WORLD WAR 2

The demands of naval operations during the Pacific War were responsible for the building of these 3 concrete fuel tanks, completed for the Royal Australian Navy in 1944, and carefully camouflaged under the rainforest shroud of Mount Whitfield to protect them from enemy eyes. 

The tanks held crude type furnace oil and pumped it through an underground pipeline to a fuelling jetty in Trinity Inlet. The Australian Navy used the Tanks for refuelling Australian and visiting American and British ships right up until their decommissioning in 1987. 

COMMUNITY ARTS SPACE

In a prescient move, Council purchased the land on which the Tanks stands in 1991 to address the community’s need for more arts space and associated facilities, and to house Council’s Youth Arts programs previously rolled out from the Graft’n’Arts centre.  In 1992 a Federal Government grant was received to allow initial re-development of the site to accommodate all of these requirements.

CURRENT REDEVELOPMENT

Whilst being a standalone venue, Tanks is furthermore an integral component of the Cairns Botanic Gardens, the city’s 38 hectare botanic & cultural precinct.  Given the area’s significance to the region, the entire precinct was placed on the State Heritage Register in 2006, and is currently undergoing major redevelopment works to formalise and expand the area into a highly attractive, environmental parkland and must-see destination for the best in tropical botanical and cultural experiences reflective of the region.