Cairns Convention Centre comes through Cyclone Jasper undamaged

The newly expanded Cairns Convention Centre has come through Cyclone Jasper undamaged as designed and constructed and has now reopened.

Tropical Cyclone Jasper weakened after crossing the coast north of Cairns on Wednesday 13th December, and is expected to reach the Gulf of Carpentaria by the weekend.

Early preparations and planning ensured the Cairns Convention Centre was ready for the cyclone ahead of time, by moving all equipment to safe locations and locking the Centre down.

Cairns Convention Centre General Manager, Janet Hamilton advised “the Centre has sustained no damage during the storm and is ready to welcome guests back through the doors.”

“The new expansion is designed for our tropical climate, including cyclones and storms, and has held up as expected.

“Our resilient team did an amazing job in preparing the Centre for the storm and now are busy getting ready for events again.”

The Centre is hosting an NBL game tonight with the Cairns Taipans taking on the New Zealand Breakers at 6.30pm local time.

Hamilton added “no future events have been impacted, and we are looking forward to getting back to business as usual and hosting events.”

There have been no reports of major damage to any facilities in the Cairns region however there are major flooding warnings still in place for the Daintree, Barron and Mossman rivers.

Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt noted “It is pleasing to hear there has been reasonably limited damage in terms of property.

“But...the really key focus is going to be on the flooding that we are going to be seeing from what is continuing, very heavy rain.”

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Assistant Commissioner Stephen Smith advised “the key message here is this threat has not passed. We’ve got a lot of water moving through the system with significant rainfall coming down.

People have been told to avoid floodwaters and stay inside as emergency services clean up.