Appointment of a main contractor to build a AU$50m (US$36.4m, €33.2m, £23.3m) aquarium in Cairns, Queensland, will be announced later this month, after a detailed design and engineering phase was finally completed.

Originally slated to open in July 2016, the planned aquarium and research centre in the Australian city gained initial approval in February, but a lack of parking spots proved a challenge which almost sunk the project.

The plans also ran into trouble when developers were forced by law to cut down trees housing a flying fox habitat which they wanted to retain as a naturally occurring attraction. Those issues have since been resolved and the plans have been well received by the government, local businesses and the surrounding community. The various delays have meant construction has been held up around six months.

Designed by Peddle Thorp Architects in association with Architects Ellick and Partners, the three-storey, 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) development will be home to more than 5,000 living creatures endemic to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and surrounding Wet Tropics Rainforests.

Peddle Thorp’s design is made up of a series of ‘tectonic plates’, symbolising the movement of the earth over the centuries and subsequent creation of the Great Barrier Reef and far north of Australia’s tree-covered mountains. Visitors enter through an 18x11.5m (59x38ft) blue glass atrium angled onto the street, while strategically-placed windows offer passers-by a glimpse into the aquarium.

Among the planned exhibitions are a two million litre Oceanarium, which will be home to Australia’s only school of scalloped hammerhead sharks. Meanwhile, ‘River Monsters’ will be an exhibit housing the freshwater Sawfish and will also be part of a dedicated research programme to breed and repopulate the highly endangered species.

Other planned exhibits include exhibitions on reptiles and amphibians, insect and arachnid giants, life in the mangroves, the coral atoll, the dangers of the reef and a guided tour of the life support systems used to power the aquarium. A restaurant serving local produce and indigenous cuisine is also on the menu, complementing the first floor Quay Café.