The Cairns School of Arts wound up its activities in 1977 and handed its assets to the Cairns City Council. The City Council has since confirmed the occupancy of the library floor of the School of Arts Building by the Cairns Historical Society, based on the understanding that the Society uses the space provided to set up a museum. The Cairns Museum has been operating since 1980 and is organised and run completely by volunteers of the Cairns Historical Society. As the museum receives no government funding, visitors are charged a small entrance fee which is used to create, maintain and upgrade its many displays. The Society is very proud of its museum and its achievements over the past twenty-four years.

A museum for Cairns has been long awaited. Since its formation in 1907 the School of Arts Committee has been closely associated with the establishment of a museum in Cairns. It is perhaps appropriate that the museum should be set up in the rooms of the now defunct historic organisation that originally sponsored it.