We all agree that it’s a great state, mate

PAPUA New Guinea born schoolteacher Dianne AustraiOmbiga has lived from coast to coast but Queensland is where she calls home.

The former president of the Cairns Wantok Association migrated to Australia with her husband in the 1990s, living in Sydney and Perth before settling in Cairns in December 2006.

She reflected on her new life in the north as the state celebrates its 161st birthday on Queensland Day.

“Cairns is only a 90-minute flight from home,” Ms Austrai

Ombiga said. “It is tropical, just like home; it is a home away from home.

“You can get everything you can get in PNG – food, weather, Wantoks.”

“I very much feel like a Cairns resident – it is very multicultural, that is what I really love about Cairns.”

Queensland Day marks the state’s official separation from New South Wales as an independent colony on June 6, 1859.

Ian Schofield, 77, remembers settling in Cairns in 1944.

“I am a bit of a bushy, my first feel of the north was when my father took me to Hartley’s Creek,” Mr Schofield said.

“I spend three and a half years with crocs, pigs and wild horses. That will always stick with me.

“I tell people from Victoria and NSW if they can put up with the humidity for a couple of months, then they have found a great place. That is how I see Queensland.”

State Member for Cairns Michael Healy said the day was a reminder of what the state had achieved in its 161 years.

“It is about people getting their own representation,” Mr Healy said.

“Are we looking after one another? When I see what is going on in the world, there is great inequality out there, there are vast numbers of people around the world protesting inequality.

“We must make sure everyone gets a fair go, some people can’t get that and we have to do everything we can do to do that.

“We should think about what our forefathers and mothers wanted; how are we doing, are we there?”