The territories of three local tribes, the Irukandji, Idindji and Kongkandji, were contiguous at Trinity Inlet and sea foods formed an important component of their diet. They drew fresh water from shallow wells in the sand ridges on which the business part of Cairns now stands. Beche-de-mer fishermen visited Trinity Inlet to obtain water supplies from these wells and collect wood of the red mangrove to smoke-cure the sea slug. This led to armed conflict between fishermen and natives.

The aggression by the beche-de-mer men set the pattern of conflict and resistance by which the Aborigines reacted to the streams of Europeans and Chinese flooding into the new port. A war of attrition followed as the natives' lands were expropriated, their fishing, hunting and food gathering areas reduced or destroyed, and their trade and migration routes disturbed. For the Aborigines it was a fight for survival. Any opposition, real or perceived, brought frightful retribution in the form of "dispersal" raids by the Native Mounted Police or the shooting on sight by fearing Europeans. Collinson states that for the first ten years of settlement (1876-1886), no one ventured forth from Cairns unarmed. Unwary or isolated settlers were subjected to "pay-back" killings, or had their crops destroyed and their animals slaughtered. Cedar-getters' camps were raided and tools and food stolen. For many years this state of warfare persisted as Cairns struggled to exist.

Aborigines wove their own fish traps to catch fish. The basket was placed in a narrow section of a creek or, if used on the coast, at a point where stone walls (built by the Aborigines) guided the fish to on the falling tide. The fish would swim in and due to the construction of the trap, be unable to swim out again . Then it was just a matter of coming back to the trap and collecting the fish inside.