Official sources for Cairns homeowners
Useful links for outdoor blinds and awnings in Cairns.
The official and reference pages we point Cairns homeowners to before a blind or awning goes up, through the wet season, and if something goes wrong after the job is finished.
How to use this page
A reading list for Far North patios.
This page is for homeowners in Cairns and the Northern Beaches who are planning outdoor blinds, an awning or a patio enclosure, or who already have them and want to know where the official information lives. Each link goes to the organisation's own page, with a short note on what you will find there and when it is worth opening. Bookmark it before 1 November, when the Queensland cyclone season officially starts, so the warning pages are close at hand when you need them.
Cyclone watch
When a cyclone is tracking towards the Far North coast.
- Bureau of Meteorology tropical cyclone page: the Bureau's national page for tropical cyclone warnings and bulletins. Open it as soon as a tropical low forms off the Queensland coast and keep checking it until the warning is cancelled, so blinds and awnings are up and secured well before the wind arrives.
- Get Ready Queensland: when a cyclone is on the way: Queensland Government advice for each stage of an approaching cyclone. It tells you to secure outdoor furniture, shade sails and anything else that could become airborne, to fasten cyclone screens if you have them, and explains the watch and warning areas on the Bureau's forecast track map.
- Get Ready Queensland: storm, flood and cyclone warnings: links the Bureau's severe weather warnings, its 7-day cyclone forecast map and current emergency alerts from one page, along with a way to find your local council disaster dashboard. A good single bookmark for the wet season.
- Cairns Disaster Dashboard: Cairns Regional Council's disaster dashboard, with contact details for the council's Disaster Management Unit and an opt-in notification sign up. Get Ready Queensland points residents to their council dashboard as a trusted local source during severe weather.
Before the wet
Understanding cyclone risk on a Cairns block.
- Get Ready Queensland: know your risk of cyclone and storm surge: explains what cyclones, storm surge and storm tide are, and names the coastal communities from Bundaberg to Thursday Island as the most susceptible. It also gives the official season dates and warns that cyclones can form outside them.
- Get Ready Queensland: strengthen your home: covers resilient building design, meaning physical changes to a home that reduce damage from severe weather, and how that differs from routine maintenance. Worth reading if you are weighing fixed screens or shutters against retractable blinds as part of a renovation.
- Tropical cyclone (Wikipedia): a general account of how tropical cyclones form, what they are called in different oceans and why they bring strong wind and heavy rain together. Useful background if you want to understand the warnings as well as follow them.
- Cyclone Jasper (Wikipedia): the article on Severe Tropical Cyclone Jasper, recorded as the wettest tropical cyclone in Australian history. It describes the preparations in Cairns, including evacuation centres, sandbagged businesses and cancelled flights at Cairns Airport, and shows how much of the damage in the Far North can come from rain.
Sun and rain
Shade, UV and rainfall on a Cairns patio.
- Climate statistics for Cairns Aero (Bureau of Meteorology): long-term monthly averages for the Cairns Airport weather station, including mean maximum and minimum temperatures and mean rainfall for each month. Use it to see which months are hottest and wettest when you are timing an install or choosing between shade mesh and clear PVC.
- ARPANSA ultraviolet radiation index: charts from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency's network of UV detectors, updated every minute, showing the current UV index at its measurement sites and when it will peak. Check it at the times of day you use the patio.
- Cancer Council Australia: sun safety: Cancer Council's starting point for reducing skin cancer risk, with its steps for sun protection, an explanation of the UV index and guidance on vitamin D. Read it alongside the UV charts when deciding how much shade an outdoor living area needs.
- Ultraviolet index (Wikipedia): explains the UV index as an international standard measure of the strength of sunburn-producing UV radiation at a particular place and time. Helpful if the daily UV forecast numbers mean little to you.
Before you sign
Checking an installer and a quote in Queensland.
- QBCC: when you need a licence: the Queensland Building and Construction Commission's explanation of who must hold a QBCC licence, which depends on the type and value of the work. Read it before you accept a quote for a patio enclosure or a large multi-drop blind job so you know whether a licensee should be doing it.
- QBCC lists and registers: the way into the QBCC licensee register, the suspended and cancelled licence lists and the excluded individuals register. Search the contractor yourself here before you sign a contract.
- QBCC: finding a contractor and getting quotes: part of the QBCC home owner hub. It covers how to find a licensed contractor, how to spot unlicensed operators and how to compare quotes fairly, including costs that are easy to miss.
After the install
If a blind, awning or installation lets you down.
- Queensland Office of Fair Trading: guarantees, warranties and refunds: explains the consumer guarantees that apply to goods and services bought in Queensland, the remedies when a business does not meet them, and how a consumer guarantee differs from a manufacturer's warranty. Read it before you raise a faulty motor, fabric or track with the business that supplied it.
- Queensland Office of Fair Trading: make a consumer complaint: how to take a problem to the business first, prepare a complaint and take it to the Office of Fair Trading if it is not resolved. It also covers complaints about unsafe products.
- QBCC: defective work dispute: for building work you believe is defective, this page explains what counts as defective work, how the QBCC may help resolve a dispute and how to lodge a complaint. It applies to building work, so check the licence page above if you are unsure whether your job counts.
Background reading
Blinds, awnings and the city they go on.
- Awning (Wikipedia): describes an awning as a projection attached to a building that gives shade and weather protection, and covers the frames and coverings they are usually made from, such as acrylic canvas, vinyl laminated polyester and aluminium.
- Window blind (Wikipedia): an overview of the main types of blind, the materials they are made from and the control systems that move them, with a section on safety. Handy for learning the terms a quote is likely to use.
- Cairns (Wikipedia): the article on Cairns, the city on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland, covering its history, geography, heritage listings and transport.
Two questions we hear before cyclone season.
When is cyclone season in Cairns?
Get Ready Queensland gives the official cyclone season as 1 November to 30 April, and notes that cyclones can occur at other times of the year. Coastal communities from Bundaberg to Thursday Island, which takes in Cairns and the Northern Beaches, are the most susceptible.
What should I do with outdoor blinds when a cyclone is forecast?
Get Ready Queensland advises that once a cyclone is forecast towards your area you secure loose items such as outdoor furniture and shade sails, fasten cyclone screens if you have them, and board up exposed windows and doors. Retractable blinds are designed to be rolled up when a cyclone warning is issued, which our cyclone-rated blinds guide explains in more detail.
Planning blinds or an awning before the wet?
Free on-site measure and a written quote. We will go through wind exposure, fixings and which product suits each side of your patio.