Kairi is a rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , the locality of Kairi had a population of 490 people.

Geography

Kairi is on the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

. It is close to Lake Tinaroo and the closest more populous place is Tinaroo, which is North of Kairi. It is by road NNW from Brisbane and is above sea level. Kairi railway station is an abandoned railway station () on the now-closed Millaa Milla branch of the

Tablelands railway line The Tablelands railway line is a railway line in North Queensland, Australia. It was opened in a series of sections between 1887 and 1916. It commences at Cairns and at its maximum extent, reached Ravenshoe at the southern end of the ...

Climate

Kairi has a dry-winter humid subtropical climate ( Köppen: Cwa), with very warm and humid

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

from November to April and a pleasant

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

from May to October. Modified by its

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

, average maxima vary from in December to in July and average minima fluctuate between in February and in July. Mean average annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is , spread between 94.0 precipitation days (above the threshold). Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 6 January 1994 to on 16 June 1978, 2 July 1984 and 3 August 1990.

History

'' Yidinji'' (also known as ''Yidinj'', ''Yidiny'', and ''Idindji'') is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

. Its traditional language region is within the local government areas of

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. ...

and

, in such localities as

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

, Gordonvale, and the

Mulgrave River The Mulgrave River, incorporating the East Mulgrave River and the West Mulgrave River, is a river system in Far North Queensland, Australia. The -long river flows towards the Coral Sea and is located approximately south of . Location and feat ...

, and the southern part of the

including Atherton and Kairi. The establishment of a State Farm at Kairi by the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

was announced in May 1911. Fifty acres of land was initially cleared for the farm, which was to focus on dairying and pigs initially. Drummond MacPherson was transferred from his role as manager of the state farm at Biggenden to manage the Kairi State Farm. By March 1912, the state farm was growing

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

cow pea The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus ''Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inputs, ...

rhodes grass ''Chloris gayana'' is a species of Poaceae, grass known by the common name Rhodes grass. It is native to Africa but it can be found throughout the tropical and subtropical world as a introduced species, naturalized species. It can grow in many t ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...

sugar melon A sugar melon is a type of cantaloupe that is about in diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the centre of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as th ...

s and

cucumber The cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables. Kairi School 01

Kairi State School opened on 24 July 1911 with 12 students under head teacher Leila May Higgins. The original proposed name for the school was Innesfail State School. In 1930, the school building was relocated to its current location by a bullock team. The new location was more central and near the railway crossing. After the relocation, an additional classroom was added. Queensland State Archives 4340 State farm Kairi North Queensland c 1930

Queensland State Archives 4340 State farm Kairi North Queensland c 1930

In 1932, it was proposed that Kairi State Farm should become an agricultural college, focusing on the tropical agriculture of northern Queensland, while the

Gatton Agricultural College University of Queensland Gatton Campus is a heritage-listed university campus of the University of Queensland at Warrego Highway, Lawes (east of Gatton), Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1897 to 1960s. It is als ...

would focus on the agriculture of southern Queensland. The idea of an agricultural college was very popular but little progress was made on actually establishing it. In 1944, the state farm was taken over by the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

to supply vegetables and eggs for the armed forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war in 1946, the state farm was used to establish a regional experimentation station to address the declining productivity of the soils on the Atherton Tableland. Although the end of the war brought renewed interest in establishing an agricultural college, it was announced in 1954 that there was no prospect of the college being established. In March 1962, the state farm became an official Research Station of the Queensland Department of Agriculture. In October 2011, most of the land (209 hectares) of the former state farm / research station was sold by the Queensland Government, retaining only 26 hectares. The sale of the land was to fund the establishment of the Agri-Science Hub at Peters Street,

Mareeba Mareeba is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. Between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''meeting of the water ...

. The hub focusses on agricultural research and development, together with education and training.

James Cook University James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cair ...

is a partner of the hub, researching

tropical agriculture Worldwide more human beings gain their livelihood from agriculture than any other endeavor; the majority are self-employed subsistence farmers living in the tropics. While growing food for local consumption is the core of tropical agriculture, ...

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

and

biosecurity Biosecurity refers to measures aimed at preventing the introduction or spread of harmful organisms (e.g. viruses, bacteria, plants, animals etc.) intentionally or unintentionally outside their native range or within new environments. In agricult ...

Demographics

In the , the town of Kairi had a population of 193 people. In the , the locality of Kairi had a population of 460 people. In the , the locality of Kairi had a population of 442 people. In the , the locality of Kairi had a population of 490 people.

Heritage listings

Kairi has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

sites, including Kairi Maize Silos at 22 Godfrey Road.

Education

Kairi State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls in McGeehan Street (). In 2015, it had an enrolment of 91 students with 6 teachers (5 full-time equivalent) and 5 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 86 students with 8 teachers (5 full-time equivalent) and 8 non-teaching staff (5 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Kairi. The nearest secondary school is

Atherton State High School Atherton State High School (ASHS) is a co-educational, state secondary school in Atherton, Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. Education TAFE and Atherton High School were linked through vocational education and training programs. Howeve ...

in neighbouring Atherton to the south-west.

References

External links

{{authority control Populated places in Far North Queensland Towns in Queensland Tablelands Region Localities in Queensland