Cairns vs Eacham

Cairns and Eacham are two Queensland areas with very different layouts. Cairns is far more accessible, with a walkability score of 5.6 (somewhat walkable), while Eacham is car-dependent at 1.7. In Cairns, 84.3% of homes are within a 10-minute walk of public transport, compared to 0.0% in Eacham. Cairns also has a much larger Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, with 15,728 people compared to 363 in Eacham. In Cairns, the First Nations unemployment rate is 16.4%, which is well higher than the 8.6% found in Eacham.

The gap in First Nations education is widening, as Year 12 completion in Cairns is now well higher at 49.3% compared to 42.2% in Eacham. Both areas see high rates of First Nations language use, which is well above the national figure in Cairns (21.5%) and about the same as the national figure in Eacham (12.9%).