Hi there, I spent 6 weeks there in 2009 when I was doing an elective placement at the hospital - which must have one of the most stunning settings of any hospital anywhere! We are moving to Adelaide in August this year, but we did discuss Cairns as an option.
My impressions of it are this: it is in stunning surroundings. I love the rainforest-surroundings, and the northern beaches are beautiful. The city itself is big enough to have everything you need, and the esplanade and marina area have lots of great cafes, restaurants and bars. The lagoon is a great place to hang out. There are volleyball courts on the esplanade where it's easy to join in with local players. We were there in July/August, and the weather was excellent. There were a few rainy days, and a few more overcast days, but on the whole it was incredible considering it was winter. The botanical gardens are beautiful too, and you can head from there up into the hills surrounding the city. People were very friendly too.
Reasons that we decided not to move there are: it's an extra flight to get there for visitors, on the whole. The city is very much geared towards tourists - probably like enclaves of Sydney or Brisbane. However, there are suburbs where you can escape this. Having non-deadly animals in the sea was a big one for us too; as well as the irukandji and box jellyfish, there are the salties (crocodiles). For some reason I find them a bit more threatening than sharks as they end up in fresh water areas too. But everyone there manages to live with these, so I'm sure you will too :-)
