Ny Caims

I’VE been in Cairns for about 30 years. I came here from Brisbane. I went back for a couple of years but couldn’t bear living there. My wife was from Cairns and she always said you could take the girl out of Cairns but you couldn’t take Cairns out of the girl. Going back 30 years, you’d be crossing the street and the mayor would say “g’day”. In those days, we never had fences in the front yard and everybody would help everybody. That’s all changed a bit, but I wouldn’t move. I was told by a tour bus driver that people don’t come here to look at the nice new, pretty houses, they come here to look at the old Queenslanders and that sort of thing. I reckon Townsville’s a place God started and forgot to finish. Here it’s finished.