Hides Hotel Cairns

The three-story building on the corner of Lake and Shields Streets features a distinctive curved facade and a row of white iron lacework balconies. Thomas Hides opened the hotel in eighteen eighty-five to serve the booming gold mining and timber industries. When the original structure burned down, he rebuilt it in nineteen twenty-seven using reinforced concrete to survive the tropical heat and fire hazards. The bar inside still retains its long, dark timber counter where miners and railway workers once traded rumors of local strikes.