Redlynch

Redlynch, a residential suburb, is 10 km north-west of central Cairns. It has a station on the railway to Kuranda, and Redlynch was the first stage (1887) in the construction of the line. Redlynch backs on to the Barron Gorge National Park. The origin of its name is uncertain, although Redlynch in Somerset and Wiltshire, England has been suggested.

Redlynch is in the Freshwater Creek Valley, a fertile flat that has grown sugar cane and other tropical horticulture. A school was opened in 1932 for the farm community, and the small township around the station had a storekeeper, a butcher, a baker and a greengrocer (1949). There were also the Redlynch Cafe and the Redlynch Hotel. During the period 1943-44 Redlynch had a military staging camp for forces stationed on the Atherton Tableland, and a spur line was built from the Redlynch station to the camp.

In 1951 the author Xavier Herbert (1901-84) and his wife, Sadie, settled in Redlynch. He wrote Soldiers Women and Poor Fellow My Country (1975) in Redlynch, and on occasions drank at the hotel with Ray Crooke, Percy Trezise and Ron Edwards, all notable artists. (Trezise, recipient of an honorary doctorate from James Cook University for his work on Aboriginal rock art, lived in a retirement village in Redlynch, and collaborated with Dick Roughsey on numerous children's books.) The Herberts' cottage in Kamerunga Road is listed on the Queensland heritage register.

The Kuranda railway line runs southwards, passing through the former Jungara railway station, and turns in a tight loop northwards. The area south of the loop was known as Jungara until the early 2000s, but later absorbed into Redlynch. It lies in the Freshwater Creek Valley, between the Lamb and Whitfield Ranges, up against the Freshwater Creek State Forest. Although precipitous, subdividers are not oblivious to its attraction.

St Andrews Catholic College in Redlynch Intake Road was opened in 2001, and a drive-in shopping centre at the corner of Larsen and Redlynch Connector Roads was opened in 2005, catering for an estimated population of 4200 people. The caravan park in Redlynch Intake Road was developed for Eden Park apartments (2004); and controversial land clearing for the Redlynch Rise estate provoked the formation of 'Save our Slopes', and a riposte from Cairns' Mayor about chardonnay conservationists. Herbert would probably have detested the changes, but neither was he on the best of terms with the cane growers.

Redlynch's census populations have been: