Parramatta Park, an inner residential suburb of Cairns, is immediately west of the City centre.
Ten years after Cairns was founded a Sydney land auctioneer, John Macnamara, promoted the sale of several estates, mostly prefixed by names from Sydney or other colonial capitals. Parramatta Estate was sold in 1886 and subdivided into broad-acre allotments.
A considerable amount was low-lying or watercourses. Lily Creek carries stormwater through Cairns North and a canal drains in the opposite direction, passing beside the Parramatta Park reserve. The swampy conditions slowed Parramatta Park's early growth. The Cairns show society moved its annual event to Parramatta Park in the early 1900s, and the venue became the gathering place for the annual May Day trades and labour procession that wended its way from Wharf Street on Trinity Inlet, around the city centre into Mulgrave Road, ending at the park.
East of the park a complete block was taken for St Joseph's Primary School (1927) and the Marist Brothers St Augustine's College for years 8-12 day students and boarders (1930). Parramatta State primary school (1927) was opened just north of the park. Elsewhere Queenslander and bungalow-type houses were built.
By the late 1980s Parramatta Park was considered a backwater, but the trend to inner-city living brought on a spate of development, exemplified by a 400-unit apartment complex (2005) in Mulgrave Road opposite the showground. House prices jumped by 40% in 2003-04, despite an un-dredged Lily Creek causing a bit of a stink, a year after dengue fever was detected in the area. The Cairns heritage study nominated Parramatta Park as a site of significance. The 2011 census recorded 8.6% of the population as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, compared with 8% in 2006 and 10.3% in 2001.
The census populations of Parramatta Park have been:
census date | population |
---|---|
2006 | 2905 |
2011 | 3226 |