Inclusions:

As mentioned in the itinerary

Exclusions:

• International Air Tickets
•  Internal Air Tickets
• Weekend stay surcharge in hotel if applicable
•  Tips to Drivers and Guide
•  Portage charge
• Camera Charges wherever applicable
• Any Option excursions other than mentioned in inclusions
•  Meals other than mentioned in inclusions
•  Travel Insurance
• Use of Hotel Services Minibar
• Laundry etc.

Hotel Details:

Note: Hotel component in above tour pricing is dynamic and subject to change at the time of confirmation.

Costing:

Total Cost per Adult AUD1230

History:

The history of Australia is the history of the area and people of the Commonwealth of Australia with its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians arrived on the Australian mainland by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving such traditions in human history.

The first known landing in Australia by Europeans was by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606. Later that year, Spanish explorer Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through, and navigated, Torres Strait islands.[1] Twenty-nine other Dutch navigators explored the western and southern coasts in the 17th century, and dubbed the continent New Holland. Macassan trepangers visited Australia's northern coasts after 1720, possibly earlier. Other European explorers followed until, in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia for Great Britain and returned with accounts favouring colonisation at Botany Bay (now in Sydney), New South Wales.

A First Fleet of British ships arrived at Botany Bay in January 1788[2] to establish a penal colony, the first colony on the Australian mainland. In the century that followed, the British established other colonies on the continent, and European explorers ventured into its interior. Indigenous Australians were greatly weakened and their numbers diminished by introduced diseases and conflict with the colonists during this period.

Gold rushes and agricultural industries brought prosperity. Autonomous parliamentary democracies began to be established throughout the six British colonies from the mid-19th century. The colonies voted by referendum to unite in a federation in 1901, and modern Australia came into being. Australia fought on the side of Britain in the two world wars and became a long-standing ally of the United States when threatened by Imperial Japan during World War II. Trade with Asia increased and a post-war immigration programme received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent. Supported by immigration of people from more than 200 countries since the end of World War II, the population increased to more than 23 million by 2014, and sustains the world's 12th largest national economy.

The history of the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia began in prehistoric times with archaeological evidence revealing occupation of the district by Australian Aborigines for at least 23,000 years. The first early European colonizers began arriving in the late 1700s, settlement soon followed throughout the 19th century, and by 1959 the town was proclaimed a city. Today, the Gold Coast is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia.

Cairns was named for Sir William Wellington Cairns, and officially founded in 1876, following the discovery of gold in the surrounding area. However, Captain James Cook had 'discovered' the area more than a century earlier, on his first voyage of discovery in 1770 aboard HM Bark Endeavour. Captain Cook needed all his seamanship skills to navigate the treacherous channels between the Great Barrier Reef and the mainland. Despite his skill, the tiny 30m Endeavour ran aground on the coral reefs and, limping to land, put in at a river that was named for her, the Endeavour, which became the site of present-day Cooktown. The dispirited crew named other features according to their mood: Cape Tribulation, Hope Island and Weary Bay.

While Aboriginal inhabitants had lived well in the rainforest and from the sea, immigrants found the land harsh and ungiving. The dangerous reefs, dense vegetation, debilitating climate and advent of disease took their toll. For these reasons and more, it was not until gold fever lured hundreds of thousands of fortune hunters after the discovery of gold at Palmer River in 1872 that the region became developed. Initial access was via the Barron River, Trinity Bay provided a port, and the relatively clear, flat land to the north and south of the proposed site allowed for easier development. However, Cairns remained for a long period a mangrove swamp uninhabitable by all but the toughest pioneers.

Cairns was far from secure as a future city until the railway was built, being the starting- and finishing-point for the rail track to the south and up to the Atherton Tableland. The engineering feat required to build the railway up the steep inclines to the tableland was enormous. The railway allowed for the opening up of the rich agricultural lands over the ranges and provided a livelihood for the pioneers after the decline of gold. While fruit and dairying predominated in the high country, sugar cane became and remains the main crop of the coastal flats. The all-important railway served the growing towns with access to markets and supplies.

The city remained a low-key place until after World War II, when visitors for pleasure started arrving. Tourism was cemented as the town's major industry in 1984 with the opening of the international airport, and the subsquent listing of World Heritage areas. Cairns Museum, on the corner of Lake and Shields Streets, is worth a visit to learn more.