Question 1

Cairns on Your Own

Accepted Answer

If your ship docks in the city, you can explore on foot: the Esplanade, its swimming lagoon and the museum are all in the center. The reef and Kuranda are bigger outings that need a booked trip and careful timing. The Esplanade: Walk the waterfront park and cool off in the Esplanade Lagoon, a free public pool of about 4,800 square meters with a maximum depth of 1.5 meters. The museum: Cairns Museum, in the old School of Arts building on Lake Street, tells the story of the city and Far North Queensland. Check opening times before you go. The aquarium: Cairns Aquarium, opened in 2017, shows about 15,000 animals from ten ecosystems of the region. A longer outing: The Kuranda Scenic Railway takes about 1 hour 55 minutes each way, and the Skyrail cableway about 1 hour 30 minutes one way, so a round trip to Kuranda fills most of a port day. From Yorkeys Knob: Local buses link Yorkeys Knob with the city, with a change at Smithfield, so allow plenty of time. Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own. Watch the clock: Queensland does not use daylight saving time, so from October to April it is an hour behind Sydney and Melbourne. If your ship sailed from there, confirm which time all-aboard is given in.

Question 2

Getting Around Cairns

Accepted Answer

The city's buses fan out from a terminal at the corner of Lake and Shields streets. For Kuranda and the reef, the railway, the cableway and the reef boats are the usual ways to go. The bus network has about twenty routes, all starting from the city terminal. The Kuranda Scenic Railway climbs 37 kilometers from Cairns through 15 hand-dug tunnels and over 37 bridges to Kuranda, 328 meters up on the Atherton Tableland. Skyrail Rainforest Cableway runs 7.5 kilometers from its Smithfield terminal, on the northern edge of Cairns, over Barron Gorge National Park to Kuranda. Day boats to the Great Barrier Reef and its islands leave from the city's waterfront each day.

Question 3

What to Eat in Cairns

Accepted Answer

The Esplanade and the blocks just behind it hold many of the city's bars, grills and seafood restaurants. Fish from the region's rivers and sea and fruit from its farms are the local flavors to look for. Barramundi: The name of this popular eating fish comes from an Aboriginal language word for a large-scaled river fish. Tropical produce: The lowlands around Cairns grow sugar cane, bananas and pineapples, and the Atherton Tableland behind the city produces fruit and dairy. Seafood: Seafood restaurants are a fixture of the Esplanade.

Question 4

Tipping in Australia

Accepted Answer

Tipping is not customary in Australia, and restaurants must include the cost of service in their menu prices. You may leave a small tip for service you thought was exceptional, but nobody expects it. Hotel staff, porters, tour guides and taxi drivers do not expect tips. The currency is the Australian dollar (A$, AUD).

Question 5

Natural Wonders, Indigenous Heritage, and Mountain Villages

Accepted Answer

Cairns is built on the country of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people, whose name for the area is Gimuy, and the Djabugay people are the traditional owners of the ranges around Kuranda. The Wet Tropics: The rainforests of the Wet Tropics, which include the Daintree north of Cairns, are among the oldest surviving rainforests on Earth. Djabugay stories: In Djabugay tradition, the ancestral carpet snake Budadji shaped the land from Crystal Cascades to Kuranda as he traveled through the country. Chinatown: From the 1880s until the mid-1940s, Grafton Street was home to Cairns's Chinatown, the largest Chinese community in Queensland outside Brisbane. A scientist's name: Dr. Hugo Flecker, a Cairns naturalist, identified the deadly box jellyfish, which bears his name as Chironex fleckeri. Kuranda: The rainforest town of Kuranda, on the Atherton Tableland about 25 kilometers from Cairns by road, takes its name from a Yidinji word for a plant, and the Djabugay people have lived in the surrounding rainforest for more than 10,000 years.

Question 6

Settlement, Sugar, and the Wet Tropics

Accepted Answer

Cairns was founded in 1876 as a port for the goldfields on the tableland, on mangrove swamp and sand ridges by Trinity Bay. Sugar, the railway and World War II built it up, and international tourism took over from the 1980s. Gimuy: The Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people lived here long before Europeans came, and they still claim native title rights. 1770: James Cook named Green Island, offshore, on 10 June 1770, and the area was known to the British as Trinity Bay for the next century. 1872: A violent clash between local Yidinji people and a sea-cucumber fisherman over a well on today's foreshore gave the place the name Battle Camp. 1876: The port was laid out to ship gold from the Hodgkinson goldfields and named Cairns after William Cairns, the governor of Queensland. Chinese farmers: Chinese settlers pioneered local farming, and in 1886 they made up 60 percent of the district's farmers and 90 percent of its gardeners. 1886 to 1891: Workers built the railway up the Macalister Range to Kuranda, cutting 15 tunnels by hand, and many died in the work; passenger trains began on 25 June 1891. World War II: Cairns became an Allied staging base, with air bases, a naval seaplane base in Trinity Inlet, and missions flown in support of the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. 1984 onward: The opening of Cairns International Airport in 1984 turned the city toward international tourism, and channel works finished in 2020 brought in larger cruise ships. To learn more ashore: Cairns Museum, in the 1907 School of Arts building at 93 to 105 Lake Street, covers the social history of Cairns and Far North Queensland in four permanent galleries.

Question 7

Cairns with Children and Families

Accepted Answer

Cairns has plenty for children in and near the center: a free swimming lagoon, an aquarium and a botanic garden, with rainforest and reef trips for a bigger day. Younger children: The Esplanade Lagoon is free, unfenced and no deeper than 1.5 meters, and the Esplanade has barbecue areas beside it. School age: Cairns Aquarium's ten ecosystems run from rainforest streams to the reef, and the building also houses the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre. Nature walks: Cairns Botanic Gardens, about 4 kilometers from the center at Edge Hill, has rainforest and mangrove boardwalks and is free to enter; several bus routes pass its entrances. Teenagers: Take a day boat to Green Island, a coral cay 27 kilometers offshore inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and ringed by coral reef. Skyrail's Red Peak station has free ranger-guided walks.

Question 8

Accessibility in Cairns

Accepted Answer

If your ship docks at the cruise terminal in the city, you can reach downtown on foot; for a call listed at Yorkeys Knob, ask your ship how passengers get ashore there and whether the landing suits a wheelchair or walker. Ask attraction operators about access before you book. Ask the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Skyrail about wheelchair boarding before you book either one. If you need a vehicle with a ramp or lift, arrange it through your cruise line before you sail.

Question 9

Shopping in Cairns

Accepted Answer

Two markets are on the Esplanade, and Kuranda has more. For local art and Aboriginal crafts, Kuranda's markets and galleries are the place to look. The Cairns Night Markets, at 71 to 75 The Esplanade, open every evening with stalls selling clothes, souvenirs and Australiana. An outdoor market on the Esplanade, by the lagoon, sells handmade goods directly from local makers on Saturdays. Kuranda has markets, art galleries and shops selling Aboriginal crafts, a short walk from its railway station.

Question 10

Beaches Near Cairns

Accepted Answer

Central Cairns has no swimming beach of its own. The sandy beaches are on the Northern Beaches, a string of suburbs along the coast north of the city. From south to north the Northern Beaches include Machans Beach, Holloways Beach, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity Beach, Kewarra Beach, Clifton Beach, Palm Cove and Ellis Beach. Stinger season runs from about October to May, when you should swim only inside the stinger-net enclosures at beaches such as Holloways, Yorkeys Knob, Trinity, Kewarra, Palm Cove and Ellis Beach. At Yorkeys Knob, the swimming area at the northern end of Sims Esplanade is patrolled by lifesavers for six months of the year; swim between their flags and stay away from the nearby rocks.

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