It's now considered the jewel in the crown of Cairns, but the Esplanade Lagoon — a magnet for international tourists and local families — almost never came to be.
Fears about the giant pool being used as a toilet, backpackers going wild, topless sunbaking and cost blow-outs saw locals take to the streets in protest when it was first proposed.
Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the lagoon transformed what was little more than a patch of grass with a staircase to the beach into a tourist landmark.
Former Cairns mayor Kevin Byrne said the process involved with establishing the lagoon was not easy.
"A lot of people were against it at the time. These were the days when Cairns did not have the confidence it has now," Mr Byrne said.
"One of the concerns was you're going to create this big swimming pool right in the heart of Cairns and people will be here after hours, and there are going to be deaths in the pool.
"People will be using it as a washroom, it'll attract all the backpackers and they'll have a bath and go.
"People were concerned about the ongoing maintenance cost and why ratepayers should have to pay for something that will only be used by tourists.
"It was hocus-pocus nonsense at the time and it still is.
"The lagoon is a magnet for local people and helped transform us into an international city."
Long-time host of Cairns' 4CA Mornings radio show John MacKenzie said two decades ago, the Cairns Esplanade was a vastly different place.
"People who were visiting here would say 'oh, we thought Cairns had a beach', and were complaining they had to drive out north until they found a beach and so the idea of a swimming pool was mooted," Mr Mackenzie said.
Plans for a 4,800 square metre pool were drawn up and the $22.5 million budget split between the Queensland government and Cairns Regional Council.
But locals were still not sold on the idea, according to Mr Mackenzie.
"The first radio survey I did on the idea, 57 per cent of respondents said not on your life, it's just going to be used by the backpackers, it's going to cost us a fortune."
Despite the tide of public sentiment being largely against the council, construction began in April 2002, the design inspired by a similar development in the United States city of Boston.
Mr Byrne said it was a logistical challenge.
"From a cane farm in Yorkeys Knob, we trucked in over a period of six months all the sand needed to reclaim where the area is and more," Mr Byrne said.
"Once the sand was dumped, we had to let it stay and settle, then we put the seawall along it and started to build the pool."
About 500 tonnes of hot-dipped galvanised steel was cast into 3,7000 cubic metres of concrete to create the pool, which was officially opened in March 2003 by then-premier Peter Beattie.
An estimated 25,000 people attended the opening, but the following months were not without controversy.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported topless, sunbaking backpackers had "set tongues wagging" in what was then a much more conservative tropical city.
"There's a clientele that uses the pool, a lot of them that use that area, where topless sunbathing is normal to them," Mr Byrne told the newspaper at the time.
"Many of them have travelled from distant parts of the world, they enjoy the sunshine, and they choose to sunbake with tops off."
More than 25 million visitors have dipped their toes in the pool since it opened 20 years ago.
Current Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said the pool continued to be a major attraction for tourists and locals.
"Twenty years on, I don't think you would find too many people who could argue about the value it has added to our city," Cr Manning said.
