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Toowoomba

Coordinates: 27°33′S 151°57′E / 27.550°S 151.950°E / -27.550; 151.950
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Toowoomba
Queensland
Location of Toowoomba in Queensland (red)
Population95,265 (Census 2006)[1] (15th)
 • Density209.4/km2 (542/sq mi)
Established1840's
Postcode(s)4350
Elevation691 m (2,267 ft)[2]
Time zoneAEST (UTC+10)
Location132 km (82 mi) from Brisbane
LGA(s)Toowoomba Regional Council
CountyChurchill
State electorate(s)Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Cunningham
Federal division(s)Groom
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
22.6 °C
73 °F		 11.4 °C
53 °F		 944 mm
37.2 in
Toowoomba Town Hall

Toowoomba (nicknamed 'The Garden City') is a city in South East Queensland, Australia. It is located 132 km (82 mi) west of Queensland's capital city, Brisbane. With an urban population of 95,265[1], Toowoomba is one of Australia's largest provincial cities.

A university and cathedral city, Toowoomba hosts the Australian Carnival of Flowers each September, and Easterfest is held annually over the Easter weekend.

From the March 2008, quadrennial local government elections, Toowoomba has been amalgamated with surrounding rural shires and towns to form Toowoomba Regional Council.

History

Main article: History of Toowoomba, Queensland
Former Toowoomba Trades Hall building.

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. Thirteen years later when George and Patrick Leslie established Toolburra Station 56 miles (90 km) 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.

Main Street of Toowoomba in 1897.

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 true founder of Toowoomba, despite the fact that 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 the wish of locals 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

A NASA Landsat montage of Toowoomba city
Toowoomba has a highly eclectic range of domestic architectural styles.
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 (2,300 ft) above sea level. A few streets are on the eastern side of the edge of the range, but most 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 3,000 km (1,860 mi) 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 (110 mi).

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. This is particularly rare in Australia, as nearly the entire continent is forested with evergreens.

Daily maximum temperatures in Toowoomba average 27 °C (81 °F) in summer and 16 °C (61 °F) in winter. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the highest temperature ever recorded in Toowoomba was 39.3 °C (102.7 °F), while the lowest was −4.4 °C (24 °F). Winter temperatures seldom go below freezing; however (in a situation unique among Queensland cities), snow has been reported on the higher parts of the city on rare occasions. Light frost will be experienced several nights each winter in the city centre; more often in the western suburbs.

Average annual rainfall, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, is 928 millimetres (37 in) per year in Toowoomba City. Rainfall in the eastern suburbs along the Great Diving Range nudges 1,000 mm (39 in) 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 residents are strongly urged to cut down on water consumption. Despite dams reaching critical levels, the city rejected the use of recycled water in a plebiscite on July 29, 2006.

Governance

Main article: Politics of Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba is located in and is the seat of the Toowoomba Regional Council 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%). [citation needed] 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 (18 mi) NW of Toowoomba) and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah to the city's North.

The city also has many large shopping centres[citation needed].

Education

Toowoomba is a major education centre.

Primary

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

State

Private/Religious

Secondary

State High

Private/Religious

Tertiary

Culture

Festivals

The annual Flower Festival is a chance to show off Toowoomba's parks and gardens at their best

Toowoomba is nationally[3] renowned for its annual Flower Festival, held each year in September. Many of the city's major parks and gardens are especially prepared for the Festival, which also includes a prominent Home Garden Competition, with persons able to visit participating homes and gardens for inspection, and a Parade with flower-themed floats. Buses[4] bring people from around the nation, and a popular way to arrive at the Festival from Brisbane is on specially chartered retired steam or diesel train[5], which captures the yesteryear aspect of travel to Toowoomba in 19th century wooden carriages.

Food

Toowoomba is well served by the famous restaurant Weis, in one of the City's oldest heritage buildings dating from the 1920s[6].

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. Examples of architecture drawing from the city's wealthy beginnings 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 is also home to The Empire Theatre, which was originally opened in June 1911, as a silent movie house. In February 1933, fire broke out, almost completely destroying the building. However, the Empire was rebuilt and reopened in November 1933. The architectural styling of the new Empire Theatre was art deco, in keeping with the trend of the 1930s. After years of neglect, the Empire Theatre was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, but retains much of its Art Deco architecture and decorations, especially the proscenium arch. 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

A rugby league team representing Toowoomba used to compete in the Bulimba Cup tournament.

Toowoomba currently 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.[7] 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.[8]

Notable people from Toowoomba

Main article: List of notable people from Toowoomba, Queensland

Media

Print

  • The Toowoomba Chronicle[1]
  • Toowoomba Mail[2]

Radio

  • 4QS 747 (ABC Local Radio)
  • 4GR 864 (commercial)
  • 4WK 1359 (commercial)- Relay of 4WK Warwick.
  • 4AK 1242 (commercial)- Based in Oakey, located 20 km (12 mi) west of Toowoomba CBD.
  • Radio 2 1620 (commercial)- Relay of Radio 2 network Sydney.
  • C FM 100.7 (commercial) - Named "C" fm rather than SEA due to Toowoomba's inland location
  • Double 8FM (narrowcast) 88.0 - Non-community FM station featuring tourist information and the best 60s and 70s music, established in 1996. 88FM Toowoomba & 87.6FM Pittsworth
  • Triple J 104.1 - Also available 103.3 from Warwick and 107.7 from Brisbane
  • ABC Radio National 105.7
  • ABC Classic FM 107.3
  • Country FM 91.5 (narrowcast)
  • 4GOD 92.9 The Light (Christian community)
  • 93.7 (narrowcast - racing)
  • 99.1 (narrowcast) Kids FM - exclusively kids music and stories
  • 4DDB 102.7 (community)

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 three commercial national network stations and two national non-commercial network stations.

News for Toowoomba is screened every weeknight at 6:00pm on WIN Television, broadcast live from the WIN studios in the Toowoomba suburb of Mt Lofty. On weekends, news is relayed from Channel 9, Brisbane.

Seven Queensland and Southern Cross Ten have a physical presence in Toowoomba, but local news programs do not exist on these channels. Instead, they carry news bulletins from Brisbane stations Channel 7 and Channel 10.

In addition to the local television stations, some Toowoomba households with special high mast aerials can receive Brisbane's three commercial Analogue TV stations, bringing the total number of free-to-air stations available in Toowoomba to eight.

Infrastructure

Transport

There are extensive suburban bus services operated by Garden City Sunbus throughout the city from around 9:00 am to around 5:30 pm Monday to Friday. A limited service runs Saturday. There are no Sunday services[citation needed].

There are frequent inter-city bus services between Toowoomba and Brisbane, and other centres[citation needed].

Toowoomba is not included in TransLink, the Southeast Queensland integrated public transport system—a matter of some local contention[citation needed].

Toowoomba has a twice weekly rail service from Brisbane to Charleville, Queensland and return on QR's Westlander[citation needed].

There are no local rail or tram services, however the development of a suburban railway system has been flagged[citation needed]. Toowoomba is criss-crossed by several railway lines which are largely unused, or used for freight, and idle railway stations can be found in the suburbs (including Ballard, Drayton, Harlaxton and Harristown) dating to when these localities were separate centres.

Toowoomba is serviced by Toowoomba Airport, which is used by the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Darling Downs Aeroclub.

Health

Toowoomba is serviced by one public hospital, Toowoomba Base Hospital, and two private hospitals - St. Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital and St. Vincents Hospital. Toowoomba also has the highest suicide rate in Australia[citation needed].

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 and this trend continued through to spring of 2007. During March 2006 the surface water storage in the dams fell below 25% of full capacity, falling even more to 12.8% as of 10 March 2008 and Toowoomba has level 5 water restrictions while supplies are at such a low level. Groundwater has become a significant contributor to the city's water supply needs and now constitutes one third of the total volume of water treated for reticulated supply (160ML per week)[9].

Previous Toowoomba City Council's Mayor Dianne Thorley proposed a controversial potable reuse project under the Toowoomba Water Futures plan which would 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).

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 (2 sq mi) of evaporation ponds, costing at least an additional $70 million, would have been required. This amount was not included in Council's budget for the Water Futures project. Jondaryan Shire Council is now negotiating with New Hope Corporation to provide water from the Oakey bore fields to Acland Coal.

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.

In 2007, the Toowoomba City Council commenced a bore drilling program to augment the dwindling dam supplies and constructed several subartesian bores across the city and one artesian bore at Wetalla in the city's north. Many of the subartesian bores provided potable water with a reliable yield and have been developed into production however the artesian bore's water quality was very poor, prohibiting development as a potable source. This was an expensive setback for the city as the cost was over A$2 million for drilling to over 700 metres. Drilling of another artesian bore has commenced and in January 2008, yield testing had been stalled due to the unavailability of appropriate pumping equipment.

Also in 2007, the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water initiated a subartesian drilling program centred on Toowoomba to expand its network of groundwater monitoring stations in the Main Range Volcanics. With the increased demand for groundwater in the area from council, commercial and urban users, more information was required to effectively manage the resource whereas previously the location and density of monitoring stations would not provide enough data.

Sister cities

References

  1. ^ a b Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Toowoomba (Urban Centre/Locality)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
  2. ^ "TOOWOOMBA". Climate Averages for Australian Sites. Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 2008-25-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ about-australia.com.au (undated). "Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers - Events" (html). about-australia.com.au. Retrieved 2008-10-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ EZI Drive Coaches and Mini Buses (2007). "Train buffs have chance to go loco" (html). EZI Drive Coaches and Mini Buses. Retrieved 2008-10-13. {{cite web}}: Text "Family Fun" ignored (help); Text "Finda" ignored (help)
  5. ^ Toowoomba Chronicle ([2008-09-17]). "Train buffs have chance to go loco" (html). www.finda.com.au. Retrieved 2008-10-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ http://www.weis-restaurant.com.au/
  7. ^ Clydesdales gone forever: Martin - Toowoomba Chronicle - 2006-12-07 08:00:00.0 - localsport
  8. ^ SportsNews.com.au: Aspley new Brisbane Broncos feeder club
  9. ^ "Weekly Water Consumption Figures". Toowoomba City Council. March 10 2008. Retrieved March 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Further reading

Toowoomba as a Railway Centre, Knowles, J Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, January, 1959 pp10-16

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

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