General News
29 January, 2026
Councils key role in growth
CAIRNS was officially founded in 1876 and named after the State Governor of the day, Sir William Wellington Cairns. It was formally declared a town in 1903 with a registered population of 3500.
The Cairns region has an interesting local government history since the first body was formed in 1879. Since then, there have been amalgamations and de-amalgamations.
The first local government of Cairns – the Cairns Divisional Board – was established in 1879. In 1885, the divisional board was split into two parts. One remained the Cairns Divisional Board while the other became the Cairns Municipal Council.
In 1923, the municipal council became the Cairns City Council.
The Cairns Divisional Board existed until 1902 when it became the Cairns Shire Council, which in 1940 became the Mulgrave Shire Council.
The Mulgrave Shire Council operated until 1995 when it was amalgamated with Cairns City Council.
Cairns City Council amalgamated with Douglas Shire Council in 2008 to become Cairns Regional Council and then de-amalgamated with Douglas in 2014.
Cairns Divisional Board
Cairns’ first local government was the Cairns Divisional Board, formed in 1880, the ancestor of the Cairns City Council and Mulgrave Shire Council.
Its basic job was to form and maintain roads, streets, bridges and culverts, difficult when each wet season washed out the last lot of works.
Over the 22 years of its existence, it also improved the town in many ways such as street lighting, saltwater baths and a ferry over the Barron River at Kamerunga.
In 1885, it built a badly-needed hall on the Esplanade.
Until demolished in 1912, the hall housed concerts, dances, town meetings, early ‘movies’, Cairns’ first skating rink and its first show.
Sanitation was a nightmare for the board, with people dumping rubbish and nightsoil in the swamps, likely to end up anywhere in wet season flooding, so a ‘dunny cart’ system started in 1884.
The board’s greatest achievement was construction of the Mulgrave tramway to Gordonvale between 1896-1897 for the benefit of sugar growing and milling south of Cairns.
By 1911 it was extended to Babinda and as it was built to government railway standard, it became part of the Brisbane-Cairns line in 1924. It was an unqualified success, benefiting the board’s finances as well as people living along the route.
Richard Ash Kingsford – Mayor 1885-1886, 1889
Richard Ash Kingsford was born in Canterbury, England in October 1821. He arrived at Sydney in 1852 and went to Brisbane in 1854.
In May 1875, he was elected for the South Brisbane seat in the Legislative Assembly. He served as an alderman on the South Brisbane Municipal Council in 1875-76 and was elected mayor of Brisbane in 1876. He moved to Cairns after losing his seat in the 1883 election.
In 1884, he was elected chairman of the Cairns Divisional Board – which later became the Cairns Municipal Council, then Cairns City Council.
When Cairns was proclaimed a municipality in 1885, Mr Kingsford was unanimously elected mayor by his fellow aldermen. He was re-elected for a further term. In 1888, he stood for the new Cairns seat in the Legislative Assembly, but was defeated.
He died in Cairns on 2 January 1902 and is buried in the McLeod Street Pioneer Cemetery. Kingsford Street in Mooroobool is named in his honour.
