Cairns Golf Club

Few golf experiences in Australia put you quite so immediately in the tropics. Cairns sits at the edge of 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites — the Wet Tropics rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef — and the golf club reflects that extraordinary natural setting, with lush vegetation, warm humidity, and a landscape that feels genuinely wild at the margins.

The Cairns Golf Club is one of the city's longer-established clubs, offering a members' course that serves a community more accustomed to diving and reef tours than traditional golf heartlands. That said, the club maintains a genuine local golfing culture, and visiting golfers are welcomed into a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere typical of Far North Queensland hospitality.

Playing here means contending with conditions unlike most of Australia: the wet season brings heavy rainfall and thick air, while the dry season delivers near-perfect mornings before the heat builds. Wildlife is part of the round — expect birds, and possibly more — and the surrounding greenery gives the course a density and colour that courses further south simply can't replicate.