City of Cairns | |||||||||||||
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 Location withinQueensland | |||||||||||||
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| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Queensland | ||||||||||||
| Region | Far North Queensland | ||||||||||||
| Established | 1885 | ||||||||||||
| Council seat | Cairns City | ||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• Total | 1,691.4 km2 (653.1 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 156,169 (2011)[1] | ||||||||||||
| • Density | 92.3312/km2 (239.137/sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Website | City of Cairns | ||||||||||||
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TheCity of Cairns was alocal government area centred on theFar North Queensland city ofCairns. Established in 1885, for most of its existence it consisted of approximately 51.5 square kilometres (19.9 sq mi) around Cairns itself, with much of the metropolitan area being located in theShire 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 theShire of Douglas to become theCairns Region.
Following a petition by local residents, on 28 May 1885, theBorough of Cairns was established under theLocal Government Act 1878, being excised from theCairns Division.[2][3][4]
With the passage of theLocal Authorities Act 1902, the Borough of Cairns became theTown of Cairns on 31 March 1903.[4][5]
On 12 October 1923, the Town of Cairns was proclaimed City of Cairns.[5][6][7]
On 21 November 1991, theElectoral and Administrative Review Commission, 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.
TheLocal Government (Cairns, Douglas, Mareeba and Mulgrave) Regulation 1994 was gazetted on 16 December 1994, additionally mandating that small sections of theShire of Mareeba aroundRedlynch andBarron Gorge andEllis Beach in theShire of Douglas 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, andTom Pyne, previously the Chairman of the Mulgrave shire council, was elected as its first mayor. He retired in 2000, andKevin Byrne of theCairns Unity grouping served two full terms until the council's dissolution in 2008. In a controversial decision,[8] new council chambers were constructed on previously industrialcontaminated land in the mainly industrial suburb of Portsmith.
On 15 March 2008, under theLocal Government (Reform Implementation) Act 2007 passed by theParliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, the City of Cairns merged with theShire of Douglas to form theCairns Region.[7][9] Byrne was narrowly defeated by Val Schier ofCairns 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.[10]
The City of Cairns included the following settlements:
Cairns Central area: | Northern Mulgrave area: | Southern Mulgrave area: |
|
1 – shared withCassowary Coast Region
2 – not to be confused withWhite Rock inCity of Ipswich
3 – shared with shared withCassowary Coast Region andTablelands Region
| Year | Cairns (C) | Mulgrave (S) |
|---|---|---|
| 1933 | 11,993 | 10,303 |
| 1947 | 16,644 | 10,485 |
| 1954 | 21,020 | 13,477 |
| 1961 | 25,204 | 14,427 |
| 1966 | 26,696 | 15,312 |
| 1971 | 30,288 | 16,985 |
| 1976 | 34,857 | 23,025 |
| 1981 | 39,096 | 31,335 |
| 1986 | 42,227 | 41,711 |
| 1991 | 49,361 | 54,783 |
| 1996 | 116,718 | |
| 2001 | 119,937 | |
| 2006 | 136,460 | |
| 2011 | 156,169 | |
| 2021 | 166,943 | |
16°55′49″S145°46′11″E / 16.93028°S 145.76972°E /-16.93028; 145.76972