Saving the Cairns Yacht Club

by Roger Dickson, Cairns.com.au/Sail-World on 6 Aug 2008 Reports from the Cairns Post say that the historic Cairns Yacht Club building could be moved up the street to Trinity Wharf and escape demolition under the latest mooted plan.

Options to move the building into the nearby wharf heritage precinct will be explored, Cairns Ports and People Against the Demolition of the Yacht Club agreed at a meeting yesterday.

Cairns Ports chief executive Neil Quinn confirmed alternatives to the building's impending demolition were being explored.

'We are actively looking at options to move the building in some form,' he said.

'We have sought the expression of a compromise solution.

'All we need to do is get architects to apply themselves and see what is feasible.'

The building was to be knocked down within months on the order of landowner Cairns Ports.

Its pending destruction inspired defenders to come together and 5000 signatures were gathered in a bid to save the 90-year-old building.

PADYC leader Wendy Richardson said discussions on moving the building were a big win, even though they fell short of the group's dream of keeping the building at its Wharf St site.

'There are still quite a few points of difference, but today was a significant shift in that both parties are now prepared to try to work together, to work out a way that history can be preserved,' she said.

'We are going to have further talks with the port authority and the Cairns Yacht Club about ways the building may be able to be incorporated into the heritage wharf area.

'However, this will not solve the major objection many Cairns residents have with a six storey building in place of the yacht club.'

Mr Quinn said the Cairns Yacht Club, which will soon move to Marlin Marina, might prefer the old building to be moved to the club's site at Ellis Beach.

Yacht Club commodore David Kelly welcomed the idea but said it would cost $400,000 the club did not have to cut the building into three parts.

He did not object to moving it in a single piece to the Trinity Wharf precinct but it is not known who would pay for such a move.