Cairns, Queensland

Cairn is one of the regional cities in the Far end of Northern Queensland in Australia. this city is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula in one of the coastal strips that is found in coral sea, along with Great Dividing Range. Some parts of the city are located on flood plains, while the foreshore of city centre’s are located on a mad flat. In 2009, the area was affected with heavy rains and many people were evicted from their homes. This made bridges to be destroyed and many roads were cut. Earlier own, the torrential rains triggered sewerages problems across the city, (Linacre & Geerts, 1997).

The existing sustainability strategy evidence in Cairns, Queensland, is the parliamentary joint standing committee on public works. This evidence has presented a proposal to the redevelopment of naval HMAS Cairns. The proposal has highlighted marine works, refurbishment and adaptive re-use of existing buildings, construction of new buildings, “civil works, temporary facilities and minor works, services works, demolition works, and several key property acquisitions. The proposed facilities will support all Navy vessels planned to be home ported at HMAS CAIRNS and operating in Far North Queensland.” the main objective of this project  includes both refurbish as well as reinvestment in the aging infrastructure in Cairn. This will also involve addressing the new Armidale Class patrols Boat.

Marine time forecast operational tempo of around 14 home ported vessels places a continuous demand on berthing as well as shore services. In the process of alleviating [problems like congestion, there will be a reinvestment in the works of wharf age by the reuse of current Navy Wharf. this will also involve expanding northern side of jetty access, a long with refurbishing activities to the current points of berthing. there will be a construction of an access jetty that connects HMAS Cairns to the commercial Wharf that is nearby.

Some buildings in the Base will be retained, refurbished or adaptively re-used with the aim of improving as well as rationalizing efficiency. New buildings will be constructed with the aim of housing healthy facilities, new fitness center construction has been proposed on the property acquired from the Cairns port Authority. This kind of facility will be providing fitness facilities to meet physical fitness requirements. This evidence also proposes civil works which will include changes to the existing Base entry, as well as the provision of new queuing lanes in Draper Street. There is a provision of a 255-space new car park on the same.

There is also a proposal of moving the car park from the current position to the northern region of Draper Street. This will enable accessibility of the road leading to commercial wharf, which ought to be built. In addition, this will help in the process of improving security and safety for turning all the way through traffic. Nevertheless, there will be a construction of hard standing on the current cook street and road reserve, which ought to be acquired; this will act as a store for eight shipping containers, along with accommodation modules that are presently located at Kenny Street.

It has been proposed that, “Landscaping will be incorporated in the project to provide quality open space to balance against the increase in site density and site uses which are more typical of an urban development. The landscape design will also provide an outdoor and ceremonial space to replace the existing area lost due to the location of a new Central building. Landscaping on Lot 485 will establish formal planting which visually links to the HMAS CAIRNS Base as well as providing car park shading” (Australian Government Department of Defense, 2006).

Concerning controls that have been placed on tourism development in the area include the heritage impact assessment that has been undertaken to establish environmental protection along with biodiversity conservation. Though no existing structure is of any heritage value, but those having local cultural values will have special treatments for tourism in the area. For instance, Anchor and Mine sites will be retained for public display in either exact or new position. In addition, memorial Cairn that was erected in 1994 will also be retained for public view, in either current or new position. There will also be an addition of plaque indicating that it was relocated from the hill. In addition, the access and the use of commercial wharf will provide for priority use by the Defense department operations, however, it will not affect tourism operations in the area.

The mistakes that could have been made are that, they have not taken into consideration the most serious problems that affect Cairn residents. Since the area is mostly affected by  heavy rains to an extent of flooding, sustainable development strategy could have mainly dealt with ways and means of preventing floods. For instance, there would have been some strategies of controlling rivers like Mulgrave River and River Barron from flooding. There should be strategies dealing with dam construction with the aim of collecting flooding water, (Linacre & Geerts, 1997).

Another thing is that, due to size and diversity of this region, there are many attraction sites and features like wetlands, limestone and caves, along with activities like bushwalking and bird watching, the strategy could have majored on the ways of improving transport modes and means. The strategy could have majored on the construction of road, railway and airstrips, not dealing with military base improvement. This could have helped Cairn residents much more.