Cascade Motor Inn

Christmas decoration

by ettiewyn

During christmas time, Townsville's city center is decorated with stars, reindeer and Santa Claus. Of course this is not too unusual, but this was the first christmas decoration I saw in Australia, and so I was very fascinated when I saw this decoration between the palm trees, it just looked too unusual to me! I still think it is quiet special when I look at the pictures now.

Reef HQ

by halans

Reef HQ, the office of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. It has a living reef on display so you can get close to the reef fish without getting wet. At 4:15 they feed the sharkes. Although it was two days ago that they had eaten, they were only mildly interested in their frozen food. The display gives you a nice overview of all things 'reef'. The aquarium itself wasn't too impressive, maybe we expected things to be bigger. Still worth your visit if you're in Townsville.

Townsville-Born and bred

by tangomango

"March 1969 off Townsville"

My friend Les and I built our own surfskis to my plans out of marine ply and fiberglass.I had an idea to join the 2 skis together and mount an outboard motor.Les built the frame and backboard for the outboard motor.Our maiden voyage,we loaded the 2 surfskis on his uncles truck with the frame and rented a motor and gas tank.We unloaded the surfskis and motor at the strand across the road from the Queens hotel or thereabouts.Joined the 2 skis together,mounted the outboard and launched it off the beach.Our plans were to motor over to Magnetic Island but we were a bit worried as we had no life jackets...So,we motored up and down the channel between Magnetic Island and The Strand.It was an adventure and absolute fun...

"Circa 1969-1970 Castle Hill summit"

There we were on top of Castle Hill enjoying the sunshine and the view quite a few years ago now,when I lived in Townsville.

Little city with a great ZOO

by Landad

"The little city is just a short stop..."

on the way to Magnetic Island. Anyway there are quite a lot of hostels, very close to the Bus station.

I decided to spend there 1 night and one day. I arrived from Cairns by bus ( about 4 hours driving) in the evening. There was no problem with finding a free place in the hostel for a quite a good price. The next day I decided to visit the Bilbao Zoo. Up to now I have seen exotic zoo in Cairns (Australia) and Singapore but this one in Townsville was the best !!!

They are very well organized ! Every 30 minutes there is a meeting at a terarium of an animal.

When you enter the zoo, you get a plan with a map and all the hours of "shows" (like feeding animals). The programm goes twice a day, as far as I remember the morning one starts at 9 and ends at 13, and the next one starts at about 13:30.

The nicest think is that kangoroos are running free in the whole garden, you can touch them, feed them...the feeling is great ! (you can buy a special food at the entry), besides you can hold coala, wombat, crocodile, snake and a parrot...I holded all of them :-)))) .

Up to now, it was the best ZOO I ever been to.