Located in North Queensland, Townsville is often referred to as the unofficial capital of Far North Queensland. By population it’s the second largest city in Queensland behind the State capital of Brisbane, 1300km south. Townsville has a dry tropical environment. Townsville offers a dry tropical enlivenment compared to to mountainous wet tropical environs of Cairns to the north.
A search for suitable grazing land for cattle led to the eventual formation of Townsville. Robert Towns, a prominent businessman from Sydney funded the initial exploration for suitable cattle grazing land in 1864 and in 1866 Robert Towns agreed to provide financial assistance to the formation of Townsville, with the city being named in Town's honour. Interestingly Robert Towns only visited Townsville for 3 days, which was also his last visit.
Today Townsville is a modern city and has a diverse range of industries including a large army presence, mining and other commercial and Government industries. Whilst Townsville is in the tropical region, the city experiences distinct wet and dry seasons, as opposed to the wet tropics region just a few hours drive north. Townsville has an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, with most sunny days falling in the winter months. The summer “wet season”, months (November-May) see Townsville experience an average of 1200mm of rainfall including thunderstorms and cyclones.
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