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Cairns Facts & Statistics

Cairns Facts and Statistics

Cairns is among to the top 10 fastest growing towns in Queensland with a population grown rate at 3.2 per cent. During the latest census in 2011, the population of Cairns grew to 224,436 with most of the population concentrated in the suburbs surrounding the city, along the Marlin coast and along the southern suburbs growth corridor.

Cairns has seen quite a bit of urban sprawl in the last 5 years with a lot of the surrounding area which was once sugar cane fields making way for housing estates.

Cairns is renowned as the gateway to two of the world's greatest natural attractions: the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef in the world measuring 2011 km in length and 72 km across at its widest point making it the world's largest World Heritage Areas. The Reef became on of Australia's first World Heritage Areas.

It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding natural universal values. There are an estimated 1,500 species of fish, over 300 species of hard, reef-building corals, more than 4,000 mollusc species and over 400 species of sponges have been identified.

Cairns esplanade lagoon coupleAustralia's Wet Tropics is a band of tropical rainforest and associated vegetation that runs up the north-east coast of Queensland from Townsville to Cooktown. The World Heritage property covers an area of approximately 894,000 hectares. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1988 in recognition of its scenic beauty and biological important.

The area is a region of spectacular scenery and regged topography with fast flowing rivers, deep gorges and numerous waterfalls. The mountain summits provide expansive vistas of undisturbed rainforests.

Fun facts about Cairns

As you can imagine Cairns is a pretty marvellous place and there's a few fun facts below to show you why this region is different to any other:

  • The Cairns region is home to the world's most dangerous bird - this is the Cassowary which is a large, flightless bird known for inflicting fatal injuries to dogs and humans when disturbed.
  • The Cairns regions is home to Australia's largest moth - the Hercules moth is only found in Tropical North Queensland and measures a huge 25 cm in wingspan.
  • The Cairns region is home to the world's longest, single day mail run - the mail run spans 1450km and takes over 9 hours with 10 stops flying between Cairns and Cape York.
  • The Cairns region is home to Queensland's highest mountain - Mount Bartle Frere is located just south of Cairns and measures 1622 metres high.
  • The Cairns region is home to the world's longest fern - take a day trip to Lake Eacham where you will see a great example of the king fern which has fern fronds measuring up to 7 metres in length.
  • The Cairns region is home to the world's longest lava tubes - the Undara lava tubes are thought to be around 190,000 years old and stretch for 160 km in distance and are 20 metres wide and are located in the Undara National Park.