designed by Cairns based architect Edwin Henry Oribin in 1956, was his first major solo project, it was constructed with engineering details provided by R McLean. The hall's structure is a combination of timber framing and brick, features a striking semi-circular roof of laminated timber arches, an early use of this structural system in Queensland; the Atherton Tableland, west of Cairns in Far North Queensland, was named after squatter John Atherton, the first person to establish a cattle run in the area in the late 1870s. In the 1880s the Atherton family established a wayside inn and store at the crossing of Granite Creek, supplying goods to traffic passing between Port Douglas to the north and the new tin mining township of Herberton to the south.
A settlement grew on the southern side of Granite Creek and a town, named Mareeba, was surveyed by EB Rankin in 1891. In 1893 it became a railhead when the Tableland railway from Cairns to Kuranda was extended, by 1919 Mareeba was the district's most important town. In 1919 Mareeba became the administrative centre for what was Woothakata Shire, a Shire Council Chambers building was constructed on the corner of Rankin and Walsh streets in 1924; the shire changed its name to Mareeba in 1947. Owing its prosperity to a diverse agricultural economy, post-World War II Mareeba grew to become the largest tobacco-growing centre in Australia, in 1954 the town's population reached 3369; the former Mareeba Shire Hall was constructed on the site of the council-owned Mareeba School of Arts, destroyed by fire on 28 March 1954. The loss of the largest hall in Mareeba was keenly felt by the community. During this process, Cairns architects Barnes and Oribin, who were designing a hall in Ravenshoe at the time, were consulted about cost estimates.
In July 1955 it was announced that a new Shire Hall would be built on the existing Walsh Street site at an estimated cost of £37,000. Plans prepared by Barnes and Oribin were accepted, with the new design incorporating all the functions of the previous School of Arts; the proposed building was described as "an igloo building, with brick front and timber structure and with a hall said to be larger than that of Innisfail's famous civic headquarters". To accommodate the width of the new hall and provide sufficient access to side and rear entrances, the Council purchased additional land along the northern boundary of the site in 1955 and 1957. Edwin Henry Oribin was born in Cairns in 1927; as a teenager during World War II, he spent time in Brisbane working with the Allison Aircraft Division of General Motors rebuilding aircraft engines. Returning to Cairns in 1944, Oribin commenced architectural training with Sid G Barnes, Chief Architect of the Allied Works Council for North Queensland, whose training gave Oribin a solid grounding in structural design and construction.
In 1950 Oribin moved to Brisbane to work and study, on 10 February 1953 he obtained his registration as an architect in Queensland, returning to Cairns the following month to begin a partnership with Barnes. This partnership lasted until Barnes' death in 1959, after which Oribin continued practicing on his own. Oribin undertook a wide range of work in North Queensland between 1953 and 1973. Throughout his career, he was devoted to experimenting with different structural and aesthetic ideas, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of Australian and international publications. Characteristics of Oribin's work included meticulous detailing, structural creativity and concern for the modulation of light, he was known for his model-making skills and superb craftsmanship creating objects himself. During the 1950s Barnes, Barnes and Oribin, were well known architects in Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands, receiving numerous commissions for a range of small- and medium-scale projects, such as fire stations and hospital facilities.
Prior to working on the Mareeba Shire Hall and Oribin had designed at least two other halls in the region: the RSL Memorial Hall at Babinda and Ravenshoe Divisional Hall. Public halls of varying design and dimension are landmarks of Australia's cities and suburbs and towns, important as social venues and focal points for their communities. In the mid to late 20th century, hall designs were evolving away from the traditional concept of a central auditorium with council chambers and municipal offices attached, towards more multi-purpose halls and civic centres. Many new halls constructed throughout Queensland during this period replaced earlier halls, destroyed or become inadequate for communities' needs. While each contained a different combination of features and facilities, such as clock towers, supper rooms, public toilets, shops or offices, common to all public halls was a large multi-purpose auditorium with stage and dressing rooms. Construction of the Mareeba hall began in 1960; the laminated timber arches were constructed by the builder E Lepinath in a nearby warehouse before being transported to the site and erected.
The
Shire of Herberton
The Shire of Herberton was a local government area of Queensland. It was located on the Atherton Tableland, a plateau forming part of the Great Dividing Range west of the city of Cairns; the shire, administered from the town of Herberton, covered an area of 9,607.0 square kilometres, existed as a local government entity from 1895 until 2008, when it amalgamated with several other councils in the Tableland area to become the Tablelands Region. Tinaroo Division was created on 3 September 1881 under the Divisional Boards Act 1879, was responsible for a large area which included Herberton. On 15 September 1888, the Borough of Herberton was established to manage the affairs of the town of Herberton. On 11 May 1895, the borough was abolished and the entire Herberton region separated from Tinaroo to become the Herberton Division. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Herberton Division became the Shire of Herberton on 31 March 1903. On 15 March 2008, under the Local Government Act 2007 passed by the Parliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, the Shire of Herberton merged with the Shires of Atherton and Mareeba to form the Tablelands Region.
The Shire of Herberton included the following settlements: Herberton Evelyn Innot Hot Springs Kalunga Millstream Moomin Mount Garnet Ravenshoe Tumoulin Wairuna Wondecla 1908: Charles Harding 1927: F. A. Grigg
Shire of Douglas
The Shire of Douglas is a local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns; the shire, administered from the town of Mossman, covers an area of 2,436.7 square kilometres, existed as a local government entity from 1880 until 2008, when it was amalgamated with the City of Cairns to become the Cairns Region. Following a poll in 2013, the Shire of Douglas was re-established on 1 January 2014; the major industries are sugar production. Minor industries include tropical beef. On 11 November 1879, the Cairns Division was one of the initial 74 divisions created under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. On 3 June 1880, the northern part of Cairns Division was excised to create Douglas Division. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Douglas Division became the Shire of Douglas on 31 March 1903. On 15 March 2008, under the Local Government Act 2007 passed by the Parliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, the Shire of Douglas merged with the City of Cairns to form the Cairns Region.
In 2012, a proposal was made to de-amalgamate the Shire of Douglas from the Cairns Region. On 6 December 2012, the Queensland Minister for Local Government, the Hon. David Crisafulli, granted the people of the former Douglas Shire a vote on possible de-amalgamation from the Cairns Regional Council though the Queensland Treasury Corporation had calculated the costs to be too high a burden on the few ratepayers of this small Shire, the Shire to be unviable in the long term. Despite strong opposition from many parties, on 9 March 2013 the citizens of the former Douglas shire voted in a referendum to de-amalgamate; the shire was re-established on 1 January 2014. The Shire of Douglas includes the following settlements: 1 - shared with the Shire of Cook2 - until 1995, it was part of the Shire, now it's part of the Cairns Region The Douglas Shire Council operates public libraries at Mossman and Port Douglas; the following were the chairmen and mayors of the Shire of Douglas in its first incarnation: Andrew Jack: 1900 James Reynolds: 1901–1903 Richard Augustine Donnelly: 1904–1905 William Mackay: 1906 Daniel Joseph Kirwan: 1907 Robert David Low: 1908 Richard James Walsh: 1909 Robert Punton Tunnie: 1910 Frederick Thompson: 1911–1912 James Patrick Reynolds: 1913 Robert Punton Tunnie: 1914 James Patrick Reynolds: 1915–1921 John Quill: 1921–1927 Severin Berner Andreassen: 1927–1933 Raymond David Rex: 1933–1955 Ernest William Berzinski: 1955–1964 George Quaid Jr.: 1964–1967 J. S. Allen: 1967–1970 Onslow Rutherford Andrews: 1970–1981 Anthony Mijo: 1982–1991 Mike Berwick: 1991–2008The following were the mayors of Shire of Douglas in its second incarnation: Julia Leu: 2014— University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Douglas Shire Douglas Shire Historical Society Pro amalgamation website Happy With Cairns Pro amalgamation website People Of Douglas De-amalgamation website Friends Of Douglas Shire
Shire of Carpentaria
The Shire of Carpentaria is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia on the Gulf of Carpentaria, for which it is named. The Shire of Carpentaria covers an area of 64,372.7 square kilometres, has existed as a local government entity since 1883. Its two main population centres are the towns of Karumba, a fishing port, Normanton, the administrative centre, both of which are located on the Norman River; the Doonmunya Division was created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 396. However, the divisional board appeared to be inactive because the division was so large and was sparsely settled. Nonetheless some of the citizens were unhappy about this. On 11 January 1883, the Doonmunya Division was abolished and a new Carpentaria Division was created to replace it. Given the size of the Carpentaria Division, the distance to its headquarters in Normanton was an issue for residents in the Cloncurry area, leading to a desire to create their own local division.
On 7 February 1884, part of Carpentaria Division was separated to create the new Cloncurry Division. However, once the Carpentaria Divisional Board became operational, the residents of the Burketown area became concerned that their rates were to be spent on the Normanton area rather than their own and began to agitate for their own division west of the Leichhardt River. On 30 January 1885, the Burke Division was created from lands within the Carpentaria Division with some adjustments to the Cloncurry Division. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Carpentaria Division became the Shire of Carpentaria on 31 March 1903. Prior to 2005, two Aboriginal communities administered under Deed of Grant in Trust by community councils since the mid-1980s, were part of the Shire's area, but they were formally excised and given a new status as Aboriginal Shires; the Shire of Carpentaria includes the following settlements: Normanton Karumba Carpentaria Fielding Howitt Maramie Savannah Stokes Yagoonya 1927: J. K.
Casey March 2009–March 2016: Fred Pascoe March 2016–: Lyall Bawden Prior to 1971, Aboriginal people who form a majority of the population were not counted in census statistics. Until 1 July 2002, the Australian Bureau of Statistics included the Island and DOGIT councils within the Shire of Cook statistical local area. Information for the reduced Shire back to 1996 has been provided on the ABS website through the Time Series Profile; the Carpentaria Shire Council operates libraries in Karumba. "Carpentaria Shire". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland
Shire of Cook
The Shire of Cook is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland, it covers an area of 106,188.4 square kilometres, has existed as a local government entity since 1919. The Daintree and Hann Divisions were created on 11 November 1879 as two of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, they became the Shires of Daintree and Hann on 31 March 1903. On 16 January 1919, they merged to form the Shire of Cook; the Borough of Cooktown was proclaimed as a separate municipality on 3 April 1876 under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864. On 24 August 1932, the Town of Cooktown was absorbed back into Cook Shire. Prior to 2005, a number of Aboriginal communities administered under Deed of Grant in Trust by community councils were part of the Shire's area, but they were formally excised and given a new status as Aboriginal Shires.
This formed part of the Meeting Challenges, Making Choices strategy developed in response to the Cape York Justice Study undertaken by Justice Fitzgerald QC in November 2001. The Local Government Reform process in July 2007 concluded that amalgamation of the Shire would not result in any benefits to service delivery and management for the area, noting that it was the largest local government by area and had no community of interest with any neighbouring areas; the council was, reduced from seven to six councillors with an additional elected mayor. The Shire of Cook includes the following settlements: 1 – shared with the Shire of Douglas 2 – shared with the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale 3 – shared with the Aboriginal Shire of Lockhart River 4 – shared with the Aboriginal Shire of Mapoon And a number of islands in the Coral Sea, including: Raine Island Lizard Island The Cook Shire Council operate public libraries at Bloomfield and Cooktown. 1901–1904: John Hargreaves 1927: H. L. Lee 2008–: Peter Scott The population of the Shire of Cook, along with Torres and Mornington, have been singled out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, who conduct the quinquennial census, as difficult to measure accurately.
Reasons for this include cultural and language barriers and geographical spread of the population, who are located in isolated communities. As such, all figures are to be lower than the actual population on the census date. Additionally, prior to 1971, Aboriginal people who form a majority of the population were not counted in census statistics; until 1 July 2002, the Australian Bureau of Statistics included the Island and DOGIT councils within the Shire of Cook statistical local area. Information for the reduced Shire back to 1996 has been provided on the ABS website through the Time Series Profile. University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Cook Shire
