The cheap flights to Townsville will land at the airport, just 5km from the centre of the city, but the destination for many will be a small island off the coast. Magnetic Island - Maggie to the locals - is the drawcard. It's an Edenic island, more than half of it a national park, with untouched bays and beaches and bush.
The largest city in Queensland, and one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, locals consider Townsville the unofficial Capital of North Queensland. It sits on the shores of Cleveland Bay, near the central section of the Great Barrier Reef.
Along with Magnetic, there are Orpheus, Dunk and Bedarra Islands, which are also zoned as National Parks. The merits of the islands are obvious - they are nothing short of gems shining in the blue seas - but Townsville is beautiful too with several fascinating attractions.
The Strand is popular with locals as well as visitors and the Riverway is a unique space with swimming lagoons, galleries and parklands. Reef HQ, the world’s largest living coral reef aquarium, is a huge draw. So too is the Museum of Tropical Queensland. One of its star attractions are the exhibits from the HMS Pandora, a British warship that was sent to capture the mutineers from the Bounty, and which sank off Queensland in 1791.
