HK developer plans to turn Cairns into new Macau

[SYDNEY] Once a stop on the hippie trail, Cairns is now a haven for backpackers and divers. By 2019, Tony Fung predicts it will be a gambling destination to rival Macau.

The Hong Kong property developer last week won early-stage government backing for plans to build an A$8.15 billion (S$9.5 billion) casino resort on a former sugarcane farm north of the town.

With targeted first-stage completion in late 2018 and 7,500 hotel rooms around an artificial lagoon, 18-hole golf course and water park, it'll nearly triple the region's hotel accommodations and be bigger than Singapore's two integrated resorts put together.

"We are extremely confident that Cairns can be a global destination," said Justin Fung, Mr Tony Fung's son and chief executive officer of de…