The City of Cairns was a

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

centred on the Far North

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

city of

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 ...

. Established in 1885, for most of its existence it consisted of approximately around Cairns itself, with much of the metropolitan area being located in the Shire of Mulgrave. The Shire amalgamated into the City on 22 March 1995, as did small sections of neighbouring shires. In 2008, the City amalgamated with the

Shire of Douglas The Shire of Douglas is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mo ...

to become the

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

History

Following a petition by local residents, on 28 May 1885, the Borough of Cairns was established under the ''Local Government Act 1878'', being excised from the

Cairns Division #REDIRECT Shire of Mulgrave (Queensland) The Shire of Mulgrave was a local government area surrounding the City of Cairns in the Far North region of Queensland. The shire, administered from Cairns, covered an area of ; it existed as a local ...

. With the passage of the ''Local Authorities Act 1902'', the Borough of Cairns became the

Town of Cairns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

on 31 March 1903. On 12 October 1923, the Town of Cairns was proclaimed City of Cairns. On 21 November 1991, the

Electoral and Administrative Review Commission The Electoral and Administrative Review Commission (1989–1993) was an agency of the Government of Queensland, Australia to investigate the electoral system and public administration of the state and local government authorities of Queensland. ...

, created two years earlier, produced its second report, and recommended that local government boundaries in the Cairns area be rationalised, and that the Shire of Mulgrave be dissolved and amalgamated with the City of Cairns. The Shire at that stage had a population of 54,783 (1991) while the City had 49,361. Both authorities had chambers in the Cairns CBD. The old City Council chambers were located on Abbott Street, and have since been converted into a city library. The old Mulgrave Shire Chambers were located on Cairns Esplanade. The ''Local Government (Cairns, Douglas, Mareeba and Mulgrave) Regulation 1994'' was gazetted on 16 December 1994, additionally mandating that small sections of the

Shire of Mareeba The Shire of Mareeba is a local government area at the base of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, inland from Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mareeba, covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from ...

around Redlynch and Barron Gorge and Ellis Beach in the

also be amalgamated. It further specified that the new Council would have an elected mayor and 12 councillors each representing one of 12 divisions. On 22 March 1995, the new City came into existence, and

Tom Pyne Thomas Alfred Pyne (31 January 1935 – 30 October 2011) was an Australian politician. He was the shire chairman of the Shire of Mulgrave from 1979 to 1995, and following the amalgamation of Mulgrave with the City of Cairns, was Mayor of Ca ...

, previously the Chairman of the Mulgrave shire council, was elected as its first mayor. He retired in 2000, and Kevin Byrne of the ''Cairns Unity'' grouping served two full terms until the council's dissolution in 2008. In a controversial decision, new council chambers were constructed on previously industrial contaminated land in the mainly industrial suburb of Portsmith. On 15 March 2008, under the ''Local Government (Reform Implementation) Act 2007'' passed by the

Parliament of Queensland The Parliament of Queensland is the legislature of Queensland, Australia. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the Monarch of Australia and the Legislative Assembly. It has been the only unicameral s ...

on 10 August 2007, the City of Cairns merged with the

to form the

. Byrne was narrowly defeated by

Val Schier Valerie Jean Schier was the mayor of the Cairns Regional Council, Queensland, Australia from March 2008 until May 2012. Schier was born on 22 April 1950 and grew up in Falmouth, a small village on the north east coast of Tasmania. She moved to ...

of ''Cairns 1st'' for the mayoralty of the new Regional Council. 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, even though the Queensland Treasury Corporation had calculated the costs to be too high a burden on the few ratepayers of this small shire, and 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. As of 1 January 2014 Douglas Shire is no longer part of the Cairns Regional Council.

Suburbs and localities

The City of Cairns included the following settlements:

Central area: * Aeroglen *

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

* Cairns City *

Cairns North Cairns North is a coastal suburb of Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Cairns North had a population of 5,191 people. Geography The suburb is bounded to the north by the Cairns Airport, to the east by Trinity Bay ( ...

* Earlville * Edge Hill * Kanimbla * Manoora *

Manunda TSMV ''Manunda'' was an ''Australian'' registered and crewed passenger ship which was converted to a hospital ship in 1940. During the war ''Manunda'' saw service in both the Middle East and Pacific Campaigns, specifically New Guinea. She resum ...

* Mooroobool * Parramatta Park *

Portsmith Portsmith is a suburb of Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Portsmith was 195. History Portsmith is situated in the Yidinji traditional Aboriginal country. The origin of the suburb name is from ...

* Westcourt * Whitfield Northern Mulgrave area: * Barron * Barron Gorge * Brinsmead * Buchan Point * Caravonica * Clifton Beach * Ellis Beach *

Freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

* Holloways Beach * Kamerunga * Kewarra Beach *

Lamb Range Lamb Range is a locality in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Lamb Range had a population of 0. Geography The locality takes its name from the mountain range Lamb Range. The locality that lies to the west of most of the south ...

* Macalister Range * Machans Beach *

Palm Cove Palm Cove is a suburb of Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Palm Cove had a population of 2,059 people. It is named after the palm trees that line the beach. Geography Palm Cove is located in Far North Queensland ...

* Redlynch * Smithfield * Stratford * Trinity Beach * Trinity Park * Yorkeys Knob Southern Mulgrave area: * Aloomba *

Babinda Babinda is a rural town and locality in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Babinda had a population of 1,253 people. Geography Babinda is located south of Cairns. The town is noted for its proximity to Queensla ...

Bartle Frere Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, (29 March 1815 – 29 May 1884) was a Welsh British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay (1862–1867). However, as High Commissioner for ...

* Bayview Heights *

Bellenden Ker Mount Bellenden Ker is the second-highest mountain in Queensland, Australia, with a height of . It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. Located south of Cairns near Babinda, it is adjacent to Mount Bartle Frere, the state' ...

* Bentley Park * Bramston Beach * Deeral * East Russell * East Trinity *

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

* Eubenangee¹ * Fishery Falls * Fitzroy Island * Glen Boughton * Goldsborough *

Gordonvale Gordonvale is a rural sugar-growing town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality situated on the southern side of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Gordonvale had a populati ...

* Green Hill * Green Island *

Kamma Kamma may refer to: *Kamma (caste), a caste or social group found largely in Southern India *Kamma, India, village in Punjab, India *The Pali and Ardhamagadhi term for karma *Bava Kamma, a traditional Jewish civil law procedure (1st volume of Nezi ...

* Little Mulgrave *

Meringa ''Meringa'' is a genus of Polynesian araneomorph spiders in the family Physoglenidae that was first described by Raymond Robert Forster in 1990. Originally placed with the Synotaxidae, it was moved to the Physoglenidae in 2017. Species it conta ...

* Miriwinni * Mount Peter *

Mount Sheridan Mount Sheridan el. is a prominent mountain peak overlooking Heart Lake in the Red Mountains of Yellowstone National Park. The peak is named in honor of General Philip H. Sheridan, U.S. Army, one of the early protectors of the park. History ...

* Ngatjan¹ * Packers Camp * Waugh Pocket * White Rock² * Woopen Creek *

Wooroonooran Wooroonooran is a locality split among the Cairns Region, the Cassowary Coast Region and the Tablelands Region in Queensland, Australia. In the , Wooroonooran had no population. Geography The locality is entirely within the Wooroonooran Nati ...

³ *

Woree Woree is a suburb of Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the Woree had a population of 4,821 people. Geography The Bruce Highway goes between Bald Hills in Brisbane to Woree and is long. The highway goes through Woree both ...

* Wrights Creek ¹ - shared with

Cassowary Coast Region The Cassowary Coast Region is a local government area in the Far North Queensland region of Queensland, Australia, south of Cairns and centred on the towns of Innisfail, Cardwell and Tully. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire ...

² - not to be confused with White Rock in

City of Ipswich The City of Ipswich is a local government area in Queensland, Australia, located within the southwest of the Brisbane metropolitan area, including the urban area surrounding the city of Ipswich and surrounding rural areas. Geography The Ci ...

³ - shared with shared with

and

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas which dated back more than a century. On 1 January ...

Population

Mayors

References

External links

Local Government (Cairns, Douglas, Mareeba and Mulgrave) Regulation 1994
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cairns City Cairns, Queensland Former local government areas of Queensland Far North Queensland 1885 establishments in Australia 2008 disestablishments in Australia Populated places disestablished in 2008