Hotel Allen

The Strand

by stevezero

The Strand is a 2km long development along the main beach at Townsville.
It was constructed in 1999, following several years of heavy monsoon rain which caused damage to the seawall.
Ther is now a lovely promenade walk, as well as restaurants, cafes and shops.

Crazy birds

by halans

At around 6-6:30 in the evening head down to the main shopping street. There you'll be overwhelmed by a deafening noise of hundreds or thousands of rainbow lorikeets (small parrots) shreeking about, flying around to find a sleeping spot (think Hitchcock's 'The Birds'). Interesting.

Crap name, lovely place

by northeast80

I should rename this page title after finding out the town was named after a Mr.Towns, I assumed they just thought, urm it's a town and it was a village, oh yeah lets call it Townsville.

I loved Townsville.
Such a change coming from a week of rain to sun.
Walked round the town, climbed Castle Hill with great views of the city, art galleries and museums. And old buildings, I was craving for some of these, after monotonous Cairns it was bliss for a mixture of architecture, old and new.
Stayed at the Civic Guest House which was about 15 min walk into the centre, but nice and quiet and en-suite.

Magnificant views of the city and islands, with the tablelands to the rear.
You put in all the effort in getting to the top only to find a car park and toilets there!

Other things I remember from Townsville

by rwlittle

"Home! from 1974 to 1978"

I'm actually in this photo, in front of the house, with my sister. You'll note that there are no trees around. We had the last of the tall trees on the property brought down when we moved in...a cyclone precaution.

"War of the Worlds!"

Not to worry, this is just a still from the George Pal classic, Academy-Award-winning "War of the Worlds". One night, I had an earache of some sort, and my folks let me stay up late to watch the movie, because I could not sleep. The movie made an impression on me. I forgot all about the earache while I watched, and it was gone when the movie ended.

""Exterminate!""

I got my first exposure to "Doctor Who" in Australia. All I remember now are scenes of the Doctor and his companion fleeing the dangerous Daleks (see the picture), who kept saying "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

"Things not to say at the beach in Australia..."

It's 1976 (I believe), and my parents take my sister and I to the drive-in to see "Jaws". The movie made a big impression on me...I remember having a dream where the sharkactually burst through the floor of my bedroom to threaten me!

So, one might think that taking such a young kid to see this movie might not have been such a good idea...one would be right. My parents tell a story (which only seems to get a little worse with each re-telling), of taking my sister and I to the beach a little while after we saw the movie. Well, we decided to play out the movie! We start yelling out "Shark! Shark!" The water clears in under 10 seconds, and my parents hustle my sister and I off the beach before anyone can realize that it was us calling out the false alarm. As it happens, the year that Jaws came out, there were a number of Great White attacks up and down Australia's eastern coastline, so everyone was on edge.

...At least, that's how my parents tell the story--I don't remember a thing...

""...a man barely alive...""

My parents let me stay up "late" (I'm not sure what that actually means any more) once a week to watch the Six Million Dollar Man. After the show, I'd run down the hallway to my bedroom, making "bionic" sounds as I went...