Suburbs to avoid in Cairns
No suburb is bad for everybody, and a list that says otherwise is an opinion with a number attached. What does exist is a short set of hazards the states measure and publish, suburb by suburb. This page ranks Cairns suburbs on those, highest first: recorded crime, bushfire history, flood overlays and aircraft noise. Only suburbs with at least 1,000 residents are ranked.
Cairns City carries the most measured hazard in the ranking, leading on recorded crime. Cairns North and Bungalow follow. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 31 eligible Cairns suburbs.
Read each number for what it is. Recorded crime is offences per resident, so a suburb with a shopping centre, a nightlife strip or a railway interchange carries crimes committed against businesses and visitors — the busiest retail suburb is usually near the top and is not a dangerous place to live. Bushfire history records where fire has burned, and is highest in the leafy suburbs at the bush edge that people move to on purpose. A flood overlay is a planning control, not a prediction. Aircraft noise comes from airport contours and changes street by street. All of it is a suburb average, and nobody lives in a suburb average: check the address before ruling anywhere in or out.
Cairns suburbs with the highest measured hazards
Ranked on recorded crime (weighted heaviest), bushfire history, flood overlays and aircraft noise, each measured against other suburbs in the same pool. A suburb with no crime record is excluded, and a hazard the state does not publish is left out of the score rather than counted as zero.
Cairns City
QLD 4870 · 3,616 residents71/100 hazard score · Cairns's highest recorded crime
Cairns North
QLD 4870 · 5,334 residents70/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 97% of Cairns
Bungalow
QLD 4870 · 2,358 residents68/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 93% of Cairns
Manunda
QLD 4870 · 5,191 residents65/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 88% of Cairns
Earlville
QLD 4870 · 4,200 residents65/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 88% of Cairns
Smithfield
QLD 4878 · 6,664 residents62/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 63% of Cairns · bushfire history
Manoora
QLD 4870 · 6,175 residents61/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 80% of Cairns
Westcourt
QLD 4870 · 3,841 residents61/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 80% of Cairns
Parramatta Park
QLD 4870 · 3,621 residents61/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 80% of Cairns
Whitfield
QLD 4870 · 4,262 residents61/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 48% of Cairns · bushfire history
Woree
QLD 4868 · 5,127 residents58/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 73% of Cairns
Palm Cove
QLD 4879 · 2,450 residents58/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 43% of Cairns · bushfire history
Edmonton
QLD 4869 · 11,409 residents56/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 70% of Cairns
Stratford
QLD 4870 · 1,198 residents56/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 37% of Cairns · bushfire history
Edge Hill
QLD 4870 · 4,088 residents55/100 hazard score · more recorded crime than 40% of Cairns · bushfire history
Ranked from 31 qualifying suburbs.
50% recorded crime · 25% recorded bushfire history · 25% aircraft noise. Each hazard is a percentile within Cairns's candidate pool — the highest reading scores highest on that leg — then blended, crime-led. A hazard the state does not publish at suburb level is left out and the other weights scaled up, rather than counted as zero. Crime is recorded offences per resident from state police data, never compared across state lines; bushfire and flood come from mapped overlays and noise from airport ANEF contours. Suburbs with no crime record, or no measured hazard at all, are excluded. Socio-economic measures are deliberately not part of the score. See how we calculate for the full methodology.
Common questions about this ranking
Which Cairns suburbs should I avoid?
None of them for everybody. A suburb near the top of this list carries more of one or more measured hazards than its neighbours, which matters more to some buyers than others — a family by a bushland reserve accepts bushfire risk that a retiree may not. Use the list to decide which addresses to look at more closely, never to rule a whole suburb out.
How is this ranking scored?
Each Cairns suburb is scored on 50% recorded crime, 25% recorded bushfire history, and 25% aircraft noise. Every hazard is turned into a percentile within Cairns, so a score reads as how the suburb compares with the rest of the city, then blended with crime weighted heaviest. Flood overlays is left out because the state does not publish it at suburb level, rather than being counted as zero.
Why is a busy shopping or nightlife suburb near the top?
Recorded crime is offences per resident. Offences committed against shops, venues and visitors are divided by the few people who live nearby, so commercial centres score high without being dangerous places to live. It measures reported offences, not your personal risk, and is only ever compared within the same state.
Why is SEIFA or income not part of the score?
Because they describe the people who live somewhere, not a hazard you would face there. Adding them would turn this into a ranking of lower-income suburbs under the word "avoid". Income and socio-economic data are on every suburb page.
Why are some suburbs missing from the list?
A suburb only appears if it has a crime record, at least 1,000 residents and at least one measured hazard. A suburb without a crime record is excluded rather than scored, and in states where suburb-level crime data is not published the ranking is not produced.
Same list in other cities
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Related
Rankings last computed 12 October 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.
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