What makes Cairns so interesting to locals and visitors?

Cairns occupies an enviable position in Australian tourism.

Turn one way and there is the Great Barrier Reef.

Turn another and there is tropical rainforest.

Head north towards Palm Cove and Port Douglas, inland towards Kuranda and the Atherton Tablelands, or offshore towards the islands and an entirely different experience begins.

That extraordinary geography explains why people visit.

It does not completely explain why people live here.

To understand Cairns, it helps to stop thinking of it merely as the place where tours begin.

Cairns is a tropical city, not a resort

That distinction matters.

Cairns has hotels and tourism businesses, but it is also a functioning regional city.

People work in healthcare, education, construction, retail, government, transport and countless businesses unrelated to somebody else's holiday.

There are schools, suburbs, shopping centres, sporting clubs and industrial areas.

This gives Cairns something resort destinations cannot easily reproduce.

Real life.

Visitors enter a city that would continue functioning if they were not there.

Tourism is enormously important, but Cairns is not a stage set built exclusively for tourists.

The Esplanade demonstrates the overlap

The Cairns Esplanade is perhaps the best place to see visitors and residents occupying the same city.

Its foreshore extends for kilometres and includes the swimming lagoon, parklands, playgrounds, exercise facilities and barbecues.

Tourists walk beside locals exercising.

Families use the playgrounds.

Backpackers gather near the lagoon.

Residents meet friends while visitors decide where to eat.

The infrastructure serves both populations.

That shared use gives central Cairns a more relaxed character than might be expected from a major tourism hub.

The absence of a conventional city beach made Cairns more inventive

Cairns does not have a surf beach running along its CBD.

The foreshore is tidal and ecologically important rather than a conventional swimming beach.

Instead of pretending otherwise, the city developed the Esplanade Lagoon and public parklands around it.

The result has become an attraction in its own right.

And residents seeking conventional beaches have an entire chain of northern beaches within reach, including Trinity Beach, Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach, Ellis Beach and Palm Cove.

The limitation therefore became part of Cairns' character rather than preventing its development.

Two World Heritage-scale environments are within reach

The Great Barrier Reef is the obvious marine attraction.

But Cairns' terrestrial environment is equally important.

Rainforest rises behind the coastal plain.

Kuranda sits in the ranges.

Waterfalls, rainforest, agricultural land and cooler elevations spread across the Atherton Tablelands.

Further north, the Wet Tropics landscape becomes increasingly dominant towards the Daintree.

For visitors, this creates extraordinary variety.

For locals, it means a weekend can involve reef, rainforest, waterfalls, tablelands or beach without crossing the country to reach them.

The climate dictates life

Tropical living is not simply southern Australian life conducted at a higher temperature.

Wet seasons matter.

Humidity matters.

Cyclones matter.

Afternoon storms matter.

Gardens grow differently.

Buildings respond differently.

Outdoor activity develops around conditions.

Visitors may experience the tropical climate as novelty.

Residents learn its rhythms.

That adaptation becomes part of local identity.

Cairns is also a meeting place

Far North Queensland contains numerous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and cultures, while Cairns has become the major service and commercial centre for a vast surrounding region.

The Cairns Regional Council recognises numerous Traditional Custodian groups across the region, including the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji and Yirrganydji peoples associated with the Cairns area.

The modern city also draws residents from throughout Australia and overseas.

Tourism adds another continually changing international population.

The result is a city geographically distant from Australia's major capitals but unusually connected with the outside world.

Visitors see the gateway; locals see the centre

Tourism advertising understandably presents Cairns as the gateway to the reef and rainforest.

Residents experience the geography in reverse.

Cairns is the centre.

The reef, beaches, ranges, tablelands and rainforest radiate outward from home.

That is a subtle but important distinction.

A visitor asks, "Where can Cairns take me tomorrow?"

A resident can ask exactly the same question on a free weekend.

Few Australian cities can provide as many interesting answers.

The Cairns Times View

Cairns is interesting because the city and its surroundings continually compete for attention.

The reef says go east.

The beaches say go north.

Kuranda says climb into the ranges.

The Tablelands say head inland.

The Esplanade says there is no need to leave town at all.

Visitors inevitably run out of days before they run out of possibilities.

Residents have the better arrangement.

They can keep exploring.

That may be Cairns' greatest attraction: living in a regional city where some of Australia's most extraordinary environments are not distant holiday destinations.

They are directions from home.