Cairns is the northern-most city in Queensland and is the administrative centre for far north Queensland, Cape York Peninsula, the Torres Strait and the Gulf Savannah. The Cairns international airport makes the city an important business centre in the Asia-Pacific region and a major tourist entry point for Queensland.

The Cairns region is surrounded by two World Heritage Areas - the Wet Tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. Mountain ranges, beaches, tidal wetlands, and rich coastal plains cultivated mainly with sugar cane, are the dominant features of this tropical environment.

The diversity of the natural environment attracts over 2 million visitors each year.

Cairns has a population of around 130 000, concentrated in Cairns city and suburbs, along the Marlin Coast to the north and the growth corridor to the south extending to Gordonvale. It has one of the fastest urban growth rates (3.7 per cent annually over the last 20 years) in Australia, with about 5600 new residents arriving each year.

Cairns LMAC region

The Cairns LMAC is concerned with the area extending from Buchan Point in the north (Cairns Regional Council) to Flying Fish Point in the south (Cassowary Coast Council) and includes the coastal centres of the Cairns northern beach suburbs, Gordonvale and Babinda.

Who is represented on the Cairns LMAC?

Members of the Cairns LMAC represent a diversity of interest groups including: regional tourism operators, landcare and catchment management groups, cane growers, boating and charter associations, commercial and recreational fishing interests, and conservation groups. Government officers from the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, Primary Industries and Fisheries and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) are also represented on the committee.

What are some of the current issues the LMAC is concerned about?

• Coastal development effects on water quality
• Proposal to tap the Mulgrave aquifer for growing urban population
• Tilapia pest fish invasions off coastal waterways.
  

What the LMAC has accomplished?

• Held reef forums with visiting recreational fishing experts
• Support for 'Tilapia Terminators' school program
• Support for barotrauma project
• Raising awareness over imported two-stroke engine emissions
• Producing the Cairns Fishing and Boating brochure.
  

Further information about LMACs

For further information on Local Marine Advisory Committees, please contact:

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Far Northern Regional Office
PO Box 6091
CAIRNS   QLD   4870

Tel:  (07) 4057 0700
Fax: (07) 4051 9866

Email: far.northern.region@gbrmpa.gov.au