COVID hurt Cairns but the locals are back on the job
Cairns has been hit by the devastation of the tourist trade in recent months but these locals still find plenty of satisfaction in their work. Photographer Brian Cassey went to record some local workers.
Megan Card has been operating her shop, Crackerbox Palace, in Cairns for almost 30 years. Born and bred in the city, she has been and gone a few times but then returned permanently to create an eclectic shop specialising in retro, vintage and antique items — everything from clothing to vinyls. The latter were in high demand during the pandemic, she says. But, not surprisingly, not so many people were keen to try on vintage dresses.
The shop closed for about five weeks but Card — who lives on the premises — now opens four days a week. The destruction of the tourist trade has had a big impact on businesses in the city but Card has been partly insulated because locals have been her key market and they have continued to support her.
Will she survive? “I hope so, this is my life, the shop is a passion for me, and it’s a creative outlet.”
Card is known for her collection of mannequins, and is especially fond of the battered specimens that carry their history in missing limbs and general wear and tear. Where does she find them? “When you have been around for a while, they find you, they come to me,” says Card.
John Magoffin is sure about his life in the law, but not so sure that he got the timing right last November when, after years of working with law firms in Cairns, he struck out on his own, setting up Magoffin Law.
The pandemic had an impact on his business — the lockdown meant fewer arrests for crimes and fewer traffic accidents. The cases that did come before the courts were all deferred for months and Magoffin’s business was mainly over the mobile phone.
Life is getting back to normal after what he estimates was a 50 per cent dip in business this year. What does he love about his job?
“Well, it gets pretty hot up here in the summer and I would not want to be working out on the road like some people have to do,” says the solicitor. “I find it interesting. You meet a lot of interesting people down at the court. It gets the pulse going.”
Graeme Chibnall learnt his trade as a jeweller in Melbourne then headed to Cairns in the 1970s where he rode the wave of tourism over the past decades. The boom from about 2000 until the Global Financial Crash in 2008, saw him flourish and expand as Japanese visitors, in particular, snapped up pink diamonds, sapphires from central Queensland, Australian opals and pearls.
It’s been tougher since then and Chibnall has reduced his retail outlets and now has only one shop at the foot of the Hilton Hotel in the city. With no tourist trade, Chibnall has been heartened by the loyal support from locals.
Why Cairns? “It’s a lifestyle. Here I am in control. In Melbourne you have to be up early, there’s a long commute, and you are competing with 10,000 other people on the street.” Why the jewellery business? “I have had some ups and downs in my life but at the end of the day I always had this trade that I could rely on. Whenever times got tough, there was something that I valued.” He loves the fact that “you are always perfecting your skill, there is always a new challenge because every piece is different”. Delivering a custom-made ring to a client is very satisfying but when he designs a piece and a stranger walks in the door and loves it, well that’s “just heaven on a stick”.
He has many favourites among the pieces he has crafted, but the diamonds and sapphires have been very special — not just the final pieces but the entire process of design and making. “It gives my effort and my life a bit of value,” says Chibnall.
David and Kerrie Varney run the Little Morris Cafe out of a custom-built trailer parked each day on the Bruce Highway near the hamlet of El Arish, midway between Cairns and Townsville. They closed during the peak of the pandemic when traffic halted because of travel restrictions but have been open now for about five weekends and hope to increase their days soon. With a background in restaurants, cafes and cruise ships, the Varneys enjoy the hospitality sector. Says David: “We are good at it, we like to provide something that’s really needed. We feel we are keeping people alive on this highway. Our coffee is excellent, our food is excellent and people tell us that.” The Varneys developed the site 14 years ago and ran a trailer there for four years before selling out and managing other projects. Three years ago when the site became available again, the couple jumped at it. “We knew that’s what we wanted to do,” says David.
Percy Neal was 19 when he put up his hand to leave Yarrabah, the indigenous coastal township a 40-minute drive from Cairns, to head to Sydney to learn how to bake bread. He did a three-year apprenticeship at a Leichhardt bakery before returning north and setting up the town’s bakery in what is the biggest indigenous community on the mainland with about 2500 residents. It used to be a 2am start but these days 70-year-old Neal, who is a former mayor of the town, and other staff, work from 6pm to midnight producing up to 300 loaves each day. During the lockdown, Yarrabah was cut off from the world by a police roadblock in an effort to protect residents from COVID-19. Bread was in even higher demand than usual. Neal says he’s long tried to get locals to move away from the highly popular white bread loaves to wholemeal bread but confesses “it’s hard”. He owns the bakery and says that private ownership, rather than community-run outlets are the best option for indigenous towns.
Aviu Ned Ware arrived in Cairns as a child from the Torres Strait Island of Moa (St Paul). It was 1959 and his father ferried the family across on his boat. At 71 Ware sells fruit from his stall about 10km from Cairns.
He’s been doing that for more than a decade after a life spent working on local fruit farms and recently switched to $50 mixed boxes sourced from local growers.
“It’s my passion,” he says. “I love gardening, I always grew stuff, made plants, worked on farms and the farmers are all my friends.” His extended family keeps him busy but he is usually at the stall from around 7am till dark, seven days a week.
Working with COVID-19
When COVID-19 hit in March, the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas was keen to help freelance journalists and photographers. The philanthropic foundation joined The Weekend Australian to send photographers into regional Australia to capture Australians at work at a time of national crisis. We published the first of these photo essays last month with images taken by Sean Davey in southern NSW.