We really liked Townsville – it probably
helped that it wasn’t continually raining and trying to blow our caravan away,
but there was such a good diversity of things to do here and we could see ourselves coming back for a holiday here. When the weather was inclement we were able
to escape to the Tropical Museum and Reef Head Quarters.
When it was nice there are fantastic walks and free pools and good kids parks in
Townsville. This time we stayed at a
caravan park far from the sea and just outside Townsville – there was no bouncy
pillows, or pools, but it had a great atmosphere and the kids loved the freedom
to ride around up and down the grass hills near our van.
The Strand and Fort Hill
You can swim in the sea
in Townsville, we didn’t because the wind was still blowing a bit - I had
assumed that you couldn’t swim up this far because of the crocs, but apparently
not. However, Townsville has also built a lovely strip
along the sea called the Strand. The Strand included a beach with life guards and located just near this was a lovely free
pool called the rock pool which was bordered by a cool kid’s park with the
grooviest six person swing we have ever seen (actually it would be the only six person swing we have seen).
At one end of the Strand is Fort
Hill which had a lovely walk with interpretative signs and even radio
recordings explaining all about the attack on Townsville in World War II. David and I were aware of the raids on Darwin
but not Townsville, it’s good to know that our twins aren’t the only ones
learning on this trip. It was also cool
not just reading about what happened, but also listening to the old radio recordings. The kids had a great time
exploring the hill and learning about the different guns and how the old fort
used to work.
After all our walking and
exploring we finally discovered a gelato shop on the Strand which had the best
views while you are enjoying your cones.
Some days it’s a hard life, not.
The Museum of Tropical Queensland
Definitely the biggest spider we have seen yet!
The
Museum of Tropical Queensland is a branch of the Queensland Museum located
in Townsville. The museum, in large part,
is built around the HMS Pandora which was the ship sent to catch the famous Bounty
and her mutinous crew, the Pandora sank off the coast of Queensland
in 1791. Hundreds of artefacts have been recovered from the wreck and are
on display in this museum and there is a type of replica including one of the
cannons. You can be part of Running out the Gun where you can learn
how to load and fire a cannon. They
choose members of the audience to take part and crew the cannon. In our case our family was the audience so I
was crew # 1 and 3, Mr L # 2 and 4, the presenter had to be # 5 and Mr C was
the powder monkey (David was taking the photographs). We had a blast (ha ha) doing this, it was one
of the best hands on learning exercises we have done on our trip. We all learned our parts and managed to coordinate enough to fire the
cannon. Then we had to do it in under 60
seconds. Both Mr L and Mr C got a turn at firing the cannon and we all received
gunners certificates (we believe we made a major contribution to sinking
the enemy fleet – just not really sure who the enemy was).
Put your backs into it!
The
museum also has a really kids friendly display called the Enchanted
Rainforest, which focuses on North Queensland’s rainforests. Built
around a recreation of a quandong tree and featuring a slide and rope bridge, the
kids had a great time exploring and learning about rainforest plants and
animals – without them being able to bite or sting. The museum has a small but interesting range
of dinosaurs, a cool coral exhibit and while we were there a whole gallery of
stuffed African animals. We had gone
there expecting to be able to while away a couple of hours – we stayed much
longer than that and only left because the museum was closing.
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