Explore Cairns

Esplanade Lagoon is a public swimming lagoon on the Cairns Esplanade, the waterfront promenade of central Cairns, opened in March 2003. The shallow pool has sandy edges, timber decks and shade pergolas, is watched by lifeguards and lies among lawns and barbecue areas, with tall steel fish sculptures standing at its seaward end.

Cairns Aquarium is a public aquarium on Florence Street in central Cairns, opened in 2017. Its three levels hold 71 tanks arranged as ten ecosystems of Far North Queensland, from rainforest rivers and billabongs to mangroves and coral reefs, including a large ocean tank. The building also houses a turtle rehabilitation centre.

Cairns Botanic Gardens is a public garden at Edge Hill, about five kilometres north-west of central Cairns, laid out in a recreation reserve from 1886. It comprises the heritage-listed Flecker Garden, named after the naturalist Hugo Flecker, the Gondwanan Heritage Garden, which traces the evolution of plants, and Fitzalan Gardens, with tropical plantings and a visitor centre.

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is a 7.5-kilometre gondola cableway that runs from Smithfield, north of Cairns, over the rainforest of Barron Gorge National Park to Kuranda. Opened in 1995, it stops at two stations, Red Peak and Barron Falls, where boardwalks lead through the forest and lookouts face the gorge and the falls.