The Cairns business community first came together in 1886 with a view to forming a Chamber of Commerce. Outspoken and hard headed businessman, Richard Kingsford, became the inaugural mayor of Cairns Municipal Council in 1885. Kingsford, Grandfather of famous aviator Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, served with a small band of civic leaders on the town's progress association, which was the forerunner of the Cairns Chamber of Commerce.
Moves to form a chamber flowed from a public meeting at the Hides and McCall hotel in May 1886.
Among the urgent items on the agenda were:
The Cairns Chamber would like to sincerely thank the following Cairns Chamber members for sponsoring and supporting our centenary year which greatly assisted the Cairns Chamber in providing additional activities to highlight our historical year.
The Cairns Chamber would like to acknowledge and thank the following Cairns Chamber members for partnering with the Cairns Chamber to support the research and production for our electronic retrospective presentation and historical publication. The publication will be completed at the end of 2009 and launched at our closing event on 2 December.
The Cairns Chamber would like to acknowledge the following Cairns Chamber members for their time, effort and support with the various Cairns Chamber activities in 2009 so we could celebrate this milestone with our members throughout the year.