The Cairns Aquarium lodged its Development Approval Application with Cairns Regional Council on Friday, paving the way for legislative Local Government approval for the project to proceed.

The submission to Council by Town Planners Brazier Motti on behalf of the project Directors marks an important milestone in the projects planning timeline, though visitors will have to wait until July 2016 to enjoy the attraction.

“The whole team of Architects, Engineers and specialist consultants have undertaken a truly remarkable coordinated effort to translate our vision of a World Class Aquarium for Cairns into all the necessary tangible documents required for the DA submission,” said Director Daniel Leipnik.

“After two years of full time work and so many dedicated teams of people involved, it is a wonderful feeling to be able to bring all that effort into a set of plans that will become an incredible new attraction in the Cairns CBD and showcase the truly awesome animals and habitats of this region to Cairns Aquarium visitors.” 

Located at 163 Abbott Street Cairns on the corners of Abbott, Florence and Lake Street, The Cairns Aquarium building has been designed as a contemporary, iconic, museum-like, flagship tourism attraction to provide the Cairns CBD with a captivating and memorable stand out building.

“Almost every capital city in Australia boasts a public Aquarium as do most large cities in the World.  Cairns, which is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest will finally have an Aquarium of its own which we can all be very proud of.”

Among the building's features:

• Over 11.5 metres in height, 90 metres in length and 40 metres in width. 
• Over 5000 animals, fish, plants, and other organisms will be housed in a two level Wet Tropics narrative journey that will take visitors through all the habitats of the Wet Tropics including: The Great Barrier Reef, Rainforest, Rivers and Streams, and Mangroves.
• Visitors will be able to get up close with many of the regions rare, unusual, oddly coloured and in some cases even deadly creatures.
• A bold building shape that's a completely new look for Cairns. The exterior walls are made up of a series of giant “tectonic” plates, symbolising the movement of the earth’s crust over time causing the development of giant land masses and ocean structures in the region that led to the creation of the Far North’s tree covered mountains and the Great Barrier Reef.  
• Along the length of the building, glass panels allow light to penetrate in and provide glimpses of the living breathing ecosystem within.
• Visitors will be greeted by an 18 metre x 11.5 metre blue glass titled atrium entrance angled onto the street symbolic of a coral sea ocean view.

Some of the planned attractions will include a two million litre “Oceanarium” exhibit, which will be home to Australia’s only school of scalloped hammerhead sharks that can be seen through a thirty metre 270-degree underwater viewing tunnel and a 360-degree five metre deep viewing room.

A 500,000 litre “River Monsters” exhibit will house the Gulf Savannah’s highly endangered freshwater Sawfish and this will form part of a dedicated research program to breed and re-populate this species. Seven metre Scrub pythons, giant blue earthworms, and box jellyfish are just a few of the bizarre and captivating creatures the Cairns Aquarium plans to exhibit.

In addition to over seventy living exhibits, the Cairns Aquarium’s research arm will also conduct vital research & development in species preservation and re-population, aquaculture reproductive bio-technology development, and collaborations with industry partners to explore renewable clean energy technologies in marine, tropical and equatorial environments. 

Federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch is a strong supporter of The Cairns Aquarium, describing it as a “brilliant” concept.

“This is something that our city has needed for a long time.  The team behind this have put a huge amount of thought and effort into the project to date and I have no doubt at all that when it’s completed it will be absolutely world-class, not only as a new tourism experience but as a vital educational facility.”

A website www.cairnsaquarium.com.au has been set up to detail many of the elements of the project and Animal and fish enthusiasts can get an early feel for all the experiences on offer as the project develops.

Once approved, the design and engineering team will spend a further six to eight months developing detailed plans to be submitted to Council for building approval in late 2014. The main building contractor will be appointed early 2015 to commence construction, and is well on its way for a target open to the public in July 2016.

Do you think the Douglas region needs an aquarium for tourism and education purposes? Have your say below.