The development of the tourism cultural landscape of the Cairns Region, 1890-1970

TL;DRAbstract

The tourism cultural landscape of the Cairns region was ephemeral and mostly insubstantial until 1970 because the tourism industry was built on ideas, fantasies, myths and natural attractions. From the outset tourism in the region has been based on natural attractions such as rainforest, waterfalls, caves and the Great Barrier Reef. These have remained basically the same throughout the period 1890 to 1970 but individual attractions emerged and declined according to popular taste. They were reinvented according to changes in social and cultural preferences such as the Romantic, the picturesque, the scientific, the exotic and ecological 'ways of seeing.' Large engineering works such as the Kuranda railway and later the Tinaroo Dam were touted as tourist attractions in themselves, but proved to be secondary to the region's natural values. The changes in imagery in response to popular taste lead one to question where the 'authentic' tourist experience really lies. The infrastructure of the

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