Cairns in context: Street-network sprawl trends

Cairns in context

3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
3456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
CairnsQueensland (Region)Australia (Country)

The chart above shows SNDi trends for new street additions (left panel) and the entire network (right panel), with Cairns plotted against Queensland and Australia. The SNDi of new construction in Cairns peaked in 1976-1990, compared to Queensland which peaked in 1991-2005 and Australia which peaked in 1991-2005. Most recently, Cairns's incremental SNDi fell from 5.38 to 2.64 between 1991-2005 and 2006-2020. In terms of the aggregate network, Cairns ranked 4th out of 13 cities in Queensland and 16th out of 35 in Australia as of 2020.

New Street Additions (2006–2020)

SNDi value
2.64
Rank in Australia
7th of 35
Rank in Queensland
2nd of 13

Entire Network (Aggregate)

SNDi value
3.49
Rank in Australia
16th of 35
Rank in Queensland
4th of 13

Rankings go from most connected to most disconnected — rank 1 is the most connected.

What about similarly populated cities?

23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of street additions
23456<19751976–19901991–20052006–2020SNDi of entire street network
CairnsBambariBarharwa

In new street additions, Cairns and Barharwa both built increasingly disconnected streets from 1975 through 1976-1990, then improved, while Bambari built increasingly disconnected streets over time. Looking at the full network, Bambari and Barharwa both became progressively more disconnected, while Cairns grew more disconnected from 1975 through 1991-2005, then improved. Cairns and Barharwa have been converging in their street-network character since 1975.