Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Hello Everyone!

We docked in Cairns, Queensland in the early afternoon of Wednesday, 11 Feb 2026 amid partly cloudy and 90+ degree weather, and high humidity to match. We stayed overnight and had excursions both days before departing the night of 12 Feb.

We docked at the Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal, immediately adjacent to the central business district. We tied up just behind the Carnival Luminosa, a +/- 2,200 passenger cruise ship that has been shadowing us for the last few stops. Not as big as Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas which we've also shared stops with lately, it's still a very big boat compared to ours. Thankfully, they left later in the day while we stayed overnight. So for our second day ashore the crowds were much smaller in the local shops, tourist attractions, and restaurants.

Carnival Luminosa Docked in Front of
Viking Star, Cairns, Queensland

Cairns (pronounced "cans" by the locals) is is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical northeast coast of Far North Queensland. The population is around 170,000, but they see more than 3 million tourists a year.

The city was founded in 1876 and named after Sir William Wellington Cairns, following the discovery of gold in the Hodgkinson River. During World War II, the city was a staging ground for the Allied Forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. 

The economy of Cairns is based primarily on tourism, healthcare and education, along with a major capacity in aviation, marine and defense industries.

As with other cities we've visited throughout Australia and New Zealand, we found people to be very welcoming and friendly, with a typical casual, Aussie vibe.

Cairns Aquarium

Our first stop was the Cairns Aquarium, a modern and top-notch facility located within Central Business District. We had all the time we wanted to explore here because the boat was only about a 10-minute walk away and we weren't tied to a bus schedule. Nice.

There were 71 living habitats at the aquarium, home to some 16,000 fish and aquatic organisms endemic to tropical North Queensland. It was difficult to get really good pictures in the low light and through glass, but here are some highlights.

The highly territorial Freshwater Prawn has very long front arms with oversized claws which it uses to catch prey and fend off intruders. It feeds on small fish, algae, and detritus.

Freshwater Prawn

The semi-aquatic Merten's Water Monitor is an endangered species that are excellent swimmers, yet equally at home scampering over rocks and through tree branches neat the water. They can grow up to about three feet in length. Their diet consists of fish, frogs, carrion, insects, and small vertebrates. Introduction of cane frogs, an invasive species, has negatively impacted the monitors because they compete for the same diet.

Merten's Water Monitor

Though largely nocturnal, the Jungle Carpet Python has beautiful markings meant to help camouflage it in dappled sunlight. It's an ambush predator that lies quietly in wait for its prey of a wide variety of terrestrial vertebrates.

Jungle Carpet Python

The spiny Boyd's Forest Dragon spends its days on tree trunks watching for the motion of nearby insects. When it sees something, it jumps down from the tree to gobble up its prey. It's only found in the wet tropics of North Queensland.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

The Giant Mud Crab can grow up to 7.5 lbs and nearly 10" across. It is highly cannibalistic, probably because the female gives birth to around 1 million offspring at a time! In addition to other crabs, it eats barnacles, bivalves, gastropods, and dead fish. I wonder if it makes good crabcakes...

Giant Mud Crab

The Common Lionfish is a venomous coral reef fish and the largest species of lionfish in the ocean. It uses its venomous spines to fend off enemies. They can grow up to 18" long.

Common Lionfish

The Honeycomb Moray hides in crevices along the reef by day and comes out at night to hunt for fish and cephalopods. They can grow to over 9 feet in length.

Honeycomb Moray

This cute little guy who looks like he wants a smooch is the Longhorn Cow Fish. Very boxy in appearance, they swim along the bottom and blow jets of water into the sand, uncovering invertebrates upon which they feed. They seem to just hover in the water.   

Longhorn Cow Fish

Longhorn Cow Fish

Walkabout in the CBD

After the tour through the aquarium (and its obligatory gift shop), a friend and I wandered the streets of the Central Business district. There are lots of shops and restaurants here which cater to the more than 3 million tourists who visit annually. A local told us that Covid was especially devastating here, as all cruising stopped and air traffic (over 5 million annually) virtually ceased. Many businesses folded, and the area is just now returning to its former vitality. Even so, we saw many vacant storefronts.

It was very hot and humid in Cairns with sun, temps in the 90s, and humidity around 70%. So to cool off after our walk, we dropped into this brewery conveniently located just in front of our ship. We had a couple of beers with another couple, the headed back to the ship for a shower and change of clothes before enjoying a nice dinner.

Hemingway's Brewery

Aboriginal Jungle Walk

The next day I went on an Aboriginal Jungle Walk. We were met at the ship by a guide from Mandingalbay Authentic Indigenous Tours, a family-owned business specializing in tours covering topics of cultural significance, leading interpretative walks, and showcasing traditional use of natural resources used for medicinal purposes and sustenance. 

Our group of 20 people boarded a small pontoon barge before proceeding across the bay and up a small river (Hills River). We disembarked near a tide control gate, then boarded mini-buses which drove through the rain forest, past myriad sugar cane fields, to the Mandingalbay Eco-Tourism Facility  The facility is run by the Mandingalbay Yidinji Aboriginal Corporation (MYAC).

There we were greeted by Yidinji guides who educated us on the history of their people, then led us on a walk into the rainforest. 

The Walk

The trail was rocky, hilly, and had lots of tree roots, so it wasn't suitable for anyone with mobility issues. Thankfully, we knew that in advance, so everyone who elected to go on the excursion was capable of taking the hike. There were signposts at various intervals long the way describing the trees and plants the Yidinji use for foods, medicines, and water. Fascinating stuff.

Traditional Yidinji Shelter

"Dead Dog Tree" (No Bark...)

Traditional Shield carried by Warriors (2/3 size)

After the walk, we learned more about the Yidinji culture. The warrior depicted below features Jabulum, the leader of the Yidinji Tribe in the late 1800s. The Mandingalbay Yidinji community recognizes Jabulum as an ancestral leader whose story is tied to the survival of the clan during early frontier violence in the Cairns region in the late 19th century.

According to their oral history:

• Jabulum was a senior law man / leader
• European settlers were expanding aggressively into Mandingalbay country
• Conflict and reprisals threatened the entire group
• He surrendered himself to halt the violence and was killed soon after capture
• The act is remembered as a sacrifice to protect his people

This narrative is consistent with documented patterns of frontier conflict in North Queensland. There are many recorded cases where Aboriginal leaders were targeted as a way to break resistance, and communities sometimes negotiated their survival under extreme pressure.

The picture below was made just after his capture. He wore his traditional garb identifying him as the leader of his people. He had a royal shell on his forehead and cockatoo feathers in the back. The bone through his nose was carved from the femur of his first wife in her memory (he had six wives). The necklaces are made from the umbilical cords of his children, eldest at the top and youngest at the bottom.

Jabulum, Chief of the Yidinji circa 1870

An Environmental Success Story

We also learned about the restoration of large areas of mangrove trees on East Trinity, part of the Indigenous Protective Area (IPA) passed back to the Yidinji tribe in 2006. 

In the 1970s, developers cleared and drained these wetlands to convert the land for sugar cane agriculture. They built a 4.3 mile bund wall (levee) to exclude tidal flows and installed a drainage systems to lower the water table. This removed the saltwater influence that kept the soils wet and stable. Because the soils in this landscape contain large amounts of acid sulfate minerals (formed naturally over thousands of years), when they were exposed to air through drainage and drainage, oxidation occurred. This produced sulfuric acid and heavy metals in the soil and highly acidic runoff into creeks and Trinity Inlet. That ultimately resulted in the death of mangroves and many estuarine species, massive fish kills in the inlet and ultimately, the failure of the sugar cane project.

By the late 1990s, the environmental damage was widely recognized. In 2000 the Queensland Government purchased East Trinity as an environmental reserve to protect Trinity Inlet and the Great Barrier Reef region.

Rather than bulldozing the land and mixing in lime (which would have been extremely costly and destructive), scientists and land managers, in conjunction with Yidinji elders, developed an innovative approach known as Lime-Assisted Tidal Exchange (LATE). The key elements were:

• Re-introducing daily tidal flow by modifying the bund wall so seawater could return to the flooded landscape
• Adding hydrated lime to the incoming tidal water to buffer acidity and neutralize the sulfuric acids in the soil and water
• Allowing estuarine conditions to re-establish naturally, encouraging the return of mangroves, samphire, and other native wetland vegetation as pH and soil chemistry improved.

Over the following decades soil and water acidity progressively neutralized, mangrove seedlings and other estuarine vegetation began recolonizing, fish and bird populations returned, and the marshland and wetland function were restored. This project is now regarded as one of the world’s most successful acid-sulfate soil remediation programs, and a model for restoring degraded coastal wetlands.

Flora & Fauna

This big fellow showed up at the site during our visit. It's an Asian Water Monitor, and it had just polished off a small snake it grabbed as a snack. Well done!

Asian Water Monitor

There were lots of mangrove trees, reeds, and other plants all along the way. I especially liked this Beach Spider.

Beach Spider Flower

Back to the Boat

The excursion lasted about four hours total, and after a hike in the 90+ degree heat and high humidity, I was ready for a shower and change of clothes.

Feels Like 106!

After getting cleaned up it was time for another very nice dinner at The Chef's Table. The entree for the five-course dinner was slow roasted beef brisket with Yorkshire pudding - outstanding! Other courses included a Scotch Egg appetizer (a quail egg wrapped in sausage, then breaded and deep fried), fish & chips, a gin & tonic slushie as a palette cleanser, and a nice raspberry trifle.

Yorkshire Pudding and Beef Brisket

Upcoming Stop

Tonight we set sail for Darwin, Northern Territory. We have three full days to get there, so it'll give me a chance to relax and unwind. Wait... Haven't I been doing that all along??😉

Until Next Time,
Jim