Sanctum Yungaburra Makes the Front Page
On Friday 21 August 2026, The Cairns Post led its front page with Sanctum Yungaburra — the $70m plus wellness resort development (with an estimated construction cost of over $40m) now before Tablelands Regional Council for the former Nick's Restaurant site at the southern entrance to the village. The story ran across page one and a full page seven, covering the resort's 100 suites and apartments, its wellness facilities, and an independent assessment putting its contribution at $52.1m a year to the Tablelands economy.
Reported by Molly Frew and Tom Volling.
Front Page
The Cairns Post ran the story under the headline "$70m+ luxe spa plan", featuring the $70m plus development—which carries an estimated construction cost of over $40m—with the resort's renders taking most of page one and a 100-room retreat flagged above the masthead fold.
The paper described a wellness oasis on the site of the former Nick's Restaurant at the southern end of Yungaburra, anchored by a high-end restaurant and a dedicated spa. For a Tablelands development application to lead the front page ahead of the day's other news says a great deal about the level of interest this project has generated across Far North Queensland.
The Full Story — "Tablelands site has luxe appeal"
Page seven set out the detail of the application now before Tablelands Regional Council for the 1.39ha Gillies Range Road site: 100 short-term accommodation units made up of 50 hotel suites and 50 apartments, alongside a restaurant, cafe and bar, alfresco dining, and a wellness retail outlet in the lobby.
The wellness offering — ice baths, hot rooms, infra-red and cosmeceutical treatments — would be the first full-service luxury wellness retreat on the Atherton Tablelands. Architect Gary Hunt told the paper the resort would be operated by a major international hotel brand whose marketing reach "is going to help put Yungaburra on the map".
An economic and social impact assessment by Lucid Economics projects $37.8m in economic output and 91 full-time jobs across the 18-month construction period, rising to $52.1m a year and 154 ongoing direct and indirect jobs once the resort is operating, along with more than 20,000 additional visitor nights for the region each year.
The article also put community questions on traffic and the nearby platypus habitat directly to us. The engineering design delivers less stormwater run-off from the site than occurs today, and new channelised access points will make entering and leaving safer than the current arrangement.
"Tablelands site has luxe appeal" by Molly Frew and Tom Volling. The Cairns Post, Friday 21 August 2026, pages 1 and 7. Renders supplied by Develop RE.
Read the full article at cairnspost.com.au →