Future Cairns: Council 2050 vision and strategy for population growth

Cairns will be a powerful magnet for city slickers seeking a seachange by 2050. Here’s how council is preparing for the wave of new residents.

CAIRNS is growing, it’s a popular place to live and work, thanks to our special and unique character.

In the past 30 years, our population has nearly doubled – growing from just 89,000 residents in 1992 to more than 165,000 today. 

This growth has been good for Cairns.

New suburbs and residential communities have flourished – Forest Gardens and Mt Peter and Gordonvale in the south, Redlynch Valley Estate to the west, and Canopy’s Edge and Smithfield Village in the north highlight this expansion.

These new developments have spurred the establishment of new retail and employment centres to support the expanded population base.

Quality new schools and tertiary education facilities have been built in response to growth.

James Cook University’s Cairns campus was established in 1995, Bentley Park College opened in 1997, and St Andrew’s College welcomed its first students in 2001.

Former JCU Vice Chacellor Professor Sandra Harding AO (left), Bishop of Cairns James Foley and JCU Principal Lauretta Graham tour the new Newman Catholic College at Smthfield just before opening its doors. Picture: Brian Cassey

More recently, new master-planned staged schools have opened at Mackillop College Mt Peter and Newman College Smithfield, which is impressively the very first Catholic school in Australia to be co-located with a university.

The Cairns of today boasts world-class sporting, arts, cultural and tourism venues that support our vibrant lifestyle and expand our economic opportunities.

With new people, many more economic and lifestyle opportunities have come to Cairns. We are a self-sufficient economy that has the ability to grow and retain people in competitive jobs.

The past three decades of growth have shaped our city in many positive ways, and Cairns will continue to evolve as we move towards 2050.

Our city’s population is predicted to grow to around 265,000 by 2050 – that’s around 100,000 more people than we have today.

People will always fall in love with Cairns and want to live here. We need to make sure that the predicted growth doesn’t threaten the environment and lifestyle we all enjoy.

The challenge is to get the balance right – and to do that, we need a long-term growth management strategy.

Kales Soki from Dauan Island in the Torres Strait walks through the grand arbour at Munro Matin Parklands. Picture: Brendan Radke

We need to harness the opportunities that growth can bring, while managing the impacts to help ensure that everyone can prosper and share in the riches of opportunity.

We must close the gap, create opportunity for all segments of our community and make sure we retain the core elements of what makes Cairns, Cairns.

With careful planning, we can manage the additional pressures of growth to ensure our precious environment and vibrant lifestyle is here to enjoy for generations to come.

Planned and well considered, development takes account of the needs of those who live here now as well as our future additional residents.

Good planning and design will allow us to balance our unique environmental, economic, social and cultural values, and support growth in a sustainable way.

That’s why council is developing the Towards 2050 Growth Management Strategy to guide and manage our region’s growth over the next three decades.

Over the next two years, we’ll be working with residents, businesses and community groups from the beaches to the boulders as we develop this growth strategy that’s right for all of us.

The strategy will include technical studies, conducted by council and independent industry experts, on housing, employment, natural hazards, scenic amenity, neighbourhood character, rural land and infrastructure.

Cairns’ popular lagoon and Pier marketplace with Trinity Inlet behind.

It will also be shaped by extensive input from our residents, businesses and community groups to help us identify the things that make Cairns so special and the values that we want to leave as a legacy for our children and grandchildren.

Ultimately, the Growth Strategy will be the blueprint for how we accommodate our growing population and achieve a sustainable future for Cairns and also form the foundation for council’s new planning scheme.

We have an opportunity to create a place and future for a generation that hasn’t been born yet.

We need to get it right and it’s a core part of this council’s focus on the future.

Originally published as Future Cairns: Council 2050 vision and strategy for population growth