Townsville, Australia

Somebody must have run out of ideas for the name of a town.  This is not one of the more memorable stops on our itinerary.  There were two important events that put Townsville on the map, but I am not sure why it was put on our itinerary.

The HMS Pandora was a British ship sent to round up mutineers from the HMS Bounty (remember Captain Bligh) and wound up wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef in 1791. The Museum of Tropical Queensland depicted the story and displayed artifacts from the wreck.  This was one of our stops today on excursion.  There was also a huge display of types of coral.

Townsville was strategically important during World War II, so much so that General MacArthur had an office here.  Townsville was a principal staging area for the Battle of the Coral Sea and as such was home to many bomber bases.  You can still see the runways that have since been converted into city streets.  Townsville was actually bombed three times by the Japanese, but the destruction was limited to one palm tree!  Townsville still has military value for the United States as war games for our Japanese based fleet are regularly held here.

We also stopped at the Great Barrier Reef Headquarters AKA Reef Wonderland.  Built into the harbor, this is an aquarium that has the world’s largest living coral reef (in captivity) in the world.  We had a guided tour that was an unorganized mess.  However, we saw some incredibly beautiful reef fish, like the parrot fish, with brilliant colors and some with unusual shapes.  There were all kinds of coral; we learned that the bright colors you see in aquariums and photographs are not what you would see in the daylight.  Algae covers the coral and prevents the colors from showing through with day time light; it’s the bright, artificial lights that make the colors pop.  So what we saw today is what we would see if we went off shore to dive and snorkel.  It’s a good thing we saw this today as we are not getting a chance to snorkel the reef.  There is only one boat load of people going and the escort or passenger slot wasn’t even in the cards for either one of us.  It saddens me that we will miss this great opportunity.





Townsville was hit hard from a cyclone that came through about two weeks ago.  We could see the damage and debris still evident from the storm.  There were lots of downed trees and limbs, and I saw several homes with tarps on the roof, missing siding, and gutters hanging loose.  We were supposed to stop at the Palmetum (a palm museum?), a botanical garden of over 300 species of palm trees, but it was closed because of severe damage.  This part of Australia is considered dry, sunny and tropical, but I guess somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature that as there was severe flooding as well.

The one item I noticed about all the homes and even apartments was the large size of the veranda or patio.  This is a place where being outdoors and putting a steak on the Barbie is the order of the day.  The beach front, or The Strand, is an outdoor enthusiasts dream with a nice sandy beach, park area, cafes, hotels, and the coolest water park for kids I have ever seen.  I can see Isabelle playing in this marvelous park.