A weekly re-cap of the events that have made news in Cairns over the past week.

Monday September 3, 2001 30th Edition

The main news of the week in Cairns is the commencement of the Centenary of Federation celebrations. This is an Australia wide event raising attention to the first 100 years of independence as an independent country.

Far North begins the Federation Celebration
The Centenary of Federation celebrates one hundred years since Australia became an independent country. The Centenary of Federation is being celebrated around the Country throughout 2001. The official celebrations began in Cairns on the 1st of September with events and festivals planned for the next two months.

The highlight of the Festival launch in Cairns is a parade with 200 performers, entertaining crowds along the Cairns Esplanade.

New gay resort for Kuranda
A $13.5 million gay resort will be built in Kuranda early next year. The resort, to be known as the Liberty Resort, will be built on the site of the former Kuranda Rainforest Resort, a property that struggled through a collective of various owners over its ten year history. The Liberty Resort is being designed to cater for the top end of the lucrative gay and lesbian market.

Population boom predicted for Cairns
The population of Cairns and the surrounding region is expected to grow to over 300,000 in the next 20years a recent study has shown. "Population Trends and Prospect for Queensland 2001 Edition" was released by local Government and Planning Minister Nita Cunningham. Based on this expected growth Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrne has called for more State Government funding to be spent in the region in preparation for this predicted population boom.

Plans to sell Council chambers grind to halt
The Cairns City Council has called a halt to investigating the selling and subsequent leasing back of the Council chambers in an attempt to provide some capital for the cash strapped Council. KPMG consultants found that there was no significant merit in the project describing it as a "Smoke and mirrors way of reducing the Councils multi-million dollar debt".

Commercial property sales start to move
As the real estate market starts to move, real estate agents have noticed an increase in the number of commercial properties being released onto the market. Because commercial property prices have been low for almost 8 years, with virtually no growth it is predicted that a lot of owners will be looking to recoup some losses by selling their properties as the market starts to move forward.

Amateurs Racing set for Friday
As the Spring Racing Carnival continues the people of Cairns are gearing up for the main event, The Amateurs, which attracts over 30,000 people to a two day racing calendar. Fashions on the fields is a high stake in the annual event, being considered the premium gala fashion date of the year. Supporting celebrations include a Gala Ball and Toobruk Pool and numerous long lunches and cocktail parties throughout the region.

Reef Casino continues to show profit
The Cairns Reef Hotel Casino continues to put its past financial problems firmly in the background as it shows it s fourth consecutive quarterly profit. The Reef Casino Trust has posted a net profit of $38.61 million for the first half of 2001. Whilst this figure incorporated included a net gain from revaluation of the companies asset value it still represents an overall jump in profits from $2.76 million to $4.15 million for the same period last year.

Cairns Marlins show some magic
The Courthouse Hotel Marlins showed their class by taking out the NQX Australian Basketball Association Northern Conference Championships. With the odds stacked against them, including the loss of the team captain, Timmy Dugan, when man of the moment Kane Oakley scored a jump shot on the buzzer for a 10199 victory against the absolute favourites, Brisbane. In a tough competition with many hurdles the Marlins now go on to contest the National title.