Townsville is a city that is hard to pigeon-hole. It is dominated by Castle Hill, a towering rock that the suburbs have developed around, creating very separate parts. The waterfront Strand is a delight … a beachside promenade dotted with quirky public art, a variety of beautiful buildings and the view across to Magnetic and other islands. Other areas are flat and dominated by suburban sprawl. And other areas are warehouse industrial that stretch for kilometres. And there is a working harbour with a rail head too!
Typical McDermotts, one of the first things we did after arrival was a walk along the beachfront to a fancy rooftop harbourside bar. Purpose of the visit: to watch the sunset across the bay but our timing was a little off (you know the drill: Saturday night, very popular place, we hadn’t booked, they needed our table, got moved to the bar where we had a minimal view, we left). This meant we were walking back along The Strand as the sun set, which was still lovely as we sat by a pier and enjoyed the slowly darkening skies. Our accommodation was just to the north and there is a lovely promenade and coastal boardwalk to and from town.
We added to our bucket list of first experiences with a day on Magnetic Island (Maggie), exploring the place via jet ski (first time!) and hiking. We had an amazing time, as the jet ski circumnavigation gave us a fantastic introduction to Maggie’s beauty and size … pristine beaches, amazing rock formations and steep tree-covered hills. The cute Horseshoe Bay market, a (no koalas) walk to WWII forts (with incredible sun-kissed ocean views) and another hike to the ferry terminal were all very enjoyable experiences.
But there is a ‘but’! The tourist services on the island are frustrating. The place is heavily promoted as a ‘must-see’ destination and tourists are woefully supported. The maps for the walks are vague, the signed track distances are wildly incorrect, phone signal is patchy and public buses are inadequate. Buses are supposed to link with the ferries … it drove off as the barge docked and before passengers had been permitted to disembark, which was not a connection in our opinion. An expensive taxi to the other side of the island was required to get to our jet ski tour in time. We had purposefully taken the earliest ferry to coincide with the bus timetable. Then on our way back to Nellies Bay, after a terrific Forts Walk, there is an almost two-hour gap in the bus timetable. Really??
On the plus side, Maggie is magical. The bus snafu meant we walked the wonderful Arcadia track, rock wallabies included, through the middle of the island. Trying to pace ourselves just a little we hoped to cut two kilometres off the trek with an attempt to catch a bus to our sunset destination. It was met with a handwave from the driver indicating the bus was full (not surprising with the pause in service). Fortunately, he let us know another was behind with a second gesture … but when it was going to arrive was a mystery (under 10 minutes). Anyway, we had sunset drinks at a backpacker’s hostel with stunning views and happy-hour prices which reconnected us with our youth. It was then a briskish walk (because we couldn’t trust the buses being on time) back to the terminal for our evening cruise (car barge) back to the mainland.
We decided to do a practice run of outback conditions with a day trip to Charters Towers, a former gold-mining town inland from Townsville. A drive up through the Hervey Ranges with amazing views back to the sea, marvelling at the enormous variety of military personnel and equipment as we drove past training areas, impressed by the quiet but obviously powerful Burdekin River, then a southward route along the Gregory Development Road alongside the Burdekin River gave us a taste of bitumen hypnosis and scenery monotony. Charters Towers was once one of the richest places in Australia and had the nickname “The World’ because you could get anything in the world there. It is certainly not on that excessive level anymore, suffering the familiar fate of many country towns, with a youth population collapse/exodus. We explored the town, chatted with a few locals (they more talked at us about themselves and their memories of the city in former days). The town has preserved many of its lovely Victorian-era buildings from its glory days and has repurposed them to remain relevant. This gives the town a bit of a buzz, even on a Tuesday lunchtime. A quicker route back into Townville gave us time to watch the sun set from the top of Castle Hill and see the lights come on in the city. Magical.
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