Townsville CBD - Flinders Street

Abandoned Townsville bank parking

I observed this building for well over a year and thought it would make a great subject to photograph. I imagined it would work well with moody clouds and the morning light hitting the building.  The morning I captured it there were clouds around and all the conditions came right to make this image.  I took this around 6am, moments later the clouds had lifted to the usual blue skies of Townsville.

Queens Gardens - Townsville

Queens Gardens in Townsville has a wonderful diversity of tropical plants and trees to check out as well as providing relief from the tropical sun and heat.  I love how the main pathway leads the eye towards the iconic Castle Hill.

Classic Australia - Post War unit complex, Townsville

Townsville has many great examples of Post War architecture, including these units.  I enjoy how fly screens have been put on the inside, this allows the casement windows to be shown off to full effect.  I love the sharp symmetry of the complex created by the staircase.

Townsville Suburbia + Castle Hill

This perspective show the suburb of North Ward and Castle Hill in background.  North Ward is one of the oldest suburbs in Townsville. Whilst it is one of the oldest, with population boom comes change, and since the 1970s many homes have been demolished to make way for units.

Kensington & Holborn Apartments - Townsville

Early morning winter scene of these two new apartment/accommodation that have been built on the former Townsville Railyards site.

Townsville CBD "lease me"

Queenslander vs Phone box

Townsville - "Urban Nowhere"

Mansion on the hill, Castle Hill that is

Many new homes have emerged on the slopes of Castle Hill in Townsville in recent times, they look more like units but most are homes, large homes.  The area where these homes are located fetch in the region of $1+ million when they sell, the views overlook the ocean and magnetic island.

Altitude Apartments - Townsville

This perspective shows the new apartment block that has been built in Walker Street, Townsville city named Altitude Apartments. The council is aiming to have 30,000 people living and working in Townsville city by 2030, so one would imagine that several more medium and high density projects such as Altitude would have to be built in order to reach this target as well as infrastructure to support this rapid growth.

Townsville: An Alleyway + Hairdresser

This is one of several small alleyways in Townsville city, most have a sense of emptiness or have closed down with empty shops and little pedestrian foot traffic.  These alleyways remind me of places in cities like Melbourne that are bustling with a variety of shops and cafes. Such spaces suit the tropical environment of Townsville, shade from the heat and a quick way to get from one street to another.  I really liked the sense of emptiness here for photography, with the hairdresser signage being the dominant feature in this alleyway.

The morning Townsville commute

The morning commute into the city

The dry spell has been broken in Townsville; that thing called rain happened

Since July 2012 Townsville has had just a couple of inches of rainfall.  Defined by a dry/wet season the city has lived up to its nickname of "Brownsville" over the past few months with very hot days and little sight of cloud on the horizon.  Whilst snow would be a big call for the tropical city, the advent of an overcast day with rain and some thunder is a good Christmas present. I took this photograph a week before the rain arrived, even the weeds pushing out of the asphalt looked to be on struggle street!

Townsville city: Abandoned from the inside out

For every new building project that springs up in Townsville, there are buildings and urban landscapes that remain vacant and abandoned.  Part of my photographic project is to record these moments that have been left behind.

Summer morning by the rockpool & strand

Summer seemed to arrive long ago in Townsville, and the weather is warming up and the humidity on the rise. The Strand and the rockpool are the popular local and tourist swimming spots.  The stinger nets are out and Castle Hill dominates the summer skyline.  These photographs I captured were taken at 7.45am, 30 Celsius.

 

Skyline cranes - The Verde + Ergon Energy development

This perspective shot I took facing Blackwood Street highlights the changing skyline of Townsville. The Verde crane is to the left, whilst the crane on the right will be the Ergon Energy building.

Townsville Rail yards

Whilst the Northern Townsville rail yards have over the recent years been swallowed up by new developments (or in the planning process of being developed) this section of the rail yards is boarders the suburbs of Railway Estate and South Townsville.  I love the 20th Century sawtooth roofing and the way the lighting was the day I took this photograph.

Former Townsville Transit Centre

For every new development or proposed development in Townsville there are buildings that stand abandoned. This blog documents Townsville as a city in change, and part of that change is highlighting the forgotten parts of the city, that stand as symbols of a bygone era. The former Townsville bus terminal dates from the latter part of the 20th century, yet its lifespan was so short lived.  It makes me reflect on how short a building's lifespan can be,  when in just a matter of decades a building such as this lay abandoned. What will become of new buildings built today in another 30 years time?

Stay tuned for more abandoned photographs of buildings and sites of Townsville I have been documenting as part of the Townsville project.

Suburb in focus: Ooonoonba, Townsville.

The older suburbs of Townsville are interesting in many ways.  They are home to many wonderful examples of the cities earlier 20th century buildings and as such tell a rich visual and social story.  Such suburbs include Belgian Gardens, North Ward, South Townsville, Hermit Park and Ooonoonba (pictured above).

Ooonoonba is about 3 km from the city.  Until recently it wasn't directly linked to other suburbs, it stood alone, with the mangrove swamp behind it and the (former) Ross River meatworks cattle yards over the Abbott Street highway.  Now the cattle yards have been converted into the new suburb of Fairfield Waters.

What is strikingly different about older early/mid 20th Century suburbs is their street uniformity with their grid structure and large back yards.  Many new housing estates, such as Fairfield Waters (pictured below) have small back yards, homes that sit very close to one another and bending streets.

The old and new layout: Ooonooba (left) and Fairfield Waters (right)