Townsville Australia Travel Information The second largest city in Queensland, Townsville claims to be the “Capital of North Queensland”.
Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
It is also home of the famous Reef HQ Aquarium, colourful Cotters Market, and Palmetum Park. With a population more than twice of that of Cairns, it has got some excellent museums, plenty of good dining and a lively nightlife in the great Townsville pubs. Magnetic Island is just 8km off the shore, and the Great Barrier Reef a two-hours trip out to the ocean. Here is some information on the town's attractions, and in the end of this page is a Townsville map.
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The Strand. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Townsville Australia and Magnetic Island Townsville The most obvious feature of Townsville is Castle Hill right in the middle of the city centre. You can drive or walk up the hill, there are some excellent views of the city with the Magnetic Island in the background. The central city is around the mouth of Ross Creek. East of it is South Townsville with many of the town's best restaurants on Palmer Street, a few good pubs, hotels and the Transit Centre - the place where you arrive if you travel by long-distance buses.
Palmer Street. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Flinders Street East and Cotters Market - Townsville Australia West of the Ross Creek which you either cross by Dean St Bridge or the pedestrian Victoria Bridge, is the Flinders Street. In the north-eastern end towards the ocean it is called Flinders Street East, which is the hub of the town’s nightlife, with many Townsville pubs and nightclubs, but also some good restaurants. Towards south across Dean Street it turns into a pedestrian shopping mall, Flinders Street Mall, where there are a lot of shops, banks, a few eateries, the central tourist information centre, police station, and the central (local – not to be confused with the Transit Centre) bus station. On the mall are also the weekly Cotters Market on Sunday mornings. South-west of the mall the Flinders Street is known as Flinders Street West, where there are a few shops, pubs and restaurants, and the central train station.
Victoria Bridge. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Reef HQ Aquarium - Townsville Australia The town’s best museums are the famous Reef HQ Aquarium, Museum of Tropical Queensland and Townsville Maritime Museum. The Townsville Maritime Museum is on Palmer Street in South Townsville, while the other two are on Flinders Street East, on the bank of Ross Creek. The Reef HQ Aquarium is a beautiful miniature version of the Great Barrier Reef with its many species of corals and jellyfish, sea shells and sea stars, turtles and sea snakes, and fish including sharks.
Reef HQ. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Townsville Museums - Townsville Australia The Museum of Tropical Queensland has a lot of displays about the history of north Queensland, its people including both Aboriginal people and Europeans, and also the sinking of HMS Pandora. The Townsville Maritime Museum tells the story of Yongala that sank in a cyclone in 1911, one of the most popular shipwrecks with divers which lies on the ocean bottom off the coast in Great Barrier Reef.
Maritime Museum. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
The Strand Townsville Australia On the northern coast of Townsville, west of the mouth of Ross Creek, is The Strand Townsville – a lively beachfront esplanade, always busy with walkers, joggers, swimmers and roller skaters. There are many cafes and bars right on the beachfront with lovely views over the Magnetic Island, but there are also barbeques and picnic tables, and many people just sit down on the lawn and have a picnic. There is The Strand Night Markets hold on The Strand Townsville during the first Friday of every month between May and December.
The Strand. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Townsville Australia - Parks It’s also nice to have a stroll in Townsville’s many parks. Not far from The Strand Townsville are the Queens Gardens with the town’s original Botanic Gardens from 1878. The new Townsville Botanic Gardens are in Anderson Park in Mundingburra; and in The Palmetum near the James Cook University, which has a lot of native palms. North-west from the Strand in the city is Belgian Gardens, Rowes Bay and the beautiful Pallarenda Beach with beach barbeques and some nice picnic spots, and north from here is the Town Common with wetlands famous for large flocks of magpie geese, jabirus, brolgas and other rare but spectacular tropical wetlands birds.
Pallarenda Beach. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Outside Town - Townsville Australia North of Townsville are the Townsville northern Beaches, such as Balgal Beach, Saunders Beach, Bushland Beach and Rollingstone. Seventeen kilometres south of Townsville is the Billabong Sanctuary - one of the best animal sanctuaries in Australia. You can see all sorts of Australian animals here, and as usually, feed kangaroos cuddle koalas and hold baby crocodiles.
Billabong Sanctuary. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Tours - Townsville Australia There are a few tours available in Townsville: Townsville Tropical Tours will take you to Paluma Range National Park and Lumholtz (Girringun) National Park with Wallaman Falls - Australian longest single-drop waterfall. Woodstock Trail Rides will take you to the outback; and Reef Eco Tours will take you out to the coral reef. Coral Sea Skydivers offers skydiving; and Pro Dive, Diving Dreams Australia and Blue Angel Adventure Diving offer dive courses.
Reef cruise. Courtesy of Tourism Queensland
Townsville Hotels - Townsville Australia There is plenty of accommodation available in Townsville for all budgets. Backpacker options include Adventurers Resort, Civic Guest House, Globetrotters Backpackers Hostel and Reef Lodge Backpackers Hostel.
If you want to camp, there are Rowes Bay Caravan Park in town; and Coral Coast Tourist Park, Magnetic Getaway Holiday Village and Walkabout Palms on the outskirts. And as elsewhere – the parks on the outskirts are better - city centre caravan parks live on good location and tend to put less effort into maintenance and services.
Here's a Townsville map, where I have tagged the places that I mentioned on this web page. You can click on the tags to see what places they are, and double-click anywhere on the map to zoom it in and see the places closer. Drag the map to move around, and if you want to see the satellite image with Google Earth, click on "Sat" in the top right hand corner.
NOTE: This website is written in British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all correct in the language used in Australia.
