Re-elected Division 10 councillor, Julia Leu, said her first priority with elections behind her is the de-amalgamation of Douglas Shire.

Cr Leu reiterated her willingness to work with the new Cairns Regional Council, but made it clear the relationship with Douglas is not likely to improve.

"I will make it a priority to develop a good relationship with new Mayor, Bob Manning and the other Councillors," she said.

"At the same time I will be expecting the State Government to stick to their promise to establish a boundary commissioner within 100 days to commence the process to allow the Douglas community a referendum on de-amalgamation. 

"Saturday’s election results have made it clearer than ever that amalgamation is never likely to work in Douglas."

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She said voters from Palm Cove and Cairns' other northern beaches would also support the move to deamalgamate Douglas.

"The Division 10 election results demonstrate that the northern beaches obviously wanted their own representative, not someone from Douglas - regardless of how hard a Douglas based person might work or what they may promise.

"Imagine it the other way round, how Douglas would feel if the Division 10 representative came from the Northern Beaches of Cairns, something that could easily happen if multiple candidates divided the vote in Douglas. The fact is Douglas is too far away and too different to ever be a happy suburb of Cairns.

"Re-establishing Douglas is not hard. Most of the staff are still employed. The buildings and most other assets are still here.

Cr Leu said the process and requirements for de-amalgamation was set out by the LNP prior to the election in writing and at a public meeting in Mossman.

Leu responds to LNP requirements

Communities wishing to re-establish their councils will need to demonstrate they are financially viable.

We were financially sound, a fact the former minister, Andrew Fraser, said at the time of amalgamation. We were on track to be debt free by 2010.

Communities must be prepared to pay the cost themselves.

The analysis done by previous Douglas Shire General Manager Corporate & Community Services, David Carey estimated this cost at $3m.

Mr Carey’s assessment assumes a worst case scenario with none of this money returning to Douglas. At the time of amalgamation Douglas had $24m in cash and cash equivalents, in the bank - if that were returned in whole or in part we could re-establish the council and still have $15- $20M in the bank.

As well Douglas had around $20m worth of land assets, mostly in prime positions, which are still here and belong to Douglas.

A referendum of the previous Douglas area would need to be held to show unequivocally the people still want a return of their old shire

It is up to the people to say if they still want de-amalgamation.

In order to make an informed decision, people will need to be confident with the financial modelling commissioned by Friends of Douglas Shire (FODS). I therefore recommending that the financial model produced by FODS is referred to the Queensland Treasury Corporation and to an independent analyst for assessment.