Cairns: tourist paradise of Australia
by Dr. Nimal Sedera
 Cairns is a city on the far
north of Queensland, Australia with a population of almost 160,000. It
is a popular city for internal and foreign tourists. There has been 3.76
million domestic and international passenger movement in the Cairns
airports in 2008.
I was fortunate to arrive at this great destination in August 2009
and there was absolute bright weather with bright sunshine. This
beautiful little city of 653 sq kilometres, is rich with a climate and a
vegetation similar to Sri Lanka in many ways with the beautiful sea and
the beaches on one side, the coconut trees and several palm trees in
many places, banana trees and many flowering plant that grow in the wild
such as “Gandapana” and “Bovitia” in the shrubs.
The greatest attraction here is the world renowned “Great barrier
reef”. It is the greatest coral reef in the world extending to 2011 km
in length and 72 km in breadth. These corals are home to 1500 species of
fish and of 300 varieties of reef-building corals.
 People reach the reef in 300 passenger catamarans and in smaller
vessels. The vessel we travelled carried about fifty passengers and
smallest boats take about twelve passengers. We went to the green
islands in the fast moving vessel for an hour or more long journey at a
fairly fast speed that some caught sea sickness. We boarded a
semi-submarine that took us to see the corals and the fish from its
lower glass deck. This will be an unforgettable experience. How
beautiful are the corals and the fish!
We in Sri Lanka have a lot to add to our tourist industry from
Cairns. Every little opportunity is exploited to make money and it is
done giving the customer the best deal. The retail shops at the Green
Island, the diving training at the place and the peace in the area are
all good lessons for us. Never did I see anyone going behind any tourist
bothering them to buy things.
Cairns is full of restaurants and hotels, eating places such as food
courts and night markets. These places are packed to the brim. And yet
interesting, everyone has his/her share without bothering others.
Kurunda Sky train is another major attraction in Cairns. This sky train
is the longest cable car way in the world extending to 7.5 km. The cable
cars run continuously from morning to sunset daily over the world
heritage rain forest canopy.
 They stop in two stations, Read Peak and Barron Falls. Almost
everyone will take a break to enjoy the walk into the forest on the
elegantly and carefully laid wooden pathway. It is done so well and it
is so secure that my eighteen-month-old grandson Ishaan walked the
entire distance and refused to be seated in his pram. The travel on the
cable car itself will take ninety minutes.
Here again I should say that here is no facility in our country to do
any bush walks for the locals and for the tourists. The tourists would
like to take a walk near our waterfalls if pathways are made and neatly
maintained. Places such as St. Clair, Ramboda, Dunhinda come to my mind.
Our tragedy is poor maintenance of such beautiful places. The next
attraction that pours money to Cairns is the Kurunda world heritage
train. This train travel is for 45 minutes.
The rail track rises to 328 metres for sea level within a short time.
This rail track was built in 1882. It runs through 15 tunnels and pass
37 bridges within the 45 minutes journey. This travel reminded of the
train journey at Kadugannawa. I felt the Kadugannawa scenic beautify is
far above from what I saw at Cairns. |
