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Toowoomba

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Toowoomba
Queensland
Population119,133 (2005) (15th)
 • Density209.4[1]/km2 (542/sq mi)
Postcode(s)4350
Elevation700 m (2,297 ft)
Time zoneAEST (UTC+10)
Location132 km (82 mi) from Brisbane
LGA(s)City of Toowoomba
State electorate(s)Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Cunningham
Federal division(s)Groom

Toowoomba (also known as the 'The Garden City') is a city in South East Queensland, Australia, unfortunately it struggles from a high level of recreational drug use. It is the home of David Costello, It is located 132 km west of Queensland's capital city, Brisbane, and two hours drive from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast beaches. With a population of 119,133 (2005 ABS estimate for Greater Toowoomba), Toowoomba is one of Australia's largest provincial cities, and the nation's second largest inland city after Canberra, the national capital.

History

Main article: History of Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba's colonial history traces back to 1816 when English botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham arrived in Australia from Brazil and in June 1827 discovered 4 million acres (16,000 km²) of rich farming and grazing land bordered on the east by the Great Dividing Range and situated 100 miles (160 km) west of the settlement of Moreton Bay. 13 years later when George and Patrick Leslie established Toolburra Station 56 miles south-west of Toowoomba the first settlers arrived on the Downs and established a township of bark-slab shops called The Springs which was soon renamed Drayton.

Towards the end of the 1840s Drayton had grown to the point where it had its own newspaper, general store, trading post and the Royal Bull's Head Inn which was built by William Horton and still stands today. Horton is regarded as the real founder of Toowoomba, although he was not the first man to live there. Drovers and wagon masters spread the news of the new settlement at Toowoomba. By 1858 Toowoomba was growing fast. It had a population of 700, three hotels and many stores. Land selling at £4 an acre (£988/km²) in 1850 was now £150 an acre (£37,000/km²). Governor Bowen granted their wish and a new municipality was proclaimed on 24 November 1860. The first town council election took place on 4 January 1861 and William Henry Groom won.

In 1892 the Under Secretary of Public Land proclaimed Toowoomba and the surrounding areas as a township and in 1904 Toowoomba was declared a city.

Geography

Toowoomba suburbs on the edge of the range
Location of Toowoomba in Queensland (red)

Toowoomba is situated at a latitude and longitude of 27°33′S 151°57′E / 27.550°S 151.950°E / -27.550; 151.950.

The city sits on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, around 700 metres above sea level. A few streets are on the eastern side of the edge of the range, but the majority of the city is west of the divide.

The City occupies the edge of the range and the low ridges behind it. Two valleys run north from the southern boundary, each arising from springs either side of Middle Ridge near Spring Street at an altitude of around 680 m. These waterways, East Creek and West Creek flow together just north of the CBD to form Gowrie Creek.

Gowrie Creek drains to the west across the Darling Downs and is a tributary of the Condamine River, part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The water flowing down Gowrie Creek makes its way some 3000 km to the mouth of the Murray River near Adelaide in South Australia. Rain which falls on the easternmost streets of Toowoomba flows east to Moreton Bay a distance of around 170 km.

Climate

Toowoomba enjoys four distinct seasons and the rich volcanic soil in the region helps maintain the 150 public parks that are scattered across the city. Jacaranda and Camphor laurel trees line many of the city streets. The city's reputation as 'The Garden City' is highlighted during the Australian Carnival of Flowers festival held in September each year. Deciduous trees from around the world line many of the parks, giving a display of Autumn colour rarely see in Australia, a continent that is almost entirely forested with evergreens.

Daily maximum temperatures in Toowoomba average 27°Celsius in summer and 16°C in winter. Late summer can see maximum temperatures as high as 39° C. While winter temperatures seldom go below freezing, snow has been reported on the higher parts of the city on rare occasions, but never settles. Light frost will be experienced several nights each winter in the city centre, and more often in the western suburbs.

Average annual rainfall, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, is 928 millimetres per year in Toowoomba City. Rainfall in the eastern suburbs along the great Diving Range nudges 1000 mm per year.

Currently, a combination of below average rainfall and significant population growth has seen temporary water restrictions imposed, including a complete ban on watering gardens. The city is under level 5 water restrictions as of September 26, 2006. This prohibits residents from watering their lawns, gardens or cars, and strongly urges residents to cut down on water consumption.

Governance

Main article: Politics of Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba is located in and is the seat of the City of Toowoomba headed by the Mayor. The city is represented in the Parliament of Queensland by three seats: Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Cunningham. Toowoomba North is the only Labor held seat in Toowoomba. In the Commonwealth Parliament, Toowoomba forms part of the Division of Groom, which is held by Ian MacFarlane for the Liberal Party of Australia.

Economy

The largest industry employers in Toowoomba (2004) are retail trade (17.8%); health and community services (13.3%); manufacturing (12.2%); and education (11.1%). Professional employment was the most prominent occupation (18.2%) followed by clerical, sales and service workers (17.7%) and tradespersons and related workers (13.3%). The Australian Defence Force is also present in the local community, with the city providing housing and amenities for many of the personnel based at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre (in Oakey, 29 km NW of Toowoomba) and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah to the city's North.

The City also has many large shopping centres including Grand Central Shopping Centre, Garden Town, Clifford Gardens and KMart Plaza.

Toowoomba normal retail hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Saturday. Most major retailers and specialty stores open Thursday evenings, especially in summer. Major grocery stores etc are not open Sundays and Public Holidays.

Education

Toowoomba is a major education centre.

Primary

There are numerous primary schools in Toowoomba. Among these are: State

Private/Religious

Secondary

Toowoomba has been claimed to have more secondary schools per capita than any other Australian city.

Tertiary

  • University of Southern Queensland, Darling Heights (Toowoomba) was established in 1967 and has approximately 27,000 students. The University of Southern Queensland has the fifth largest enrollment of international students in Australia due to its distance education expertise, English language courses and university bridging courses. The university contributes more than $61 million annually to the regional economy and was awarded the 2000/2001 University of the Year - Good Universities Guide for 'developing the e-university'.
  • Southern Institute of TAFE (SQIT) has extensive campuses to the east of the CBD.
  • University of Queensland has a small centre in Toowoomba.
  • There are several private post-secondary colleges and training providers in Toowoomba.

Culture

Architecture

Ruthven Street Looking South
City Skyline From Neil Street
File:Toowoombacbd1.jpg
City CBD Looking South

Toowoomba's history has been preserved in its buildings. Brilliant examples of fine architecture drawing from the city's wealthy beginning's include Toowoomba City Hall, the National Trust Royal Bull's Head Inn and many examples in the heritage listed Russell Street. Immediately to the east of the CBD is the Caledonian Estate, an area of turn of the 20th Century housing ranging from humble workers cottages to large stately homes, in the classic wooden Queenslander style.

Toowoomba also boasts one of the best performing arts theatres in the country. The Empire Theatre was originally opened over 90 years ago in June 1911, as a silent movie house. In February 1933, fire broke out almost completely destroying the Empire Theatre. However, the Empire was rebuilt and was reopened in November 1933. The architectural styling of the new Empire Theatre was art deco, in keeping with the trend of the 30's.

After years of neglect the Empire Theatre was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, but retains much of the Art Deco architecture and decorations for which it is famous, especially the proscenium arch. Equipped with the most modern of facilities, and able to seat 2,400 people, the Empire Theatre is now the largest regional theatre in Australia.

The City also is home to the Cobb & Co Museum, hailing to the famous mail company's beginnings as a small mail run in the 1800s to transport mail and passengers to Brisbane and beyond. It also houses Australia's largest collection of horse-drawn vehicles.

File:CondamineCentre.jpg
Condamine Centre
Heritage Plaza
Cottesloe Crest

Sport

Toowoomba does not host a team in any of the major national competitions but was home to the Toowoomba Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup state league. The Clydesdales were the feeder team for Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League (NRL) from 1999 to 2006.[2]

The Clysedales dropped out of the Queensland Cup after the 2006 season due to financial difficulties and are no longer a feeder club for the Brisbane Broncos.[3]

Notable current and former residents of Toowoomba

Media

Print

Radio

AM
  • 4QS 747 AM (ABC National Radio) (Offices & Studios located on Margaret Street)
  • 4GR 864 AM (commercial) (Offices & Studios on Margaret St with C FM)
  • 4WK 1359 AM (commercial)- Relay of 4WK Warwick.
  • 4AK 1242 AM (commercial)- Based in Oakey, located 20 km west of Toowoomba CBD.
  • Radio 2 1620 AM (commercial)- Relay of Radio 2 network Sydney.
FM
  • C FM 100.7 (commercial) - Named "C" fm rather than SEA due to Toowoomba's inland location, offices & studios on the corner of Margaret St and Burstow St, along with 4GR
  • Double 8FM (narrowcast) 88 FM - Non-community FM station featuring tourist information and the best 60s and 70s music, established in 1996. 88FM Toowoomba & 87.6FM Pittsworth
  • JJJ 104.1 FM - Also available 103.3 from Warwick and 107.7 from Brisbane
  • ABC Radio National 105.7 FM
  • ABC Classical FM 107.3
  • Country FM 91.5 (narrowcast)
  • 92.9 FM The Light (Christian community)
  • 93.7 FM (narrowcast - racing)
  • 99.1 FM (narrowcast) Kids FM - exclusively kids music and stories
  • 4DDB 102.7 FM (community)
  • River 949 94.9 FM - Ipswich based station broadcast into Toowoomba

Note: Owners of CFM 100.7 and 4GR (Gold Radio Pty. Ltd) also own all 3 narrowcast stations in Toowoomba (91.5, 93.7 & 99.1 FM).

Television

Toowoomba is serviced by 6 commercial stations and 2 non commercial stations.

  • ABC Television
  • SBS Television
  • Nine Network (Relay of Brisbane Television Station)
  • Seven Network
  • WIN Television
  • Southern Cross Ten
  • Ten Network (Relay of Brisbane Television Station)

News for Toowoomba is broadcast every weeknight at 6:00 on WIN Television. On weekends, news is relayed from Brisbane on 7,9 and 10. The current newsreaders on WIN News are Ann-Louise Kruger (Main news), Pat O'Shea (Sports) and Peter Byrne (Weather).

Channel 7 and 10 have a physical presence but news programs focused on the Toowoomba region do not exist on these channels. Instead they have news bulletins broadcast from Brisbane at 5:00 on Ten and 6:00 on Seven respectively.

Austar and selecTV are the only subscription television services available to Toowoomba viewers.

Infrastructure

Transport

There are suburban bus services throughout the city from around 9:00am to around 5:00pm Monday to Friday. A limited service runs Saturday. There are no Sunday services.

Students at the University of Southern Queensland may experience difficulties using buses to reach class commencing at 8:00am or reach home after classes finishing at 6:00pm. Students are advised to obtain a Transport card to ensure discount fares.

There are bus services to Brisbane and other centres, however these are commercial intercity coach services and comparatively expensive (similar trip fares under Translink are 30% to 50% lower). Toowoomba is not included in TransLink the Southeast Queensland integrated public transport system.

Toowoomba has a twice a week rail service from Brisbane to Charleville, Queensland and return on QR's Westlander.

There are no local rail or lightrail/tram services.

The city is well-served by taxi services, with over 100 taxi cabs in existence. A taxi fare from the CBD to the edge of the city is usually under $20.

Health

Toowoomba is serviced by one public hospital, Toowoomba Base Hospital, and two private hospitals - St. Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital and St. Vincents Hospital.

Water

Toowoomba's third water storage Cressbrook Dam was completed in 1983 and supplied water to Toowoomba in 1988. It has a full capacity of about 80,000 megalitres bringing total capacity of the three dams, Cooby, Perseverance, and Cressbrook, to 126,000 megalitres.

The city also has underground supplies in fractured basalt, it sits above the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) and to the west underground water is available beneath agricultural alluvium.

The average rainfall in the period 1998 to 2005 has been 30% below the long term average consistent with a prolonged drought. During March 2006 the surface water storage in the dams fell below 25% of full capacity, and as of December 2006 was at 20%.

Toowoomba City Council's Mayor Dianne Thorley has proposed a controversial potable reuse project under the Toowoomba Water Futures plan which will result in water reclaimed from the Wetalla Sewage Treatment Plant being returned to Cooby Dam to provide 25% of the potable water supply for Toowoomba. Other water supply options include importing water from Oakey Creek Groundwater Management Area (average TDS = 1660 mg/L), importing water from Condamine Groundwater Management Area (Average TDS = 740 mg/L), and water from coal steam gas production (TDS = 1200-4300 mg/L). Pre-feasibility study 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

One of the difficulties with the Water Futures proposal was that it relied on Acland Coal, a subsidiary of New Hope Corporation, taking the reverse osmosis waste stream. However, they had never agreed to this. Without their involvement, 6 square kilometres of evaporation ponds, costing an additional $70 million, would have been required. This amount was not included in Council's budget for the Water Futures project.

On 29 July 2006 Toowoomba City Council conducted a poll of Toowoomba residents on the proposal to use this multi-barrier filtration system for filtering sewage for drinking purposes.

The poll question was: "Do you support the addition of purified recycled water to Toowoomba’s water supply via Cooby Dam as proposed by Water Futures – Toowoomba?”

38% of voters supported the proposal and 62% opposed.

Notes

  1. ^ National Regional Profile : Toowoomba (Statistical Subdivision) (ABS)
  2. ^ http://www.thechronicle.com.au/localsport/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3712929&thesection=localsport&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection
  3. ^ http://www.sportsnews.com.au/news.php?item.11599

27°33′S 151°57′E / 27.550°S 151.950°E / -27.550; 151.950

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