Gavin King chats with talkback caller, Dan from Machans Beach, about the reality of developing the cane fields north of Cairns City to address future growth. Dan explained that a housing-free basin is necessary to give the surplus of wet seasonal water space to flood and that terraforming a raised subdivision would create bigger issues unless alternate basins were constructed. The future growth of Cairns' population remains contentious with the lack of available land to develop upon and the building height limits of the CBD due to the proximity to Cairns airport.