A Taste of Townsville (North Queensland) Heritage

Introduction

This post provides A Taste of Townsville Heritage by highlighting heritage-listed buildings in Townsville.

For a six week period we drove north along the Queensland coast from Maroochydore to Cairns and back – a total of 5108km. The focus for the trip was Queensland heritage-listed buildings. Our eBook about the trip is now published (see below). This post, which is the third post in a series, is about heritage-listed buildings in Townsville. The two other posts include: Schools of Art and Post Offices.

This post shares information about heritage-listed buildings in Townsville in four parts: Flinders Street, Wickham Street & Flinders Street Intersection, The Strand and Sturt Street Plus.

The Townsville City Council provides PDF guides to their History & Heritage Walks. The council also provides information about ANZAC Park.

Heritage Photos

Townsville – Flinders Street

(Note: Hover over a photo to see the name of the building. Also, click on a photo to provide a lightbox view)

Former-Post-Office
Built 1886-88; Italianate Style; Now a Boutique Brewery; 252-270 Flinders Street; #600911

Perc-Tucker-Regional-Gallery
Built 1884-86; formerly Union Bank; Classical Style; 253-259 Flinders Street; #600912

Great-Northern-Railway-Station
Built 1910-13; 2nd station; Federation era; 502 Flinders Street; #600906

Great-Northern-Hotel
Built 1900; Tunbridge & Tunbridge architects; 500 Flinders Street; #600908

Alpin-Brown
Built 1887; neo-Classical Style; 232-234 Flinders Street; #600919

Former-AMP-Society-Building
Built 1937-38; 3rd Premises; Restrained Classical Style; 416-488 Flinders Street; #602159

There is a heritage-listed building on each corner of this intersection.

Tattersalls Hotel
Built 1899 incorporating an earlier 1868 structure; cast iron balustrade particular to Nth Qld; 87 Flinders Street; #600916

Queensland Building
Built 1890-2; free classical style; purpose built for Burns, Philp, Co. Insurance subsidiary; 104-106 Flinders Street; #600909

Former Burns Philp & Co.
Built 1895; only surviving Federation era warehouse on Ross Creek; 108-124 Flinders St.; #600914

Former Bank of New South Wales
Built 1887; 3rd Building; 101-111 Flinders St; #600890

Amazon (Kindle US), Kindle UK, AU Kindle

Smashwords (EPUB), Smashwords also distributes to Oyster, Scribd, Yuzu, Blio and Inktera (formerly Page Foundry) and reaches OverDrive (world’s largest library ebook platform serving 20,000+ libraries), Baker & Taylor Axis 360, Gardners (Askews & Holts and Browns Books for Students), and Odilo (2,100 public libraries in North America, South America and Europe)

Kobo; Apple iTunes; Barnes and Noble

Townsville – The Strand

The Strand is the name given to the foreshore in the suburb of North Ward. Following cyclone damage The Strand was re-developed in 1999 and has given the city a huge boost. The photos below include elements of the ANZAC Memorial Park, the former Queen’s Hotel, the former Customs House, Criterion Hotel (not heritage-listed!), and the Tobruk Baths (I learnt to swim here and at the time it was the only pool). (Note: I just wish they’d lined up the eternal flame with the Cenotaph!).

Former Customs House
Built 1900-02; Romanesque Style Federation Era; The Strand; #600937

Tobruk Memorial Baths
Built 1941-50; Winter training for 1956 & 1960 Olympics; The Strand; #601575

Queensland Pubs — Townsville: Former Queen's Hotel
Built 1902-20; Art Nouveau Style; The Strand; #600936

Criterion Hotel
Orig 1865 - destroyed Cyclone Leonta; Current building 1904; NOT heritage listed!

Bandstand
Established 1913; Classical Style; Part of ANZAC Park; The Strand; #600934

ANZAC Way Memorial
Part of ANZAC Park (established as Strand Park in 1910s); The Strand; #600934;

The “Plus” indicates the addition of the former School of Arts and former Technical College which can be found on corner of Stanley and Walker Streets.