Townsville

The sign says it all

Townsville was a very pleasant surprise. Located about 700 km south of Cairns with a population of around 200,000, it has assumed the mantle as the capital city for northern Queensland. Essentially, it’s the main HQ for private companies and government agencies servicing the far north. It’s also a base for the Australian Army and the RAAF, although at the moment the RAAF don’t have aircraft deployed there.

When you drive downtown, you get the feel of a well developed and substantial city. By this I mean a mix of architecture dating back to the 19 century interspersed with the more modern. There are also well defined light and heavy industrial areas on the fringes and a port area that appears to be quite busy - doing what, not sure. As you drive around, you don’t see huge well lit billious-boards with signage screaming their message about holiday package deals, accommodation, fishing charters or food, such as you see in Cairns. So if you like, Cairns is the loud, flashy teenager - Townsville the mature adult. And no, there‘s no apology to teenagers for my analogy. Full stop.

Castle Hill Foreground - Magnetic Island Background

Right adjacent to the CBD is the foreshore. Running along the foreshore on one side is the Strand, a winding road separated from the foreshore by a well designed and maintained park. Restaurants, Cafes and Hotels pepper the real estate along the way and at lunch and dinner time, there are people everywhere. Prices are “elevated” for the unwary, but if you talk to the locals, as we are prone to do, you learn about alternate and often better choices. On the other side of the CBD, the extension of the Strand leads you to the wharf area where the Ferries for Magnetic Island are berthed. Magnetic Island is about 10 km off the coast and was named by Lt James Cook (here’s that man again) in 1770 when he sailed the Endeavour between what is now Townsville on the mainland and “Magnetical” Island, as he originally named it. Magnetic Island is essentially granite but for some reason, it made the Endeavour compass move about erratically, hence the name. The island is a haven for a large population of Koala’s and about 50% of the island is National Forest.

Downtown Townsville - From Castle Hill

Just off the Strand, Stanley Road takes you to the top of Castle Hill which directly overlooks the CBD and also gives a 180 degree over-view of most of the downtown area. We went there on Sunday evening and couldn’t believe the number of people out walking, jogging or cycling  up the hill - there would have been a couple hundred people without exaggeration - and that was just in the time we were there, which was late in the day. It’s a 2.9 km climb of about 550 metres in height so that’s an average incline of around 11 degrees. Doesn’t sound much but try doing that on a treadmill elevated to that angle at say 10 km/hr for a time which equates to around 17 minutes continuous - and then you come back down. Who needs a treadmill when you have a Castle Hill right outside your front door. Suffice to say there were a lot of sweaty T-shirts about on that day. But the view of the city from the vantage point, particularly the CBD, is fantastic. There’s another good viewing point about 25 minute drive from the CBD that takes you to Mt Stuart which, although further out of town, gives you a truly panoramic view of the whole of Townsville. It’s good for the over-view but nothing like the Castle Hill view. You are almost directly above the CBD area - awesome.

Townsville has museums - very good museums, with perhaps the exception being the RAAF museum. We were disappointed by this one, not because the people running it were in any way lacking, in fact they were very friendly and welcoming, but because the RAAF itself is lacking in providing the support to a museum which should be way better than it is, given its history. It comprises essentially photographic displays of the history of the Townsville RAAF base, including a very good display on the bombing of Townsville in WWII.  Neither self nor TJ knew that Townsville had been bombed in WWII.

English Translation of japanese Pilot Logbbok

Townsville was, in fact, attacked 3 times during 1942 by Japanese air raids, with the only reported damage being from the first raid, and then only to a Palm tree !. But the logbook of one of the Japanese bomber pilots on that first raid makes interesting reading. According to his entry dated 25 july 1942, he managed to bomb a jetty and 3 large merchant ships. For the second raid, a single aircraft was chased off with anti-aircraft guns and jettisoned it’s bombs over the sea, which the pilot accurately reported. On the third and final raid, the pilot reported that he had been attacked by fighter aircraft, but had managed to bomb the RAAF airfield. 

No ships were sunk in Cleveland Bay (so named by that man Cook !), the Port area of Townsville, there was no damage to any Jetty and the RAAF Airfield was left untouched after all 3 raids. So either the aircrew of these attack aircraft were fighting a war in some other part of the world or - golly gosh - they were telling porkies. Disgraceful state of affairs. Imagine what this does to the war Stat’s ?

Scale model of HMS Pandora

I’m not going to waffle on about the other museums we visited, suffice to say the Tropical Museum of Queensland contains an excellent display of HMS Pandora. Pandora was the ship that was sent out from England to track down the mutineers from HMS Bounty.  In fact, this is the central exhibition in the museum. The expression "Pandora's Box" relates to the box on the Quarter deck of Pandora that was built specifically to house the 14 mutineers captured on Tahiti following the mutiny on the Bounty captained by William Bligh. 

The Maritime Museum has an excellent collection of Naval memorabilia, including photos, hardware and general personal belongings. There’s also a very interesting video on the exploits of the Krait, a Japanese Lugger that was captured by the Allies and used as a means of getting past the Japanese defences in Singapore harbour. Six Commandos in canoes managed to attach Limpet mines to a number of ships in the harbour and sent 40,000 tons of shipping to the bottom in one night. The reason this was such an important mission was twofold. In the first instance, it proved to the Japanese that they weren’t free from attack in even the most heavily fortified areas they controlled. And second, it provided a morale boost to the Allies who, at that time, were suffering from some terrible defeats, Singapore being probably the greatest at that time in this theatre of the war. And finally, there’s an Aquarium. I didn’t visit this one but TJ did and was impressed.

My Trail Bike "Mike"

As already mentioned, off the coast about 10 km is Magnetic island. Fortunately, those salivating at the thought of making big dollars haven’t been allowed to screw it up. TJ and self whizzed around the island, he on a Scooter (he doesn’t have a bike licence) and me on a 230cc “trail bike”. The power of both was such that I doubt either could have pulled the skin off a rice pudding - but we had fun and got to see most of the island.

WWII Command Post on right - Picturesque bay left

Magnetic Island is home to around 3000 people and has at it’s highest peak, WWII gun emplacements and all that goes with that. It’s referred to as “The Fort” and we took the time and walked up there. The views are spectacular and well worth the effort. It’s almost a surreal experience - you’re wandering through the remnants of a heavily fortified fortress built to defend against attacks on Townsville - shift your gaze ±10 degrees azimuth (ie left or right) and then dial in negative elevation (ie look down) and all you see are picturesque palm tree lined sandy beaches and blue sea. Factor in a cloudless blue sky and there you have it - brilliant. You feel like your in some kind of parallel universe; ie The Guns of Navarone right beside Adventures In Paradise. 

Horseshoe Bay from The Fort

The island has some of the best coastline I’ve seen on this trip. There are several small bays with sandy beaches lined with palm trees, the finest example being Horseshoe Bay. This is a wonderful beach, semi-circular in shape (hence Horseshoe Bay) with a sandy beach and netting to keep out the box Jellyfish. And this is something I didn’t mention earlier - you see netting like this on some beaches up this way, and not on others. Either way, there’s always a bottle of Vinegar in a holder, clearly marked as such, right at the beachfront in case you get stung. 

Horseshoe Bay - very pleasant surroundings

Right opposite the beach is a very well designed and unobtrusive shopping centre with low level and tastefully designed apartments. And the added bonus - very few people. Maybe that’s because of the time of year, but even so, this place screams (in a hushed way if that’s possible) seclusion, privacy and a place to relax. I could spend a couple of days here, no problem.

Whilst in Townsville, we’ve been staying at a 7th Day Adventist church caravan park, which occupies a large open field behind the church. It’s part of the Riverside Convention Centre based about 5 km from the CBD so it was an obvious choice for us, being so close to the city. Besides, the rates are very reasonable at $25 per night for two people. Given all this, we’ve been puzzled as to why there are very few caravaners here - no more than a hand full when we arrived. I think I’ve discovered why. Most mornings at 7am, the gardener starts up the motorised blower - right by the caravans. Furthermore, he keeps revving the bloody thing almost as a taunt - at least that’s the way it appears. Now I know the guy is just doing The Lord’s work, but he has two black sheep in the flock in this particular paddock and things could have turned ugly. Restraint was exercised, lips zipped and mutterings maintained at a low level, so all was well - sort of. 

From here, we head back inland and then down through central Queensland and NSW.