Townsville
Our 12 Queensland regions are the best that Australia has to offer.
The Townsville region stretches from the Great Barrier Reef islands, and is bordered by Charters Towers in the west, Ingham to the north, Burdekin to the south and Paluma National Park in the north-west.
The region is home to memorable tourism experiences and filled with innovators with ground-breaking ideas that are putting us on the world map.
Whether it’s using the Great Barrier Reef’s coral to develop sunscreen or redeveloping the Townsville Marine Tourism Precinct to attract more visitors and create jobs, we’re backing Queenslanders who live and work in this region.
We know innovation and tourism are crucial to the region’s growth – now and in the future.
The Townsville region has many local success stories supported by our strong innovation and tourism investment. We’re working together to deliver jobs, economic growth and benefits for your community, our state and the world.
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470+
Advance Queensland recipients
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$21M
Advance Queensland funding
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$39M+
leveraged from external investment
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$3.8M
local tourism investment
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136
new local tourism jobs
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$5M
tourism recovery package
Innovation
Anyone can have a great idea or come up with an innovative solution to a problem. The hard part when you’re in a region can be getting access to the help you need to turn your idea into a business and your business into a global success story.
Advance Queensland is helping Queenslanders to grow their business and build our innovation economy.
Townsville has many local success stories that we support though programs such as Ignite Ideas and the Business Development Fund.
We have designed or funded many programs to support innovators across Queensland including:
- Advancing Regional Innovation Program - gives each region up to $500,000 to develop region-wide innovation projects.
- Regional Startup Hubs Support Program - a local skills-building program delivering education and networking events.
- Startup Onramp Regional Queensland Program - shows people with a great idea how to become a startup founder.
- Regional Angel Investors Support Program – helps investors find innovators who need financial backing.
Case study: Sunscreen Protection from Nature
Larissa Bright moved from Sydney and fell in love with North Queensland. Having previously worked in the cosmetics industry, Larissa decided to create her own make-up and skin care lotions, later expanding her range to include sunscreen.
Working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Larissa learnt about the molecular make-up of reef coral and its ability to survive the harsh sun when exposed at low tide. From there, Larissa engaged CSIRO to create world first molecules which mimic the coral’s natural sun protection and put it into a sunscreen lotion.
Coral Sunscreen was supported by Advance Queensland funding to commercialise world-first UV filter technology that mimics the coral’s natural sun protection mechanism.
Tourism
Tourism is crucial to Queensland’s economic growth and we have invested in tourism to attract visitors and create jobs for the region.
The Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) is a major tourism attraction and highlights reef conservation, restoration and education on a global scale. The museum - developed over three stages - is an Australian first, delivering a series of storytelling sculptures submerged in the waters off Townsville's Strand and John Brewer Reef (Stage 1 funded by the Queensland Government), Palm Island (Stage 2), and Magnetic Island (Stage 3 funded by the Queensland Government).
Stage 1 is now completed, and Stage 2 is well underway. Once Stage 3 is fully commissioned in early 2022, the museum is anticipated to be a drawcard for more than 50,000 visitors annually.
We recently developed a Crisis Communication Toolkit to support Townsville following the Monsoon disaster in 2019. The kit will help tourism operators cope with natural disasters and return to normal as soon as possible.
The Townsville region is full of natural wonders and unique attractions that tourists love to visit. We will continue to support projects within the region to boost jobs and the local economy.
Case study: A walk in the park
Hiking in the Townsville region is set to be better than ever with the Paluma to Wallaman Falls Trail proposal one step closer. We are supporting an ecotourism proposal for a 120km-plus walking and mountain biking trail in the Paluma Wallaman Falls area. It will create more than 50 jobs during construction and 110 jobs when complete.
The funding is part of the $5 million Tourism Recovery Package in response to the devastating North and Far North Queensland Monsoon Trough early in 2019. The Paluma to Wallaman Falls trail is an ancient Indigenous trading line, interconnecting three traditional owner groups. The trail will be limited to 300 people at any one time to support the local environment and will take seven days to walk and feature eco-accommodation every 16km.
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Last updated: 25 Feb 2021