Community engagement is at the centre of every step we take as we develop the Growth Strategy. Over the life of the project, we aim to have conversations that capture the interest and imagination of everyone in Cairns.

We have completed Phases 1, 2 and 3 of the project. You can explore how we've engaged with the community - and what we've heard - during each phase in the sections below.

Now that we've finished analysing community input from Phase 3, we'll work on developing the draft Growth Strategy. Phase 4 of the engagement process in early-mid 2025 will provide more opportunities for community members to participate and provide feedback on the draft Growth Strategy.

Our Phase 3 engagement captured over 33,000 connections and interactions with community members across Cairns, through a blend of in-person and online activities. These activities were planned to achieve three key objectives:

• Continuing to raise awareness about projected population growth in Cairns, and the need to plan for this population growth.
• Communicating the outcomes of Phase 2 of the engagement process, including how feedback from community members and stakeholders has informed the growth directions.
• Gathering input to help shape the outcomes of the project, including the preferred options for growth in Cairns.

Phase 3 Engagement activities

September to December 2023

We invited community feedback on the Growth Strategy Framework (PDF) to inform the Directions Paper. Activities included pop-up events at local markets and events, online polls and a stakeholder panel workshop.

November to December 2023

We sought feedback via the Scenic Preference Survey. This helped us understand community preferences for scenic places around the Cairns region. We also held a webinar with our Community Panel members.

July to August 2024

We engaged with the community to hear their views on the Directions Paper (PDF). We held engagement activities at the Cairns Show, local markets and shopping centres, and also ran a public online survey from 19 July to 25 August 2024.

A Youth Summit was held on 16 August and a Community Summit on 17 August 2024. The Youth Summit gave local youth a voice in the big issues affecting their futures – including the environment, housing choice, density, neighbourhoods, employment, amenities and infrastructure.

Participants at both Summits explored what’s driving population increase and urban change, and worked together to consider how we can best plan for this future growth, in order to leave a positive legacy for generations to come.

Next steps

Council will now use the information heard from Directions Paper survey and both Summits to draft the Towards 2050 Growth Strategy. We anticipate releasing the draft Growth Strategy for community feedback in early to mid 2025.

You can download the Phase 3 Engagement Report (PDF) to learn more.

In January 2023, Council launched Phase 2 of the community and stakeholder engagement process of Towards 2050: Shaping Cairns. Phase 2 of the engagement process concluded on 31 August 2023.

The Phase 2 engagement approach was underpinned by 3 key principles:

• Raising awareness about projected population growth in Cairns and the need to plan for population growth through the Towards 2050: Shaping Cairns project.
• Communicating the outcomes of Phase 1 of the engagement process, including confirming the definition of ‘Cairns‐ness’ and what people said their hopes are for 2050 as developed from feedback received during Phase 1 of the project.
• Gather input to help shape the outcomes of the project.

In Phase 2, the main engagement initiatives were:

• the two days Towards Summits (Youth Summit on 5 May 2023 and Community Summit on 6 May 2023.
• the establishment of the 350 members Towards 2050 Community Panel (Mini-Public) in June 2023.

During Phase 2 of the engagement process the project team captured over 156,626 engagement connections and interactions. This included engagement activities designed to gather feedback and engagement activities that raised awareness about the project.

You can download the Phase 2 Engagement Report and Towards 2050 Summits Summary Report to read more details.

Our engagement during Phase 1 included a blend of in-person and online engagement activities that informed and captured input from community members and stakeholders. These activities allowed Council to capture responses from the community that related to their neighbourhoods as well as Cairns more broadly.

The Towards 2050 Team completed the following engagement activities from January to July 2023