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

Monday July 23, 2001 24th Edition

Cairns tourism operators are celebrating this week after winning seven Queensland Tourism awards on the weekend. This is a very prestigious victory for the North Queensland based operators and it provides a resounding "thumbs up" for the future of the industry. The renovation of the historical James Cook University in Cooktown has also been completed with the popular attraction opening its doors as the two year project comes to an end.

Cairns declared a winner at the State Tourism Awards
Cairns Tourism Operators won seven Queensland Tourism Awards on the weekend. The black tie event, which was held in Brisbane, has been declared the highlight of the year for the tourism industry. The Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Queensland, Mr Daniel Gschwind congratulated all of the Tropical North Queensland entrants describing their nominations as "outstanding achievements".

Mr Gschwind stated "Tropical North Queensland has taken out almost a quarter of the tourism awards and that's something the region should be very proud of. Of the 48 operators nominated, 34 were recognised in some way on the night which speaks volumes about the great product in the region".

The Cairns based companies that won awards in the 2001 Tourism Queensland Awards included:

• Significant Regional Attraction
  Rainforestation - Kuranda
  
  
• Heritage and Cultural Tourism
  Paronella Park
  
  
• Tourism Retailing
  Peter Lik Gallery
  
  
• Tour and Transport Operator
  Quicksilver Connections
  
  
• Outstanding contribution by an individual
  Gerry Collins - Undara and Savanah Guides
  
  
• Chairman's Award for Excellence
  Lizard Island
  
  
• Best Entry
  Paronella Park

Large crowds attend Expo
Australia's Centenary of Federation has kicked off in Cairns with an expo sponsored by AMP. The expo attracted over 6500 people over the two day event, which included entertainment and attractions, all promoting the first one hundred years of Federation. There were a number of community based displays as well as a competition to win an Olympic torch. The event was held at Munro Martin Park in the heart of Cairns.

Cooktown's James Cook Museum undergoes facelift
One of the most popular Tourist attractions in Cooktown (260km north of Cairns) is the James Cook Museum, which has recently undergone a $2.3 million renovation. Queensland Senator Ian MacDonald officially reopened the museum on the weekend with festivities and celebrations all focusing around the historical visit of explorer, James Cook in 1770.

Cooktown clearly has strong links to the explorer, who was only a lieutenant when he visited the area aboard the HM Bark Endeavour. A replica of the Endeavour was used in the celebrations.

Gallery Project Manager, Tracey Avery explained the new look museum. "We've used the displays to give visitors to the gallery an enhanced sense of what actually took place while Cook and his crew repaired the HM Bard Endeavour in Cooktown in 1770. The display also features a mesmerising first person account of the first encounter between Cook and indigenous Australians in Far North Queensland as seen through the eyes of the Guugu Yimithirr Bama, written by Gamay Clan Elder, Eric Deeral.

The museum stores over 15,000 artefacts covering maritime, indigenous, mining and ethnic history for the region.

Mareeba Shire cleans up in competition
Mareeba Shire's Mayor, Mick Borzi has had a double victory this year with his beloved town of Mareeba winning the Ergon Energy Tidy Towns Competition and Kuranda, which is in the same shire, winning the "Friendly Town Award". Cr Borzi said that for the first time in his life he was speechless at the honour, which was attributed to kind and friendly nature of the people in entire shire of Mareeba.