Cairns travel guide

Top 8 sights in Cairns

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Photnart · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Barron Gorge National Park

   A park in the gorge the Barron river cuts through the tablelands escarpment, crossed by both the Kuranda railway of 1891 and the Skyrail cableway. A hydroelectric station of 1935 takes most of the water, so the falls run properly only after rain.

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2. 

   2© Matt Blank · CC BY 2.0

   Kuranda Scenic Railway

   A tourist railway climbing from Cairns to Kuranda on a line cut through the range by hand between 1886 and 1891, with fifteen tunnels and ninety-eight curves. Navvies died building it; the train now stops at a waterfall on the way up.

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3. 

   3© Dainis Matisons from Mezares, Latvia, EU · CC BY 2.0

   Kuranda National Park

   A national park on the tableland above Cairns, part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area, where rainforest meets eucalypt woodland. It keeps a corridor of habitat between larger blocks of forest, which is its real function.

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4. 

   4© Laurel Lodged · CC BY-SA 3.0

   St Monica's War Memorial Cathedral

   The Catholic cathedral of Cairns, built between 1967 and 1968, and the reason to go in is the glass. The Peace Windows, installed in the 1990s, are among the largest thematic stained-glass works in Australia and run the Coral Sea battle together with the creation.

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5. 

   5© Vanbasten 23 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Cairns Aquarium

   An aquarium opened in 2017 with about fifteen thousand animals arranged as a journey from the rainforest streams down to the outer reef, including a tank of nearly two million litres. It is the wet-weather answer for a town whose weather is often wet.

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6. 

   6© Ank Kumar · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Australian Armour and Artillery Museum

   A private museum at Smithfield outside Cairns, opened in 2014, holding one of the larger collections of tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery in the southern hemisphere. Many of the vehicles are kept in running order.

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7. 

   7© Heritage branch staff · CC BY 3.0

   St Monica's Old Cathedral, Cairns

   A former Catholic cathedral on Minnie Street in Cairns, built in 1927 and now heritage-listed. Its replacement next door is known for stained glass telling the creation story with reef and rainforest.

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8. 

   8© Rique · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Kuranda Koala Gardens

   A small zoo at Kuranda opened in 1980 and given over to Australian animals: koalas that visitors may hold, wallabies loose in the enclosure, quolls, snakes and freshwater crocodiles.

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