Main Cairns Connect Overview Cairns is a small city by international standards. Located by the sea it boasts a good balance of laid back tropical lifestyle and the excitement of a major tourist destination with lots to see and do. There is an excellent range of shopping and dining and it is an easy city to spend a casual day or two exploring. There are literally hundreds of day touring options and tourists are very well catered for. For those who enjoy some night life there are numerous bars and nightclubs to keep you entertained.
Many people use Cairns as their base to branch out and explore the rest of North Queensland.
The international airport is only about 6km from the heart of town. Approximately 120,000 Distance from closest major city Cairns is located approximately 1729 km north of Brisbane. History Captain James Cook was the first known European to visit the site where Cairns is located, arriving on Trinity Sunday 1770 and naming the area Trinity Bay. Cairns took quite a while to be developed, being passed over by Smithfield and Cooktown as the real frontier towns servicing the gold rush late in the 19th Century. Cairns looked like passing into obscurity until it was chosen as the starting point for a railway line that serviced the Atherton Tablelands taking up workers and supplies and bringing back tin and timber.