Tolin's 2024 World Cruise blog posts, Day 45 Feb 23, 2024, Cairns, AU, Jungle Train, Wildlife, and Skyrail
 
Cairns  is a city in  Queensland , Australia, on the tropical north east coast of  Far North Queensland . The population as of the 2021 census was 169,312, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the  5th-most-populous  in Queensland, and  15th in Australia . The city was founded in 1876 and named after  Sir William Wellington Cairns , following the discovery of gold in the  Hodgkinson river . Throughout the late 19th century, Cairns prospered from the settlement of Chinese immigrants who helped develop the region's agriculture. Cairns also served as a port for  blackbirding ships , which crews transported  slaves and indentured laborers  to the sugar plantations of  Innisfail . During World War II, the city became a staging ground for the  Allied Forces  in the  Battle of the Coral Sea . By the late 20th century the city had become a center of  i...
