Urban Development 照片檔

An aerial view of Smithfield, in Far North Queensland, Australia an outer suburb of Cairns located 15 kilometres north of the city centre. It was first established in 1876, and was a rival for dominance of the area to Cairns at that time. However, after a devastating flooding of the Barron River on which the settlement was situated during a cyclone, the original site was abandoned. To the west of Smithfield is the Kuranda National Park which is part of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area. Smithfield now is the business and trade centre of the Cairns 'Northern Beaches', which includes Trinity Beach, Kewarra, Palm Cove and Clifton Beach. Housing developments are encroaching on original coastal marshlands and mangrove swamps, an environmental issue for expanding urban development projects.