Senator Jan McLucas tells us why Cairns is her favourite place to be...

Like every Northerner, I absolutely love our extraordinary environment. But it's the resilience, diversity, creativity and humour of our people I love so much.

We are a strong mob.

We have to be.

Cyclones, floods, the pilot strike of '89, September 11, Ansett and now Qantas withdrawing flights.

We come through them all and we will again.

We work well together, playing our strengths.

We've had good local leaders, from the cheerful action man in Tom Pyne to our consultative and visionary Val Schier.

And importantly we have had strong community leadership in tourism, in health and education, particularly at our University.

Our rich history has given us a diverse and fascinating population.

The ancient culture of our Indigenous people thrives today and contributes to our understanding of our place.

The waves of migration have added to our diversity.

The early settlers were a great mix of adventurers, romantics, builders, farmers and miners.

Our Chinese heritage is almost as old as our own.

I love the fact that Ken Wong's accent is more "Aussie" than mine.

The European migrants introduced our palates to new food and today we still celebrate their heritage (Thanks Piccolo).

And the strong South Pacific and South East Asian migration continues with more good food, song and dance.

And I like to think we will continue to welcome others seeking a new home in the Far North as it is not just the benefits of food, dance and language that we enjoy.

We all think differently about problems and solutions, and an understanding of other cultures gives us a greater ability to deal with the issues of the day.

When I was a girl, the hippies came.

They wore strange clothes, sang strange songs and, to be frank, smelled different!

But I am glad they came.

Because with them came the ability to appreciate different arts and culture.

And don't we do it well!

Of course we love the traditional - our Choral Society is the best - and we've got the trophies to prove it.

So too is the Rondo and our schools.

We have built a market for the arts through our Regional Galley, through Jute and KickArts, and our artists live up to it.

Music, drama, visual arts, jewellery and photography - we're good. Really good.

Why do I love it here?

It's easy - our people.

But can I say, I do get a great deal of pleasure at this time of the year answering questions about the weather from my southern colleagues - "27 degrees, light south easterly at 5 knots, 20m visibility on the reef......".

Bliss!

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