General News
6 October, 2025
Stalwarts cede control
TWO leading lights of the Friends of Cominos House (FOCH) are standing aside in a bid to persuade Cairns Regional Council to return management of the venue to the group.
Former councillor and friends’ treasurer and vice-president Diane Forsyth and president Lone White will retire at a special community meeting later this month.
This follows the council not renewing their lease after nearly 40 years at the end of June due to “challenges in meeting the maintenance and management obligations of the lease”.
The house is to be completely renovated and a public tender process calling for new lessees and managers has been undertaken.
Ms Forsyth fronted the council at its August 27 meeting to explain the background of the group’s efforts over the decades.
She told councillors that the house in Greenslopes St was donated to the council by the Cominos family in 1989, when the friends committee was established.
Ms Forsyth thanked Mayor Amy Eden “for her reassurance this much-loved community building is going to stay this way to be accessible to the community for years to come, and the council will be doing renovations to make sure this beautiful Queenslander continues to shine into the future”.
She said the committee had worked well with the council and rented the premises to community organisations to maintain the building and had recently applied for a gaming benefit fund grant for $100,000 to repair the roof, “but of course, that stopped at the moment, since we were no longer managing and CAFNEC (Cairns and Far North Environment Centre) have taken over the managing of the rental space”.
Ms Forsyth said the house was used by about 25 different community groups on a regular basis and was heavily booked out.
The rents were reasonable, $47 for three-hour sessions … “the cheapest place in town”.
She said she had “promised the mayor and the councillors that I wouldn’t go into the disgruntledness” about the lease not being renewed but said the friends committee still existed.
Ms Forsyth said a public meeting was being held later this month when the future of the committee would be discussed and a proposal put together to tender for the next lease of Cominos House. She invited councillors to the meeting.
“At that meeting, both myself and Lone will be stepping down off the board and hopefully we’ll be attracting some new, maybe younger than 80-years-old,” she said.
“Both of us are in our 80s, so we think it’s about time. Lone has been around since the beginning and was at the very first gathering when the house was opened, and has been on the committee since 1991, so I think my hat goes off to her, her passion and her dedication to making sure Cominos House continued to do the work that it was doing.”
The special community meeting is on Sunday 26 October at 1pm at Rose Blank Gallery, Cominos House.
A council spokesman said FOCH was welcome to submit a proposal during the tender process, which will be initiated once the council completed essential maintenance works.
“(The) council acknowledges FOCH’s contribution to Cominos House, users and the community, while noting the challenges in meeting lease maintenance obligations.
“To ensure continued community access from 1 July 2025, (the) council has implemented interim arrangements ahead of a public tender for the future lease and management of the site.”
