A history of Cairns: City of the south Pacific: 1770-2087

The town of Cairns took shape in the 1870s as a port for the Hodgkinson goldfields and as the terminus of the inland railway bringing shipments of ore, agricultural produce and timber to the coast. Sugar-plantations soon diversified its economic base, operating with South Sea Islander labour until federation and forced repatriation. It was the northern vote that carried Queensland's 'Yes vote' to federate and the face of the North irrevocably changed as white labour replaced black. Sugar dominated the district throughout the twentieth century, but by the start of the twenty­ first century, it accounted for only 6% of the district's income. While tourism has always had a place in the make-up of both nineteenth and twentieth century Cairns, it has sky-rocketted along with the district's population, after the establishment of the International Airport in 1984.

This is a history of Cairns and district from Cook's visit in 1770 to the end of the twentieth century and the amalgamation of City and Shire (1995). Its aim is to provide a balanced and inclusive history, rather than a eulogy of the pioneer spirit. The changes to Cairns's townscape and the ambience of the district over the last twenty years of the twentieth century have been extraordinarily dramatic. Cairns the cosmopolitan international tourist destination is a far cry from the sleepy provincial town of yesterday. Accordingly this is a contemporary history that reflects those changes, and presents a new perspective. The old and well-worn narrative of progress struggling forward to overcome every adversity has in the past tended to ignore many people, usually the marginalised and less visible, whose lives nevertheless have been a crucial part of the social, cultural and economic fabric of town and region. Within the framework of a readable and broad ranging account, this history seeks to address the imbalance. To achieve this a methodology has been employed that utilises ethnographic and oral evidence as well as previously unexamined manuscript sources. However, because the temporal scope is so great it also draws on the work of earlier writers, read critically.