Creative in Cairns
CQU music technology lecturer, DJ and performer Patty Preece moved to Cairns from Northern New South Wales. Patty describes carving out a place in the Cairns arts scene and making a move to the Far North of Queensland, a place with people she describes as kooky, supportive, and open.
"I moved from Byron Bay to Cairns because I got a job offer. It was an opportunity for something new; something a bit more tropical. Having said that, there were definitely lots of 'What have we done?’ moments (after my partner and I moved) but then you just pop out to the Esplanade at night and watch all the families having barbecues, or you head down to the Tanks (Arts Centre) and you get some perspective about where you are."
"There's a lot happening in the Cairns arts scene and it can be kooky."
"When you go to one of the underground arts venues, you see how vibrant the arts community is. Once I found that community, that's when I felt like, ‘Oh, I can live here.' There is a special brand of weirdness happening up here in the arts scene. It's kooky; it's crazy. It's not really influenced by the mainstream kind of stuff."
"People really want to get amongst the arts"
"They come out to events. They support you at your launch gigs. As a music producer, I've been working on this project called the ‘Ironing maidens’ with my creative partner Melania Jack. We've done our last three years of the project here in Cairns.
"Since we' moved to Cairns we’ve got lots of great support from arts bodies to produce our work. I feel like I've had a lot more opportunity to be a part of teams doing really cool things since I moved. We've been able to produce lots of cool works like the suburban satellites program as part of Cairns Festival. We're currently producing a work that will be a part of (a display in) the National Museum.
"It's proper tropical"
"Nature is really big and really close here. I love going out into nature. I love the people. I love the multiculturalism, the markets. I love cruising on my bike on the Esplanade. I love my house and it's really affordable to live here.
"As only Cairns can do, we had a very warm welcome; it was humid, hot, a bit sweaty when we got here.
"My words of wisdom for people who are looking to move to Cairns? Ditch your winter wardrobe; you're never going to need it. It's going to get overcast and you think it's going to get cold, but it's really not.
"Being welcomed into the community here in Cairns, I've had a real sense of finding home."