Mulgrave Shire Council Chambers is a heritage-listed former town hall at 51 The Esplanade, Cairns City, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Charles Dalton Lynch & Walter Hunt and built from 1912 to 1913 by Wilson & Baillie. It is also known as Cairns Shire Offices. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 1999.
History
The former Mulgrave Shire Council Chambers, constructed in 1912–1913, is a single-storeyed masonry structure located fronting the Esplanade to the northeast. The structure was erected during a period of considerable building activity in Cairns, which occurred in the years immediately preceding the First World War.
Cairns was established officially in October 1876 as a port to service the newly discovered Hodgkinson goldfields. In this first phase of Cairns' development there was a small flurry of building activity (mostly shanties and tent houses), but the town competed with both Cooktown and Port Douglas for the Hodgkinson trade, and made little progress until the establishment of a local sugar industry and the opening up of the Atherton Tablelands' mineral fields, in the early 1880s. The 1885 announcement that Cairns was to be the terminus for the Herberton railway established the town as the principal port in the region. These events boosted the local economy in the 1880s and generated a second building and development phase, during which the early temporary structures were replaced by more substantial timber buildings. A number of masonry and reinforced concrete public and commercial buildings were erected in Cairns in the years immediately preceding the First World War. Some of these buildings replaced earlier timber structures which were by that time in a poor condition. The third major phase of Cairns' development occurred between the First and Second World Wars, at which time the city's status as the principal port of Far North Queensland was consolidated and the city centre virtually re-built.
The Cairns Divisional Board was established in 1879 by the Divisional Boards Act of that year, which brought local government to the whole of the colony, and the divisions were mostly based on existing census districts. The Divisional board had its precursors in the forms of the Road Board, which was established to advise on the allocation of government funds for roads in the region, and the Cairns Progress Association. The first meetings were held in Port Douglas, but were not suitable for Cairns residents to attend. The divisional boundaries were redrawn a number of times, and a new Cairns Divisional Board met in Cairns in mid 1880. As Cairns developed in the early 1880s, dissatisfaction grew with the Cairns Divisional Board which was perceived to be more interested in the affairs of the country areas than of the town. Separation of the town from the division was achieved in 1885 when the Cairns Municipal Council was established to administer the town area.
The Cairns Divisional Board continued to operate out of its offices, which was constructed on a reserve gazetted for Divisional Board Offices, in the government precinct between Spence and Shields Streets, even though it was strictly outside of its municipal boundaries. The Cairns Divisional Board became the Cairns Shire Council c.1905 and then renamed the Mulgrave Shire Council in 1940.
The Cairns Municipal Council became the Cairns Town Council in March 1903, which in turn became the Cairns City Council in October 1923. The former Cairns City Council and the Mulgrave Shire Council were amalgamated in March 1995, becoming the current Cairns City Council.
The former Mulgrave Shire Council Chambers, originally named the Cairns Shire Offices, was constructed in 1912–1913, replacing an earlier timber structure. The building was designed by the North Queensland architectural partnership of Charles Lynch and Walter Hunt, a practice which had offices in Cairns and Townsville, as well as other regional centres, from 1911 to 1921. The building was one of the partnership's earliest commissions.