Free green waste in Cairns: dates, transfer stations and when to pay for removal

Council runs four free green waste periods a year. Each one lasts nine days and covers two weekends, held in late February, May, August and November. The 2026 periods are:

• 14 to 22 February 2026 (finished)
• 16 to 24 May 2026 (finished)
• 15 to 23 August 2026 (finished)
• 14 to 22 November 2026 (the next one)

The November period also includes free sandbag collection, which makes it a sensible weekend to tidy the yard and prepare for the wet at the same time. Council's February media release made the same link: trimming trees and overhanging branches is part of getting ready for cyclones, and clearing excess vegetation removes places where mosquitoes breed.

A gold coin donation is accepted at the gate during free periods and goes to a local charity. It is voluntary.

Council has not yet published its 2027 dates. If the usual pattern holds, the next period after November will fall in late February 2027. Council advertises each period on its What's On page, its Facebook page, the MyCairns app and in its Council in Action notices in The Cairns Post before the dates arrive.

All four council transfer stations take green waste, and all four are open seven days from 8:30am to 5:15pm:

• Portsmith Transfer Station, 35 to 51 Lyons Street, Portsmith
• Smithfield Transfer Station, Lot 1 Dunne Road, Smithfield
• Gordonvale Transfer Station, Lot 1 Bruce Highway, Gordonvale
• Babinda Transfer Station, Lot 1 Kruckow Road, Babinda

Each station has five drop-off areas: recycling, general waste, green waste, metal and concrete. Green waste goes to its own area, so load it last and keep it separate from anything else in the trailer. Loads larger than 4 cubic metres are not accepted at Gordonvale or Babinda, and no transfer station accepts a vehicle over 4.5 tonnes GVM.

Stations take cash and EFTPOS (Mastercard or Visa only) for anything that is not free on the day.

Council's fee schedule accepts clean green waste only. In practice that means plant material from the garden: prunings and cuttings, branches, grass clippings and similar yard waste.

• No treated timber. Old sleepers, fence palings and garden edging made from treated pine are not green waste.
• Nothing larger than 900 mm in diameter. Big trunks need cutting down before they go on the trailer.
• Nothing that is not plant material. Pull out pots, bags, wire, hose and general rubbish before you leave home, because the green waste area takes clean loads.

The free offer covers green waste only. Normal rates apply to any other waste you bring during a free period, so a trailer with a few bags of household rubbish on top will still pay for that part of the load.

One more rule matters in the wet season. Council warns that green waste dumped in drains, or anywhere it can wash into drains, causes blockages that can lead to flooding in heavy rain. Leaving a pile at the kerb or down the side of the house over summer is not a safe holding option.

No. Council's conditions say the free offer is for domestic cars, utes, trailers and light trucks up to 4.5 tonnes GVM, and that normal rates apply to green waste from garden maintenance contractors on behalf of residents.

That matters when you compare quotes. A contractor who removes your green waste pays the gate fee even in a free week, so a quote that assumes the tip is free that week does not add up. Trisim quotes green waste removal before starting the job, with disposal included in the price.

Council's 2026/27 fee schedule charges domestic green waste by load size. The rates are the same at all four stations:

• Small load, up to 0.5 cubic metres: $11
• Medium load, 0.5 to 2 cubic metres: $16
• Large load, 2 to 4 cubic metres: $25
• Over 4 cubic metres: $81 per tonne, charged by weight at Portsmith and Smithfield only

Commercial green waste is charged at higher rates: $31, $50 and $81 for the same three load sizes at Gordonvale and Babinda, and $81 per tonne at Portsmith and Smithfield. Council says only that normal rates apply to contractor loads, so expect a contractor removing your green waste to pay gate fees at this level rather than the domestic rates above.

Council does not list a separate garden waste bin in its kerbside service. Its bin page describes a weekly waste bin and a fortnightly yellow-lid recycling bin. A green lid on a Cairns wheelie bin is an older general waste lid being phased out, not a garden bin.

For a resident with a trailer and a spare weekend, the free period is hard to beat. The gate fees outside those dates are modest too. The real cost of doing it yourself is everything else: borrowing or hiring a trailer, loading it, the drive, unloading at the station, and often a second trip.

Paying for removal usually makes sense when:

• You do not own a trailer or a vehicle that can tow one.
• Lifting and loading branches is no longer safe or comfortable for you, or for an older parent whose yard you are sorting out.
• The pile is bigger than one trailer. An overgrown yard, a storm clean-up or a major prune produces more than most people expect.
• The timing is fixed. A landlord clearing a yard between tenants, or an owner getting a house ready to list, cannot wait for the next nine-day window.
• The waste has been sitting through the wet and has turned heavy, wet and unpleasant to handle.

If the steady source of your green waste is lawn clippings, there is a way to stop producing them. Trisim offers mulch mowing, which cuts clippings finely and returns them to the lawn, so there are no clippings to bag or pay to dispose of after each mow. Trisim offers lawn mowing across Cairns, including Bentley Park, Mount Sheridan and Edmonton.