Tag Archives: beaches

Queensland dredging

Tourist info board at Cairns

Tourist info board at Cairns

I’ve transcribed the text of the tourism information board below for mobile device users:

Three years later in 1922 a visiting writer recorded on his arrival at the Strand Hotel that,

The white beach invited our attention first and we strolled along it. It stretched like a band of pearl and saffron along the blue water’s rim, dotted with palm trees, giant fig trees, and flame trees just bursting into flower .

However, 14 years later in 1936 – after the dredge had been operating for 23 years – the editor of the Bendigo Advertiser observed at the foreshore at Cairns, “at low tide…the receding water leaves a rather unsightly mudflat…”

And Cairns’ “band of pearl and saffron” today looks like this:

cairns beach mudflats

Cairns’ “band of pearl and saffron”