Thanks to the technical wizardry of the computer boffins at Google and some very clever university researchers, you can now see the march of progress in Cairns in a brilliant new way.

The Timelapse feature was developed by combing over 5 million satellite images acquired over the past three decades by five different satellites.

In the Timelapse of Cairns above, you can spot the arrival of Marlin Marina and the Pier shopping complex, the expansion of suburbs like Redlynch and Kanimbla, and the rapid growth in the Northern Beaches.

Scroll around, change the speed, zoom in and out and marvel at the changes in our city through the decades.