Empty Esplanade Lagoon shows Cairns is in a trauma-induced coma
It’s usually packed with people during a warm day during peak season, but the conspicuous lack of swimmers in this pretty seaside lagoon in one of Queensland’s tourism hotspots shows just how bad the city is suffering.
Opinion
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IT’S noon on a balmy 27 degree day in Cairns and the city’s picturesque seaside lagoon is devoid of swimmers.
At this time of year, the lagoon’s tempting waters should be teeming with international tourists and Australian families who have escaped chilly southern states.
But the empty pool is symbolic of Cairns’ lot right now.
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The tourism mecca is not so much a city in hibernation but a trauma-induced coma.
The COVID-19 virus may have barely touched the far north but the economic consequences are writ large.
The best business to be in right now appears to be printing “for sale/lease” signs.
They’re doing a roaring trade.
On the Esplanade strip, once amongst Australia’s most coveted tourism real estate, there’s a dozen such signs adorning shop windows.
As you travel further from the Cairns main drag, the signs get more prevalent.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, her ministers and their many minders are in town for a few days to spread the love around, not that locals seem to know or care.
“They’re here? What for?” says one local surfwear proprietor.
The souvenir shops were first to go when international tourists stopped coming, she says, and then others followed.
“But it’s hopefully getting better.”
A cafe operator down the road isn’t as optimistic.
“It was really busy here a few weeks ago but then they closed the borders,” she said.
“Now it’s just a few people from Brisbane and the Gold Coast.”
Veteran restaurateur George Papagelou, whose Villa Romano eatery has been an Esplanade institution for 22 years, sums it up best.
“If you’re relying on just tourism you’ve got problems,” he said.
Little wonder why.
According to Mark Olsen, the head of Tropical Tourism North Queensland, $7 million-a-day has been removed from the Cairns economy.
By July that’ll tally $2.2 billion.
About 90 per cent of the tourist boats aren’t even operating.
Palaszczuk says she’s here to help.
“That’s why we are doing everything we can to keep the economy going here,” she reckons.
Yet tossing a few million bucks about upgrading Cairns’ tourism offerings when there aren’t any tourists seems perverse.
It’s like there’s a house fire and the Premier has turned up with confetti.
Despite all the talk of a “laser-like focus” on the economy, clearly politics is front of mind with Labor’s four local MPs present at Palaszczuk’s press conference.
But there’s no sign of Treasurer Cameron Dick who has been missing in inaction of late despite being responsible for spearheading the recovery.
The Cairns’ Lagoon might be empty but Palaszczuk Government finds itself in the deep end and didn’t bring its floaties.
