Australian Cultural and Creative Activity: A Population and Hotspot Analysis: Cairns

Situated between the UNESCO-listed World Heritage Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef, Cairns is the second of Australia’s three largest northern cities—smaller than its closest neighbour Townsville and larger than Darwin. Cairns and Townsville are highly contrastive small city economies. Townsville is a garrison city, the major hub for government services in North Queensland, a railhead and logistics centre for Western mining areas, while both feature the presence of the James Cook and Central Queensland Universities. In arts and culture, Townsville boasts more established SME arts companies (for example, Dance North), and tends to outsource arts and cultural activity (for example, through subsidising independent companies) while Cairns Regional Council tends to invest directly.