Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOWNSVILLE & AROUND
North Queensland's largest city is an ideal base for coastal, inland and offshore day trips.
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Townsville
POP 189,931
Sprawling beneath a brooding red hill, Townsville is an underrated spot with a lot to offer:
excellent museums, a huge aquarium, world-class diving, two major sporting teams, vi-
brant nightlife and an endless esplanade. A pedestrian-friendly city, it's easy to take in its
sights on foot: grand, refurbished 19th-century buildings offer loads of landmarks, and if
you get lost the friendly locals will be only too happy to lend a hand…or shout you a beer.
Townsville has a lively, young populace, with thousands of students and armed forces
members intermingling with old-school locals, fly-in-fly-out mine workers and summer-
seekers lapping up the average 320 days of sunshine per year.
Townsville is only 350km from Cairns, but is much drier than its tropical rival: if
'Brownsville' is baking your bones, the splendid beaches of Magnetic Island are but a ferry
jaunt away.
