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Townsville from Castle Hill
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National Bank building, Townsville
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Townsville War Memorial
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Molly Mallones Hotel, Townsville
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ReefHQ Aquarium
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A dinosaur outside the Museum of Tropical Queensland
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Maritime Museum of Townsville
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View to Magnetic Island from Castle Hill
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Mount Stuart
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Yongala wreck
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Townsville Wharf
The Strand, Townsville
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Magnetic Island
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Hinchinbrook Island
Mission Beach
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Townsville is a city of some 166,000 people on the north-eastern coast of Australia, located 1,300 km from Brisbane. It is adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef in the dry tropics.
Where is it?: Queensland: North. Townsville is 1,300 km north of Brisbane, and 350 km south of Cairns via the Bruce Highway, and lies on the shores of Cleveland Bay.
Townsville enjoys over 300 days of sunshine each year, which lends itself to tourism activities, however the city has suffred from having few landmark attractions within its boundaries, being more of a commercial centre for the region. In recent years a move has been made to cater more for the visitor; among its newer attractions are the excellent Museum of Tropical Queensland, the Maritime Museum of Townsville (its collection includes the retited Australian Navy patrol boat, HMAS Townsville, well known for its role in the first of the popular TV series Patrol Boat), Townsville Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre and ReefHQ Aquarium, which is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium.
Things to see and do:
The historic waterfront on Ross Creek, leading into Cleveland Bay, has some excellent old buildings mixed with the later modern skyline. The Strand, a long tropical beach and garden strip; ReefHQ, a large tropical aquarium holding many of the Great Barrier Reef's native flora and fauna; the Museum of Tropical Queensland, built around a display of relics from the sunken British warship HMS Pandora.
The Townsville Palmetum has numerous tropical botanical displays; Anderson Park Botanical Gardens is the largest botanical garden in Townsville; Town Common Conservation Park (6km north) at Cape Pallarenda is a birdwatcher's paradise; Ross River dame stretches 8.3km across the Ross River floodplain.
Lookouts: the mass of red granite, which provides the backdrop to the city is called Castle Hill (292 metres high). A lookout at the summit gives panoramic views of the city and its suburbs including Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island.
A viewing platform offering views across the savannah plain to Townsville is located at the top of Mount Stuart. There is a short 20 minute walk around the summit with interpretive signs and spectacular views. A 25 minute drive from Townsville, Mount Stuart is accessed via Tarakan Street off the Flinders Highway.
Past the suburbs of Rangewood and Rupertswood is Piper's Lookout in the Hervey Range. It offers views to Townsville and out to the ocean.
Events:
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music runs over ten days each year in July. The festival has been running since 1991, and attracts many acclaimed international and Australian musicians. More >>
The annual Great Tropical Jazz Party on Magnetic Island presents a quality musical experience.
Accommodation:
Townsville is a popular destination for conferences, and on more than one occasion we have arrived in Townsville (particularly mid-week) unable to obtain accommodation because the conferences had booked out the whole place. Be sure to book your accommodation ahead, and be prepared to pay higher rates than Cairns. When in Townsville, we stay at the Townsville Plaza Hotel. It is located in the centre of town and the rates are reasonable.
Surrounding area:
The mountainous Magnetic Island, just offshore from Townsville in Cleveland Bay, has long become established as a holiday destination with many hotels and several resorts in operation to cater for all levels of service. The locals like it so much it has effectively become a suburb of Townsville, with 2,107 permanent residents, but don't let that put you of from visiting, either for a day trip or longer. More >>
Bowling Green Bay National Park (91km south east) is the region's largest coastal park. Its coastal plains are dramatically set against a backdrop of rugged granite mountains rising abruptly in the distance. In this section of the park, Alligator Creek flows between two rocky mountain groups - Mount Elliot and Saddle Mountain.
There are numerous destinations north of townsville on the way to Cairns that are of interest to the traveller. These include Ingham (107km north west), Cardwell (161km north west), Tully (201km north west), Hinchinbrook Island (155km north west) Palm Island and Mission Beach (224km north west) and Dunk Island (off Mission Beach).
The central section of the Great Barrier Reef is approximately 50 nautical miles (90km) offshore from Townsville. Swim throughs, underwater canyons, caves, gullies and sensational wall dives are all features of this section of the reef, and can be accessed by tours from Townsville. Popular reef destinations are Wheeler Reef (a premier reef dive site); Lodestone Reef (good for snorkelling with plenty of fish); Davies Reef (large pinnacles, caves, prolific coral gardens and drop-offs); Helix Reef (small reef with shallow coral gardens as well as large crevasses and gullys).
The Yongala wreck is one of Australia's most wreck popular dive sites and one of the world's top ten. 89km south east of Townsville, the coral-encrusted structure attracts a prolific variety of colourful marine life.
About Townsville
Townsville is the Northern Queensland administrative centre of State and Federal Government, housing the area offices of many departments and governmental bodies such as Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.
The Ross River flows through the city. Three weirs, fish stocking and dredging of the river in these reaches has resulted in a deep, stable and clean waterway for the recreation of residents and visitors alike. 30km from the mouth (at the junction of Five Head Creek) in Thuringowa city is the Ross River Dam, allowing the river to serve as the population's major water supply. Ross River is navigable only by small vessels, where speed and wash limits apply in most sections.
Though not a high profile tourist destination by comparison with other Tropical Queensland localities, the city remains popular with tourists; backpackers are particularly drawn to Magnetic Island and the Great Barrier Reef. The city has excellent diving and snorkelling facilities, with a variety of vessels using the port as a home base for their reef tourism activities. Conference tourism has become lucrative with national and international organisations choosing the area for many business forums.
The city has a large and diverse range of restaurants representing many different cuisines of the world. The Palmer Street restaurant strip in South Townsville is home to many of these, and also plays home to an annual Jazz Festival, bringing together food, wine and music from all parts of the world. A cosmopolitan atmosphere has been developed around many of these restaurants and cafes, with sidewalk dining taking advantage of the suitable climate for outdoor living. The city also has a vibrant pub and night-club scene, with many of them located in Flinders Street East.
Transport: Townsville is serviced by two major National Highway routes, the A1 (Bruce Highway), and the A6 (Flinders Highway). The A1 connects Townsville to Cairns in the north, and Mackay, Rockhampton, and Brisbane in the south. The A6 connects Townsville to Mount Isa in the west.
The North Coast railway line operated by Queensland Rail passes through the city, and the Western line meets it in the city's south. Rail services from Brisbane pass through Townsville and continue through to Cairns. Townsville also has a regular Tilt Train service to and from Brisbane and Cairns.
Climate: The Townsville Region is characterised by its dry tropical climate, with distinct wet and dry seasons. The wet, coinciding with the Tropical Cyclone season runs from November to March. The area receives a lower annual rainfall than the wet tropics due to its northern coastal orientation, which means south east trade winds move parallel to the coast rather than perpendicular to it.
Townsville has an average daily temperature of 19.7°C to 28.8°C. December is the warmest month of the year with daily temperatures averaging 24.0°C to 31.4°C. July is the coolest month with daily temperatures averaging 13.5°C to 25.0°C. The average rainfall ranges from 2571 millimetres at Paluma (north west of the city) to 1136 millimetres at Townsville City to 853 millimetres at Woodstock (inland south of the city).
Townsville, which experiences an annual average of 8.4 hours of sunshine per day, is prone to Tropical Cyclones, they usually form "officially" between November and May, during this time, which is the Cyclone Season. Notable Cyclones to affect the Townsville Region are; Cyclone Tessi (2000), Cyclone Joy (1990), Cyclone Althea (1971), Cyclone Leonta (1903) and Cyclone Sigma (1896).
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History: The city started life inauspiciously when a sea captain by the name of Robert Towns commissioned John Melton Black to build a wharf on Cleveland Bay to service the new cattle industry inland. The location for the town was dictated by its location between the Burdekin and Herbert rivers, which, when in flood, could isolate access to the area by land for months at a time.
In 1818, Townsville was a very small area of land around Castle Hill, however in 1882 the (then) Thuringowa Shire had land ceded to the growing city of Townsville by the State, and by 1916 Townsville had progressively expanded into a large amount of previously Shire land. Between the two world wars Townsville continued to expand into many areas of Thuringowa Shire. Many of the settlements of Thuringowa became part of the City of Townsville. The town was gazetted in 1865 and was declared a city in 1903.
At one time during World War II, Townsville was the USA's largest overseas air base. It was common for B-26 Marauders, B-17 Flying Fortress or B-25 Mitchell bombers to take off on long range bombing raids from Garbutt air base. The first bombing raid on Rabaul on 23 February 1942 was carried out by six B-17s based near Townsville.
During World War II, the city played host to over 50,000 troops as it became a major staging point for battle in the South West Pacific. A large United States Armed Forces contingent supported the war effort from various bases around the city. Townsville was subjected to three small air raids in late July 1942. These attacks did not result in any damage. Townsville played a major role in WW II and a great deal of construction occurred in secret. For example there are numerous hidden air raid bunkers, reports of secret tunnels and similar secret units.
The Australian Army maintains a very strong presence in the north of Australia and this is evident by the basing of the Army's 3rd Brigade in Townsville. In addition to the 3rd Brigade, a number of other major units are based in Townsville. These include the 5th Aviation Regiment, equipped with Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters, collocated at the RAAF Base in Garbutt and the 10th Force Support Battalion based at Ross Island.
Townsville continues to expand west and south into the once rural shire of Thuringowa, and inner city high-density development has also seen population growth and further gentrification of the CBD. One significant contributor to CBD development is the construction of a new rail passenger terminal, releasing prime real estate which formerly belonged to Queensland Rail for the development of residential units, retail projects and a new performing arts centre. The skyline of Townsville's central business district is set for dramatic changes over the next few years, with a number of new highrises under construction or in planning.
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