The suburb straddles the upper reaches of Moody's Creek and is bordered to the north by the Cairns Western Arterial Road (state route 91).

In the south west elevations reach heights greater than 500 m towards the summit of Mooroobool Peak.

[citation needed] Kanimbla is situated in the Yidinji traditional Aboriginal country.

The new suburb was named for the MV Kanimbla, a coastal passenger ship which had serviced Cairns before being pressed into military service during World War II (Manoora and Mooroobool also being the names of other coastal passenger ships).

[4][5] .Cairns Regional Council announced in 2013 that land had been purchased in Kanimbla to build a detention basin to alleviate seasonal flooding in suburbs downstream.