Frommer's Australia from $50 a Day 13th Edition - To Parent Directory

CAIRNS 265
Tips Money-Saving Tip
Dive-course prices drop if you travel to the Reef each day for your practical
sessions, instead of living aboard the company’s boat. Of course, then
you have to pay for your meals and accommodations on land, so tally up
the cost for both before you commit to either.
If time is short, a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)
referral course might suit you. You can do your pool and theory work at
home and spend 2 or 3 days on the Reef doing your qualifying dives.
Deep Sea Divers Den (& 07/4046 7333; www.divers-den.com) claims to
have certified about 55,000 divers since 1974. The 5-day open-water course
involves 2 days of theory in the pool in Cairns, and 3 days and 2 nights on a
live-aboard boat. The course costs A$550 (US$356) per person, including all
meals on the boat, nine dives (including a guided night dive), all gear and a wet
suit, and transfers from your city hotel. The same course over 4 nights, with 1
night on the boat and 4 dives, costs A$440 (US$286). New courses begin every
day of the week.
Other dive-course operators in Cairns include Quicksilver Dive (& 07/4099
5050; www.quicksilverdive.com.au), Pro Dive (& 07/4031 5255; fax 07/4051
9955), Down Under Dive (see above), TAKA Dive (see above), and Tusa Dive
(& 07/4040 6464). Great Adventures (& 07/4044 9944 or 1800/079 080;
www.greatadventures.com.au) runs courses on Green Island off Cairns. In
Townsville, Diving Dreams (see above) runs courses for all levels of diver. In the
Whitsundays, contact Reef Dive (& 07/4946 6508; www.reefdive.com.au),
and in Bundaberg, contact Salty’s Dive Centre (& 07/4151 6422; www.
saltys.net).
2 Cairns
346km (207 miles) N of Townsville; 1,807km (1,084 miles) N of Brisbane
The Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest, both World Heritage
attractions, are just a short hop from each other, offering glimpses of two completely
different environments. In parts of the far north, the rainforest touches
the reef. Cairns is the gateway to these natural attractions, and to man-made
attractions such as the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway. It’s also a stepping-stone to
islands of the Great Barrier Reef and the grasslands of the Gulf Savannah.
When international tourism to the Great Barrier Reef boomed a decade or
two ago, Cairns boomed with it. What was once a small farming town boasts
five-star hotels, island resorts, big Reef-cruise catamarans in the harbor, and too
many souvenir shops.
The 110-million-year-old rainforest, the Daintree, where plants that are fossils
elsewhere in the world exist in living color, is just a couple of hours north of
Cairns. The Daintree is part of the Wet Tropics, a World Heritage–listed area
that stretches from north of Townsville to south of Cooktown, beyond Cairns,
and houses half of Australia’s animal and plant species.
If you are spending more than a day or two in the area, consider basing yourself
on the city’s pretty northern beaches, in Kuranda, or in Port Douglas (see
“Port Douglas, Daintree & the Cape Tribulation Area” later in this chapter).
Although prices will be higher in the peak season, which is the Australian winter