JANUARY 1
The city nurses a collective headache after New Year’s Eve celebrations and takes a look at the eight big changes expected to make a difference in 2018. Crystalbrook Collection’s hotels opening, $55 million in upgrades at the Cairns Airport, Trinity Inlet dredging, the Smithfield bypass and hopes of Nova City taking shape all get a nod. The expected arrival of the Global Tourism Hub, KUR-World’s grand plans and the 2019 federal election also make the list. The body of missing fisherman Rowan Kahn is found in Chinaman Creek following flooding associated with Cyclone Penny.
JANUARY 2
Plans to build an elaborate 300-room resort, 1700 apartments and a retirement village at Half Moon Bay in Trinity Park are revealed.
The Gasparin Group unveils the immense project but warns progress on the Global Tourism Hub will determine whether or not it goes ahead.
JANUARY 3
A mother and daughter are tragically killed in an electrocution on the Atherton Tableland. Juanita Bendel, 39, and Ava Cole, 10, die after they touch a wire believed to be connected between a nearby electric fence and a semi-trailer on their property at Tumoulin, southwest of Cairns.
JANUARY 4
New figures reveal police are banning more than 10 problem drunks each week on average from stepping foot in the city’s chief party district.
Cairns Safe Night Precinct president Paul Garnham says most of the previous year’s 533 orders were issued to itinerants, not outof-control patrons.
JANUARY 5-6
Cairns Airport is ranked as the most punctual airport in Australia and New Zealand, with more than 83 per cent of flights categorised as on time. The facility also makes the top 10 punctuality list for small airports anywhere in the world — a field taken out by the Belarusian capital Minsk.
JANUARY 7
Police investigate reports of a trigger-happy gunman on Cape York after bullet holes were found in a sign. Aurukun resident and experienced tracker Aelon Walamby finds spent casings near the roadside. “This happened near our town, it’s craziness,” he says.
JANUARY 8
Paramedics are forced to crawl on board a plane to remove the body of a dead passenger after the flight is diverted to Cairns International Airport.
Air New Zealand flight ANZ80, bound for Hong Kong, has to land in Cairns after a man suffers a medical emergency and dies mid-flight.
JANUARY 9
The city’s hottest new hotel is surely living up to its reputation – offering views inside and out of its iconic glass tower. Residents are reporting being able to see naked hotel guests at Crystalbrook Collections’ 12 storey tower at Riley on The Esplanade, sparking a probe into darker tinting.
JANUARY 10
Doubts are cast on whether a new multimillion-dollar surgical ward set to open at Cairns Hospital this year will be sufficiently staffed by nurses.
Cairns Regional Councillors also lash out at the State Government for failing to properly mow roadsides.
JANUARY 11
James Cook University and CQUniversity campuses in Cairns are outperforming some of the big names in Brisbane.
The 2018 Graduate Outcomes Survey shows they had the highest percentage of graduates securing full-time work and some of the highestearners in the country.
JANUARY 12-13
Cairns gets ready for a year of massive sporting events, kicking off tonight with the women’s Big Bash league clash between the Brisbane Heat and Sydney Thunder. That is just a taster of what is to come, with Ironman, the UCI Mountain Bike Championships and plenty more on the way.
JANUARY 14
A new $2.24 million push to improve the quality of exported mangoes is set to boost the amount of tropical fruit sent to China by 200 per cent within five years.
Calypso mango orchards in Mareeba and Dimbulah are among those selected as research locations for the sweet project.
JANUARY 15
Metro Mining, which runs the Bauxite Hills Mine at Skardon River, launches a recruitment drive for electricians, plumbers, supervisors, operators, maintainers and engineers. But there’s a catch — applications are only open for skilled workers based in the Cairns region or willing to relocate to the region.
JANUARY 16
Legal action is launched against the CFMMEU over a Cairns union organiser who allegedly repeatedly yelled “you’re a f***ing dog, Duckworth” in the face of a workplace health and safety officer.
The abuse allegedly occurred at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre construction site.
JANUARY 17
Yarrabah leaders urge youths to “post positive” and have community pride as an outburst of Far North Queensland street fighting videos hits social media. Disturbing clips uploaded to YouTube show a large scrap in broad daylight with police officers struggling to break up a seething crowd.
JANUARY 18
The city looks back at one of the most horrific murders in recent memory — the stabbing killing of Leanne Mayhew in 2010. In a separate story, a veterinary surgeon flags Cairns as the worst city he has experienced when it comes to dog-on-dog attacks following the killing of a chihuahua.
JANUARY 19-20
A bold vision of Cairns Hospital becoming a tertiary institution will be brought to life with Prime Minister Scott Morrison guaranteeing $60 million funding.
The PM is expected to visit Cairns to back the plan to support James Cook University’s Cairns Tropical Enterprise Centre.
JANUARY 21
A community action group claims responsibility for bombarding the Queensland Government with 19,000 submissions about a controversial ecoresort proposed near Kuranda.
KUR-World’s developer says that amount of interest — even negative — is “extremely encouraging”.
JANUARY 22
Prime Minister Scott Morrison travels to Cooktown where he will unveil $5.75 million in projects to be left as memories of the 2020 Cooktown Festival. A total of $6.7 million will be spent on a voyage of a replica of the HMB Endeavour which will circumnavigate the country.
JANUARY 23
Paradise Palms is swinging toward a new era beyond its golfing roots.
A new school, retirement village and tourist park are being proposed as part of a multimillion-dollar masterplan.
Owner Darren Halpin is preparing to lodge a development application for the project.
JANUARY 24
The families of two men killed in a single-vehicle crash tell a Cairns court of their heartache and question whether the driver had learned his lesson behind the wheel. James Henry Hannan, 23, is given a suspended jail term over the crash which killed Mungalli Sheriff and Abel Friend.
JANUARY 25
Centrelink and Medicare callers will have less hold time on the phone under a Labor plan to boost call centre staff in Cairns. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten arrives in Cairns to commit $7.2 million to create 100 permanent fulltime Department of Human Resources jobs in the city.
JANUARY 26-27
Two drivers are lucky to be alive after being rescued from their submerged vehicles by passers-by at Kamerunga.
Phillip Wright was “minutes from death” when he was rescued.
A search for a third vehicle also washed away at Freshwater Creek is called off.
JANUARY 28
Rain, landslides and road closures make life difficult across the Far North — especially for residents in the Daintree, which is copping its worst floods in almost 120 years.
The Daintree River has reached a record high of 12.6m, breaking the 1901 record flood height of 12.4m.
JANUARY 29
The owner of the Tropical Fruit Train market south of Innisfail is stunned he has to wait up to six months to have electricity connected to his new venture.
He says he has been told by Ergon Energy it will take 23 weeks for power to be installed, including a pole and a transformer.
JANUARY 30
The families of Kirsty Cini, 24, and Zack Jenkins, 15, look back on the tragedy that took their children’s lives a year earlier.
The pair had been celebrating at an Australia Day party on a Julatten property when they drowned in a muddy dam after taking rides down a 40m makeshift water slide.
JANUARY 31
Cairns man Russell John Halfpapp is making a miracle recovery after falling victim to a brutal coward punch outside The Woolshed nightclub.
He calls for tougher laws on the insidious form of assault, and thanks a group of passing medical students who came to his aid and potentially saved his life.