Townsville - land of the damned (hot)

[DaveInOz]

I'm heading up to Townsville with the family to visit friends next week.
I've been there before and done Magie Island, diving, the aquarium and the beach.
I am anticipating being bored out of my skull while my mate is at work.
SO, what I'm after is things to do and see in T'ville, lest I be stuck in the house with 2 women and 8 kids !!!!!!!
HELP

[Bob Willson]

Sorry Dave there is absolutely NOTHING to do in Townsville. Be prepared to be bored out of your skull. Boring place, boring people, boring landscape etc. I had to spend 5 minutes up there once and I have never been so bored.
The best thing about Townsville is the road leading to Cairns one way and Brisbane the other.
Aww, now I've gone and offended all those Townies.

[Shane Watson]

While I agree theres not much there to do.....unless you've been there recently be prepared for a lot of changes - especially on the STRAND....Your sure to be impressed....Geez I just spent a week up there about a month ago but I was too busy to get out and about...

Cheers!

[journeyman Mick]

Dave,
apt description of T'ville, my mother in law lives there, so unfortunately we go there a few times a year. (we're going there in two weeks time actually) I do what I do anytime I'm in a boring place with time to kill, I hit the second hand shops in search of treasure! 'Course the pickings have been pretty slim, but it's something to do. Paluma is a nice spot for a picnic or the Wallaman Falls (highest single drop falls in Aust) but they're a day trip. But if you think Townsville is bad, it's nothing compared to Ingham, about 2hrs down the road. I was stuck there for 2 days once when I blew up a diff on the way out to the Wallaman falls. There's a cinema which is open 3 nights a week, unfortunately none of the nights I was there, a video shop where you can hire a TV and video (unfortunately both out) and a couple of pubs. I questioned the locals about entertainment and was told that unless you had a car to go places (outside of Ingham) there was nothing to do but drink at the pub and play pool.

Mick

[echnidna]

Sounds like a good time to buy a book or two and a cheap set of carving chisels and learn to be a woodcarver.

Either that or go fishing.

[ozwinner]

My highlite of Townsville was watching a delivery truck reverse all the way up the bonnet of a sports car before he realised he had actualy touched it.
Sssscreeeeacchhhhhhhhh, bang. Bent the bonnet like a banana.
Realy funny, especialy when the driver got out and looked around to see if anyone was watching, he did the double take when he saw my family all sitting there with their mouths open.

So Dave, take the truck.

Cheers, Al

[DaveInOz]

Thanks for all the help peeps, looks like I'm up for a two week rollercoaster ride of fun and adventure.
.
.
.
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Oh who am I kidding 'sob, sniffle'

and to top it off I'm going to miss a storm home game :eek:

Still beats work tho'

[Bob Willson]

You seem to suffer violent mood swings Dave. Have you been taking your medications properly?

[silentC]

Is Townsville the most boring place in Australia? I don't know, I haven't been there. You could ask at the tourist information centre when you get there.

I was in a place called Chamonix in the French Alps once and it was raining - had been for a couple of days. We went to the tourist info centre to find out what there was to do in town. The woman said "in Chamonix when it is raining, there is nothing to do - it is a very boring place". At least she was honest. We bought a few bottles of beer at the supermarket, went back to the hostel and got sloshed.

Outside Pambula School of Arts (fancy name for town hall) was very boring on a Sunday when I was a kid. So was my Nan's place any day of the week.

[Zed]

why dont you do another scuba dive on the reef ? surely that cant be boring - I did it recently from hamilton island and it was f*ng awesome... ( I saw Humpies, dolphins, turltes sharks, manta rays, eels - the lot) even if the scuba operator takes you to the same reef as before theres more to see in 2 dives at 10m than you can do in one trip on every reef I've evey been on...

go the dive mate - take the day off from the anklebiters and treat yourself.

Take a 600ml bottle of coke, fill it with a hot dog roll and when you dive fill it further with sea water carry it in your BCD , then when you see one thats inquisative use it as a squeeze tube to feed the perty fishies..

[DaveInOz]

Another dive on Kelso reef is inviting and will probably happen.

As will getting sloshed, a lot, especially when there is nothing else to do but sit in the sun and drink.

The mood swings may be related to the change to the generic brand of medicine ... they say its the same but, you know, I'm not convinced.:confused: - That or I'm pregnant :eek:

:mad: :confused:

[journeyman Mick]

Zed,
GBRMPA no longer alows fish feeding on the reef. It's not a good practice (not so bad in the days before thousands a day used to visit the same bit of reef) as it skews the population of that area, makes them lazy and can lead to them biting the punters. If you're out diving one of the oceanic reefs or if you're in a mate's boat well away from the commercial moorings I reckon it's ok there.

Mick

[DarrylF]

As a kid my dad worked on the Townsville to Greenvale rail line (for the iron ore mine). We moved progressively further into the bush over several years as the job progressed. Every few months the whole place - dozens of caravans, portable toilet/shower blocks (dongas if I remember correctly) - would pick up and follow a dozer and a grader further into the bush, making the road ahead as we went most of the time. We'd find a likely spot, the machinery would clear a couple acres of virgin bush and we'd set up. In the wet season it would take a couple of days knee deep in mud.

Every two weeks by the end would be the shopping trip. 6 hours in a 4wd each way - in the dry season. Milk & everything else meant to be kept cold packed in dry ice. Still can't stand frozen milk products

The only pub for a LOOONG way was the 3 rivers hotel. Stan Costa worked with Dad on the job and wrote the song for Slim Dusty. The occasional Sunday we'd all go down there for a BBQ. Still remember the mouse plague there - never seen so many in my life.

Some of the camps we had a portable school building - one class for all ages. Other camps we did correspondence school.

The only remotely interesting things to do were:

1. Kill cane toads. Lots of them. No, I mean LOTS of them. Everywhere. Horrible bloody things. We'd kill 'em with old golf clubs, cricket bats, bricks, sticks, boots. Didn't matter really. As long as they wound up dead.

2. We made a billy cart once. In the dry season. The place was a dust bowl. HUGE piles of bull dust. Really fine, horrible stuff that would get in everything. We used to take great delight in running down a long sloping road into a huge pile of the stuff, coming out all grazed & covered in it. Our parents hated it. Kids are like that - or at least we used to be.

Haven't been back since. Sometimes I think I'd like to go see the place again. Then I remember how bored witless we were.

Have fun Dave

[journeyman Mick]

Darryl,
you definitely wouldn't want to go back now. The mine closed a few years ago and the town was sold off by the mining company. Everything that could be moved was and the remaining buildings have been bought by retirees looking for an ultra cheap place to retire. There's not even as many toads around as there used to be.Still plenty of bulldust though, especially around election time.

Mick

[soundman]

One thing townsville is good for is fishing.
Saunders beach ( north a little bit) is good for the pedestrian follow the tide out good whiting & flat head.

My brotherinlaw used to pump some yabbies on his lunch break & hitch up the boat after work. (when the tides were right)