History

The first meeting of German people interested to form a club to cater for the needs of German speaking migrants who wanted to communicate with other German speaking migrants in Cairns was held on the 27.06.1971. Nine people attended. It was resolved to form a club and name it Cairns Germania Club. An application fee of $5.00 was to be paid and yearly membership was set at $10.00.

The same nine people met again a week later and formed the Cairns Germania Club, elected their committee and formulated the Club's constitution.

The names of our founding fore bearers

Gitta Douw
Ferdinand Douw
Alois Hoffman
Evi Knobloch
Ferdinand Knobloch
Johanna Liebnau
Gerhard Liebnau (the only foundation member still active)
Ursula Schaefer
Wolfgang Schaefer

Many new members joined the club and soon a folk dancing group was formed by Alois Ettinger, who many years later became one of the Presidents.

A lot of people worked very hard and gave up their time on a voluntary basis to make the Club the way it is today. Ten years after the formation of this first German Club in Cairns the need for own Club premises made the members through their committee and some individuals within the Club buy an old unused church hall in Winkworth Street Cairns. The purchase price was $21,000.00.
A $5000.00 deposit secured the deal which was lent to the Club by one of it's members and of course paid back over a period of time.

A lot of work had to be done to transform a church building to our Club house. It took more than 20 years of ongoing restorations and maintenance to finally have one of the finest Club houses in Australia.
At the beginning of 1990 the name Cairns German Club was officially changed to German-Austrian-Swiss Association Inc trading as German Club Cairns. The change came because many Austrian and Swiss people joined the club.
To move with the modern times, the old fashioned name ‘Germania Club’ is now officially changed to GERMAN CLUB CAIRNS.