Cairns Basketball Stadium (known commercially as Early Settler Stadium and locally as The Fishtank) is a basketball facility in

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Queensland,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Comprising a centre court, four side courts, a sports science centre, a weights room and multiple locker rooms, the facility currently hosts the Cairns Taipans, Cairns Marlins and

Cairns Dolphins The Cairns Dolphins are an Australian basketball team based in Cairns, Queensland. The Dolphins compete in the women's NBL1 North league and play their home games at Early Settler Stadium. Team history After operating a successful basketball p ...

, training sessions, the Taipans' NBL pre-season games, and the Marlins' and Dolphins' NBL1 North games. The facility also hosts regular junior and senior competitions run by the Cairns Basketball Association.

History

Cairns Basketball Stadium was originally opened in 1963 as the home of the Cairns Amateur Basketball Association, which was founded five years earlier in 1958. The facility was first opened as an outdoor court, before the first indoor court was opened in 1986 when the Cairns Marlins joined the Queensland State Basketball League. The usage of the facility was then increased with the introduction of the

into the women's QSBL in 1987. When the Cairns Taipans joined the

National Basketball League (Australia) The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's Professional sports#Basketball, professional basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australasia, currently composed of 10 teams: 9 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand. It is the premier ...

in 1999 the

Cairns Convention Centre The Cairns Convention Centre is a convention and entertainment centre in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The venue was selected the World's Best Congress Centre in 2004 and 2014. Description The centre has a floor space of on a site in the Ca ...

was announced as their home, however their training sessions were held at Cairns Basketball Stadium. Their continued involvement in the facility attracted multiple expansions from the Government of Queensland and CQUniversity, including the most recent expansion in late 2017/early 2018.

Expansions

After the introduction of the Marlins and the Dolphins into the state basketball league, the first expansion for the facility was a seating increase on the centre court in 1994. This was then quickly followed by the air-conditioning of the facility in 1996. Nearly a decade later there were more expansions, with courts 3 and 4 opened in 2004. Across 2010 and 2011 there were two adjustments to the operations of the stadium, with the car park upgraded in 2010 to enable wheelchair access, and a 20KW solar system installed in 2011. In 2017 a federal government grant allowed Cairns Basketball Stadium to complete a $3 million expansion of the facility, which added a fifth court, improved the landscaping and constructed a teaching facility for CQUniversity to teach sport science on site.

Recent events

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

- Basketball training sessions * 2019 Queensland Basketball League quarter-finals * 2019 Pole Sports Australia competition * Four 2019 NBL pre-season games

References

{{Cairns Taipans 1963 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 1963 Basketball venues in Australia Cairns Dolphins Cairns Marlins Cairns Taipans Sport in Cairns Sports venues in Queensland

History

Expansions

Recent events

See also

References