Townsville

Townsville is Australia’s largest tropical beachside city, which has an almost unbroken spell of warm sunshine. Townsville offers easy access to an extraordinary range of natural wonders including the Great Barrier Reef, the World Heritage listed rainforest of the Wet Tropics and tropical islands.

Magnetic Island, only 25 minutes from Townsville by regular catamaran, features abundant wildlife, including the largest island population of koalas in Australia. It abounds in palm-fringed beaches, mangrove waterways and rugged granite cliffs. You can join a boat cruise across seagrass beds that are home to dugongs (seacows) and marine turtles; or learn about the unique mangrove everglades ecosystem.

You can learn more about the Great Barrier Reef’s ecosystem at the

With over 60% of Australia's birdlife found in North Queensland, bird watching is a very popular activity in this region.

Only 135km southwest from Townsville, the gold mining town of Charters Towers is known for its heritage and gold mining history. Today it is a living museum of grand hotels, banks and historical attractions including Australia’s original stock exchange. One of today’s main industries is mining, with a variety of interesting mine tours available. You can also stay on a cattle property to experience the daily life of an Australian farm or join a guided tour of the Venus Gold Battery where gold was processed from 1872 until 1972.

• Learn about the military and maritime history of the city at Townsville’s inner city museums.
• Experience the Great Barrier Reef without getting wet at Reef HQ, the world’s largest living reef aquarium.
• Visit the Museum of Tropical Queensland, which interprets Queensland's tropical heritage for present and future generations through excellence in research.  Its collections cover areas of pure and applied sciences, the natural environment, maritime and social history.
• Listen to wildlife talks and interact with Australian native animals at Billabong Sanctuary.
• Visit the spectacular waterfalls Jourama Falls or Wallaman Falls, Australia’s largest single drop waterfall.
• Great Barrier Reef day trips depart from Townsville to visit some of the most pristine, clear reefs along the Queensland coast.
• Diving expeditions can take you to the internationally renowned Yongala Wreck — one of the best dive sites in the world.
• Five tropical islands lie on the doorstep of the North Queensland region, each offering a completely unique experience — Dunk & Bedarra, Orpheus, Magnetic & Hinchinbrook Islands.
• Visit Magnetic Island to see koalas in the wild.
• The “Ghosts of Gold” tour in Charters Towers will take you on a journey to discover the heritage and legends of this historic part of Australia.

• Townsville is Australia’s seventh largest city and features Queensland’s third largest and fastest growing industrial port.
• The region has a strong economic base including manufacturing, government administration, construction, and mining.
• Led by James Cook University, a centre of excellence in tropical studies, Townsville and the North Queensland region offers an extraordinary range of quality education facilities including private and government secondary schools, English-language facilities and the Barrier Reef Institute of Technical & Further Education.
• Townsville is home to world renowned research facilities including the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Institute for Tropical Medicine, the tropical centre of the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and a range of Commonwealth Research Centres (CRCs) focused on tropical science and tropical agriculture.