The late Queen Elizabeth II visited Far North Queensland three times during her tenure, with crowds welcoming her with open arms on every occasion.
The first time a reigning Monarch had ever set foot in Cairns was Queen Elizabeth II.
It was a Saturday in 1954 and throughout the night and early morning, a large crowd had grown.
Hundreds slept on the Esplanade and cars were bumper to bumper, forming traffic congestion the city had never before seen.
It was estimated that a crowd of 40,000 turned out to see the Monarch over her two-hour visit.
70 people had to be treated at first aid stations along the Royal procession route after collapsing.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh had travelled to Cairns on the destroyer HMAS Anzac and then jumped into a royal car which had been specially flown up.
“First news of the Queen's approach came from a group of spectators on the Esplanade who had been staring out to sea,” a newspaper report said at the time.
"A cry went up of ‘there she is. That's her.’ Her Majesty came down the gangway and history was made.
It was possible to follow the Royal progress along Abbott Street by the cheering.”
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Cairns Mayor Bill Fulton was among those to greet the Royal couple and later his daughter, seven year-old Cheryl ‘daintily mounted the steps to the Royal stand and with charming confidence presented the Queen with a spray of flowers.
She then curtsied to the Duke and earned the applause of spectators.’
At the Showgrounds, the Queen presented awards to local leaders, before being entertained by a Torres Strait Island dance and maypole dancing by children of Cairns and District schools.
19 chiefs from Papua New Guinea, all dressed in tribal finery, also came to Cairns to see the Queen.
They lined the route to the wharf and were able to exchange a few words with her as she departed.
Far North Queensland wouldn’t see the Queen again until 1970, when she visited Cooktown and unveiled a memorial stone on the site where the Endeavour landed.
Again, crowds lined the foreshore of the Endeavour River, including local Aboriginal people alongside leaders dressed in colonial costume.
In 2002, she returned to Cairns for another brief visit, riding the Skyrail down from Kuranda before attending a fire lighting ceremony and meeting performers at Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.
In a symbol of just how long she was Monarch and the societal and political changes that occurred during her reign, the centre has most recently become a venue where native title decisions are announced and celebrated.
This story originally appeared in Tropic magazine Issue 38, in partnership with the Cairns Historical Society.
