Cairns Port Authority is a Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 Government statutory Corporation

Statutory Corporation

A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...

 responsible for the operation of the Cairns Seaport. The Authority is also responsible for the Cairns Marlin Marina and the Cityport project. The Seaport and Cityport comprise the authority’s business units.

Cairns Seaport

The Cairns Seaport is located on Trinity Inlet

Trinity Inlet

The Trinity Inlet is an estuary which serves as the port for the city of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The city centre is on the western bank where the inlet meets the sea.In prehistoric times, the Trinity Inlet was the river mouth of the Mulgrave River...

. It handles cargo and passenger vessels. Passenger vessels berth at Trinity Wharf at the northern end of the port. The port is an important contributor to the city’s tourism economy. 202 international and domestic cruise ship

Cruise ship

A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...

s visited in 2004/05 financial year making it the nation’s busiest cruise ship destination.

The southern end of the port, the main cargo area, handles 1.16 million tonnes of cargo yearly. Bulk cargoes include sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 and molasses

Molasses

Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...

 (exports) and fertiliser, petroleum

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 and LPG

Liquified petroleum gas

Liquefied petroleum gas is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles. It is increasingly used as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce damage to the ozone layer...

 (imports). The port plays an important role in providing supplies to coastal communities on the Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

, Torres Strait

Torres Strait

The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...

 and the Gulf of Carpentaria

Gulf of Carpentaria

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...

.

Cairns Marlin Marina

The Cairns Marlin Marina is located at the entrance to Trinity Inlet

Trinity Inlet

The Trinity Inlet is an estuary which serves as the port for the city of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The city centre is on the western bank where the inlet meets the sea.In prehistoric times, the Trinity Inlet was the river mouth of the Mulgrave River...

 near 'The Pier' Shopping Centre. It contains 214 berths and can accommodate vessels up to 70 metres in length. Many private yacht

Yacht

A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...

s and catamaran

Catamaran

A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...

s are based at the marina

Marina

A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....

, as well as a significant number of commercial tourism operators who provide tours to the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

.

Cityport

Cityport is an urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

development occurring at the southern end of the Cairns CBD adjacent to the seaport and centred around Trinity Wharf.