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Townsville redirects here. For other uses, see Townsville (disambiguation).

Townsville (Postcodes: 4810-4818) is a city and Local Government Area on the north-eastern coast of Australia, located in the state of Queensland at latitude 19.25 South and longitude 146.80 East. The population of the combined urban areas of Townsville/Thuringowa (as of 2004) was approximately 155,500, making Townsville, Australia's largest city above the tropic of Capricorn or the northern half of the country. Townsville is positioned in the centre section of the Great Barrier Reef in the dry tropics.

Location and Setting

The Townsville region is sometimes known locally as the 'Twin Cities', as the urban area includes the cities of Townsville (the coast and southern part of the region) and Thuringowa (inland and northern part of the region). The city is approximately 1300kms north of Brisbane, and 350kms south of Cairns.

Townsville continues to expand west and north, into the previously rural district of Thuringowa. Significant new unit developments in the inner city of Townsville are increasing the population density. The construction of a new rail passenger terminal has released the old rail terminal and adjacent land for further gentrification of the CBD. Development of units, housing and retail projects on this land is being planned.

The Ross River flows through Townsville. It is truncated by three weirs and dammed 30km from its mouth, at the junction of Five Head Creek. The river is only navigable by small vessels. Boat speed and wash limits apply in most sections. Dredging and fish stocking of weirs has resulted in a deep, clean waterway for the recreation of the city's residents. The Ross River Dam is Townsville's major water supply. This is supplemented by a smaller dam in the Paluma range to the city's north. The Burdekin Dam provides further water to the city in times of drought.

Popular attractions for locals and visitors include 'The Strand', a long tropical beach and garden strip; Reef HQ, 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; and Magnetic Island, a large neighbouring island, the vast majority of which is national park.

The historic waterfront on Ross Creek, leading into Cleveland Bay, has some excellent old buildings mixed with the later modern skyline though nothing dominates this more than the huge 292 metre (just 8 metres short of being a mountain!) mass of red granite called Castle Hill. There is a lookout at the summit giving panoramic views of the city and its suburbs including Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island. Several new suburbs and the shifting demographics of the Twin Cities have produced some debate amongst the locals as to whether the CBD will stay directly on the coast or move to an inland geographical centre of the city. The position of pre-existing assets on the coast plus the rivalry between the two cities contributes to the debate. The significant renewal of the Townsville CBD with further unit and retail developments is likely to continue the resurgence of the city centre as the heart of the city. The addition of a major department store in the city centre to bolster and underpin redevelopment of the CBD has been frequently sought by the local population. Rocky Springs, a planed Satellite city to the south of Townsville, will eventually be expected to be home to 50'000 people, the whole plan will add to the Changing demographic of the Metro Townsville area, plus help with planning the city's future sprawl, which is more heading in a westerly direction within Thuringowa

History

The city started life very inauspiciously when a sea captain by the name of Robert Towns commissioned James 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. The town was gazetted in 1865 and was declared a city in 1903. It is now the largest tropical city in Australia and is seen as the unofficial, capital of North Queensland, and services a vast area of the interior. In October 2000 a Solomon Islands Peace Agreement was negotiated in Townsville.

Economy

File:T1Crane.jpg

A Crane stands tall in Townsville's Skyline, an Icon to the City's economy

Tourism has of late helped in the city's expansion, though its traditional role is as an industrial port for exporting minerals from Mount Isa and Cloncurry, also beef and wool from the western plains and sugar and timber from the coastal regions, and this continues to be of great importance.

The city also has its own manufacturing and processing industries. Townsville is the only city globally to refine three different base metals - Zinc, Copper and Nickel. Nickel ore is imported from Indonesia, the Philippines and New Caledonia and processed at the Yabulu Nickel refinery, 30 kilometres north of the port. Zinc ore is transported by rail from the Cannington Mine, south of Cloncurry, for smelting at the Sun Metals refinery south of Townsville. Copper concentrate from the smelter at Mt Isa is also railed to Townsville for further refining at the copper refinery at Stuart.

Townsville has several large public assets due to its relative position and population. These include the largest campus of the only university in northern Queensland, James Cook University, the CSIRO Davies Laboratory, the Australian Institute of Marine Science headquarters, the large Army base at Lavarack Barracks and the Air Force base at Garbutt. This places Townsville in a unique position in Australia as the only non-capital city with significant State and Federal government department administration and infrastructure resources. This has served to make the population and economy more stable than other areas of tropical Queensland.

The city is also a media centre for North Queensland, with 5 commercial radio stations, 3 commercial television stations, and the North Queensland ABC radio station.

The city remains popular with tourists, especially backpackers 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.

Culture

The region has many renowned festivals, celebrating some of the various international cultures that call the region home. The Annual Greek and Italian Festivals (Italian based in Ingham, north of Townsville) are popular with the local population and tourists alike. 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 lifestyles.

The city also has a vibrant pub and night-club scene, with many of them located in Flinders Street East. Local and national music groups can often be found performing live in these venues. The streetscape was renewed in 2003 with mixed reviews, and now caters for sidewalk dining at many new cafes also located in the street.

The Townsville Entertainment Centre plays host to many national and international music shows, as well as sporting and trade shows, with a capacity of 4500 people.

Transport

Road

The Bruce Highway bypasses the city (but exists as an alternate route through the city), and the Flinders Highway (A6), the main highway to western localities such as Mt Isa and the Northern Territory, meets the Bruce Highway south of Townsville. The Bruce Highway links Townsville to all of the State's major cities along the eastern seaboard, including Cairns, Proserpine, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Brisbane, the State capital.

Townsville will eventually have an orbital motorway, called the Townsville Ring Road, which will be the new Bruce Highway link which bypasses the city and will eventually link the Bruce Highway south of Townsville to the Bruce Highway in the north-west urban area of Thuringowa. The first stage of the motorway opened in 2005.

In addition to the city's highways and motorway, it is serviced by a system of numbered arterial routes.

Rail

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. The Tilt Train commenced operations in mid-2003, however due to the destruction of a train set in a high-speed derailment in 2004 near Bundaberg, services were temporarily suspended.

Public Transport

Townsville's public transport system consists of bus services operated by Sunbus. Sunbus provides regular services to and from many parts of the city, and also operates several express routes. For example, routes 1, 1A, 1B, 1C and 1X link the Townsville CBD to the Townsville General Hospital via Stockland and to the suburb of Kelso.

In addition to the bus system, Townsville Taxis operate 24 hours a day and service all parts of the Townsville-Thuringowa metropolitan area.

Sea

Townsville has a significant port at the mouth of Ross Creek. It mainly handles cargoes of cement and nickel ore, for processing at the Yabulu Nickel Refinery, 30 km north of the port. The port also serves as an export point for sugar and for products from north Queensland's mines. The port has three sugar storage sheds, with the newest being the largest under-cover storage area in Australia.

Regular ferry services operate to Magnetic Island and Palm Island.

Air

Townsville International Airport (which incidentally hasn't handled international flights since 2002) at Garbutt was greatly expanded by U.S. forces during World War II. These expansions made Townsville's airfield the largest in the southern hemisphere for some time. The airport has since been rebuilt several times. Townsville International Airport serves as the hub for Queensland regional airline Macair Airlines, which operate scheduled and charter services to major mines located in outback Queensland. The airport land is also shared with the Townsville RAAF Base. The airport was upgraded in 2003 to include new terminal departure and arrivals areas, and three new aerobridges. Townsville International Airport hosts all three major domestic trunk carriers and has direct flights to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as well as direct connections to many regional centres in Queensland including Cairns, Mackay and Mt Isa.

Government

Townsville and Thuringowa are each governed by City Councils, both comprising of a Mayor and ten Councillors. In the Townsville City Council there are ten Divisions which elect one Councillor each. In The Thuringowa City Council there are two Divisions, one which elects three Councillors and one which elects seven. The Mayor of Townsville is Tony Mooney (Labor), while the Mayor of Thuringowa is Les Tyrell (Liberal).

In the Queensland Parliament the city is represented by four electorates: Thuringowa, Mundingburra, Townsville and Burdekin. Representitives of the State Government electorates are:

Thuringowa: Craig Wallace

Mundingburra: Lindy Nelson Carr (Secretary to the premier of Queensland)

Townsville: Hon Mike Reynolds (Child Safety Minister in the State Government of Queensland)

In the Federal Parliament the city is represented by Peter Lindsay, the member for the seat of Herbert

Defence

Australian Army 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. The 3rd Brigade is a light infantry brigade with significant air-mobile assets. The brigade consists of two Light Infantry Battalions and a Parachute Infantry Battalion. It has integral Artillery, Engineer, Aviation Reconnaissance and Combat Service Support Units. It is a high readiness brigade that has been deployed frequently at very short notice on combat operations outside mainland Australia. These include Somalia, Rwanda, Namibia, East Timor, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the 3rd Brigade, a number of other major units are based here. These include the 5th Aviation Regiment, equipped with Blackhawk and Chinook helicpters, collocated at the RAAF Base in Garbutt and the 10th Force Support Battalion based at Ross Island. 10 FSB is a force logistics unit that provides back up logistic support to deployed units. The battalion provides specialist transport and supply support. The Army also maintains a Army Reserve Brigade in Townsville designated the 11th Brigade. This formation is similar in structure to the 3rd brigade but comprises reserve soldiers only.

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) As with the Army, the RAAF also maintain a strong presence in Townsville. The RAAF Base at Garbutt, a Townsville suburb, houses several fixed wing tactical transport aircraft Squadrons. These Squadrons provide support to the Army units in Townsville. The base is also a high readiness Defence asset and is prepared to accept the full range of RAAF aircraft types as well as other international aircraft including the the huge US C-17 Globmaster of the Russian Antonov transport aircraft.

Sports and Recreation

File:Dairyfarmers2.jpg

Dairy Farmers Stadium in full capacity during a 2003 Rugby Union World Cup match

Townsville plays host to a NRL team, the North Queensland Cowboys, a National Basketball League (Australia) team, the Townsville Crocodiles and a Womens National Basketball League(Australia) team, the Townsille Fire.

The Cowboys were Semi and Preliminary Finalists in the 2004 NRL season, and were finally defeated by the Sydney Roosters in the Preliminary Finals. In the 2005 NRL Season, the Cowboys played the Wests Tigers in the Grand Final on 2 October 2005. They were defeated by the Tigers.

The Cowboys Play at Dairy Farmers Stadium, a venue which has hosted Three 2003 Rugby World Cup matches, and has a maximum capacity crowd of 27,000 people, the stadium could hold up to 31,000 but a recent upgrade in seats, which was to up the capacity, dropped capacity instead. The stadium was first built in 1995 after it was annouced that Townsville will be home to a new NRL Rugby League Team, It was originally know as Stockland Stadium and then Malanda Stadium before becoming Dairy Farmers Stadium. A new 3,000 seat upgrade will begin soon to cater for the larger crowds that are expected to attend the Stadium following the Cowboys acheiving their best league placing, coming second on the NRL ladder after losing to West Tigers during the 2005 NRL Grand Final.

Education

There are numerous Schools in Townsville (includes Thuringowa Schools), with exceeding growth in the region calling for proposals for more primary and High Schools in the Region, James Cook University, Townsville's only Uuniversity, is planning a billion dollar expansion, including extra student accommodation, Student Village i.e Shopping Mall, Cafes, Resturants as such, Extra Faculties with Vetinary Sciences due to open soon with Physical, and Sports Rec Science just recently opened to students.