Something In The Water: How Cairns Became A Music Mecca

Cairns is typically known for its heat, humidity, ancient rainforests and proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, with its international airport making the city a thriving hub for tourists and backpackers visiting Australia.

But the region’s natural attractions aren’t all it has to offer: The Tropical North is fast becoming a top destination for cultural tourists drawn to its unique music venues, diverse creative talent, and one-of-a-kind festivals like Summer Sounds and Mareeba’s Savannah In The Round.

This month, Summer Sounds brings that scene to the fore, with acts like Ocean Alley, Vera Blue and RocKwiz Live drawing music fans from across the country to the Far North to find an undiscovered hub of creativity.

Tullara Connors, who was one-half of folk duo Siskin River, opened for Ocean Alley at the state-of-the-art Cairns Performing Arts Centre (CPAC) last weekend.

Having only moved to the city from Grafton at the start of last year, Connors’ schedule is full – which was certainly not the case when she decided to move.

“I was living in Grafton with my mum, so through lockdown and everything, and obviously I couldn’t play any music around the area, really – I did maybe one or two gigs when restrictions started to ease at the end of 2020,” she said.

“One of my best friends, Tessa Devine, had moved up here at the start of 2020 – whenever we went into lockdown - she got in her van and busted up to Cairns, and she was already playing gigs from like September, which was a little unheard of in New South Wales.”

When Devine initially suggested Connors move to Cairns, she was a little apprehensive.

“Initially I was like, ‘Oh, it’s so far away,’ because I’m so used to being in northern New South Wales and touring a lot between Brisbane and Melbourne and such – I’d toured to Cairns, but I’d generally fly up to Cairns,” she said.

“But Tessa was like, ‘There’s gigs every weekend and there’s not really any restrictions,’ so I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to do it!’”

Connors has proven networking in Cairns is easy, even for newcomers. She has been performing solo gigs at a host of local venues, including Elixir Bar and Bar 36 at the Reef Casino, and joined a band whilst starting another.

“Cairns is that good mix where it’s small enough that it’s not city-like, but it still has everything you need and everything you want like a city has, and the people in it are awesome,” she said.

“There seems to be a good vibe around everyone being keen to meet everyone – you still get that sort of genuine, almost small country town vibe where everyone is still keen to know everyone, as opposed to the bigger cities where you can sometimes miss out on that a little bit, I find.”

It’s that small-town vibe that made fellow musician Greta Stanley move back to Cairns from Melbourne. 

Growing up in Mena Creek near Innisfail, Stanley was unsure what to do beyond a TAFE course in music when she first moved to Cairns aged 18. 

Having moved to Melbourne at 21 to pursue her career in music even further, it was only a year and a half before she moved back.

“[Melbourne] was so good, there was so much happening, but I knew like one or two people when I moved and it was really hard to crack in,” she said.

“I was doing a lot of shows and playing a lot of gigs but I was struggling with the cold and I got really depressed when I was living there… I started managing this little organic café which was really cool, but I was just so busy that I wasn’t really paying attention to music and I was like, why am I here if I’m not even doing what I came here to do, and I’m miserable?”

Stanley has thrived since moving back to FNQ, collaborating with an extensive network of local creatives. 

Her forthcoming album, Real Love In Real Life, was recorded locally with Cairns-based producer Tristan Barton and on the Tablelands with former member of The Middle East, Mark Myers.

She has also been working with photographer/videographers Bridie Jane Egan and Saskia Hilton, whom she met at one of her day jobs.

“One of my jobs is in retail at Tree of Life, which is where I met Saskia, who was a photographer, predominantly – she did all of the pink neon-y photos on my music page – and did some wedding videography but she hadn’t done a film clip for an artist before,” she said.

“There was another girl at Tree of Life as well who was a makeup artist, so we all kind of came together to create the video for Red Earth Dirt.”

Stanley continues to prove living in a regional centre like Cairns won’t affect a musicians’ career goals.

Whilst touring has been off the cards for much of the past two years due to COVID - Stanley has still managed a tour with Eves Karydas and a spot at Yours & Owls festival – there haven’t been any limitations when it comes to collaborations.

Stanley recently featured on Just A Gent’s track Sleeptalking, as well as Riley Pearce’s Bottle It Up. 

“I was really fortunate with collaborations: Riley Pearce actually approached me, we’ve been friends on social media and I love his work so I was just really flattered that he reached out and wanted to have me on one of his songs,” she said.

“I think in the same month, I had the electronic artist Just A Gent reach out; we’d worked on something like seven years prior and it never got released, then he picked it up again and said, ‘Hey, we should really put this out,’ so I just went in with Tristan to record the vocals and we just sent it all over.”

Stanley – who initially taught herself how to play the guitar via YouTube - is used to taking inspiration from her surroundings, which began when she was still living in Mena Creek.

“I remember really getting into playing guitar and writing after Cyclone Larry – we lost power in Mena Creek for like three or four months,” she said.

“So we only had a generator to run the essentials, and we were flooded for a really long time, so we had so much time on our hands – I remember getting pretty into it then and kicked off from there.”

Roz Pappalardo knows just how much artists can be influenced by their environments. Another Mena Creek local, she spent time in Brisbane with the successful Women In Docs before moving to Cairns a decade ago.

“Up here we’ve got quite a unique environment where you have the freedom of untouched beaches and beautiful rainforests and crazy beautiful waterfalls and First Nations rock art that no one’s ever seen,” she said.

“We have this real sort of flair in our environment and in our lifestyle which I think in a lot of ways comes through in our artistry, because artists live in the environment and we are impacted every day by how we live, where we live, and how we see where we live.”

Pappalardo cited Stanley as the epitome of art influenced by life.

“You’ve got these young artists like Greta Stanley, who has been kicking around for 10 years now, who’s from a small town no one’s ever heard of – all of that stuff comes through in her songwriting,” she said.

“Her latest track Red Earth Dirt is all about growing up in a little town and how that influences who you are and who you love.”

An accomplished musician and actor in her own right, Pappalardo (whose band Lontano will release their debut album next week) has been working in events and programming in venues like CPAC, Munro Martin Parklands and the iconic Tanks Arts Centre for the past few years, and is passionate about helping to build the local music community.

She regularly sees touring artists “blown away” by the state-of-the-art facilities and professional crew working their shows in Cairns, as well as loving the surrounding tourist hot spots - but it’s the diversity in local talent that really excites her.

“I think we’ve got a really cool diversity of music and musicians, both established and emerging, in this region,” she said.

“I also think we’ve got a really great depth of Indigenous and First Nations talent that is developing and been established in this region; I think we’re able to look towards our Torres Strait neighbours and our Cape York neighbours for the musical influences there, as well as our Pacific Island neighbours – I feel like our connectivity to Darwin and the top end, Arnhem Land, kind of does influence us musically and artistically in Far North Queensland.”

Pappalardo said whilst there “may not be five or seven nights a week of music and venues and artists pumping” there was still a strong network from artists performing covers at small pubs to feed their families through to original acts and touring acts performing for 3,000 locals at Munro Martin Parklands.

“It seems that we’ve got a really strong appetite for the arts in this region, and it can only get better, you know, you only keep developing that by testing the market and offering diverse and cool content and presenting it in the most fantastic way possible,” she said.

“I think it’s good because it’s either the end of the road or the beginning of the road for a lot of tours, and we have a bit of infrastructure to support big bands… People might come here for a show but they’re able to experience the beautiful environment we live in as well.

“Events like Summer Sounds gives the rest of the nation a look at how incredible and how diverse this region is, in the fact that we can host John Butler, Bernard Fanning, Ocean Alley, Tones & I, Vera Blue and Rockwiz Live to capacity audiences and show off the region at the same time - show off what makes us so unique and so beautiful.”