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Cairns is situated on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a coastal tract between the Great Dividing Range and the Coral Sea. This land was inhabited by the Aboriginal peoples for about a thousand of years before the advent of the white settlers in this region. It was, the first European who reached North Queensland on his first Voyage of Discovery in June 1770 on his ship the HM Bark Endeavour. There is a constant debate about this discovery. It is said that the Dutch Explorers arrived at the western side of Cape York about almost one hundred and seventy years before. Captain Cook’s journey through the Great Barrier Reef was not barrier-free. His HM Bark Endeavour was stranded on a coral reef and the crew managed to hitch to the shore and found a river where the ship was beached. Later this river later came to be known as the Endeavour River and the town that developed on its banks came to be known as Cook town. Interestingly other geographic features were named as Hope Island, Cape Tribulation and Weary Bay, reflecting the mood of the Captain Cook and his crew. After hundred years, white settlement took place and the discovery of gold by James Mulligan and the early explorers led to the development of the northern areas of Cairns. Cairns, named after Queensland's first Irish born Governor, Sir William Wellington Cairns, was officially constituted on1876. Gradually the tent city started developing and the first railway line was established which serviced the Atherton Tableland. Finally the awareness of the Great Barrier Reef created a boom in the tourism industry and in 1984 the setting up of the international airport helped in the conversion of the inert town of Cairns to a flourishing and vibrant city of today.
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