Freshwater is a suburb of Cairns, Queensland in Australia. The suburb once belonged to the Shire of Mulgrave but was amalgamated into the City of Cairns. At the 2006 census, Freshwater had a population of 1,976.
History
The European history of Freshwater is a long one dating back to 1877. Chinese market gardeners moved into the area, after exhausting their chances on the Hodgkinson Goldfields, leased small plots from the landowners, successfully growing rice, bananas, pineapples and other tropical crops. Freshwater Post Office opened by April 1925 (a receiving office, earlier named Stratford, had been open from 1897).
A rice mill was established on the Lower Freshwater Creek and was being successfully operated by local man, Joseph Kipling in 1891. Chinese farmers grew rice in the adjacent fields.
Transport
The Kuranda Scenic Railway has a stop in the suburb.