Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island

From Townsville, we took a ferry out to Magnetic Island, which is about 8km offshore. It was named by Cook, when he explored the area, but to me it sound like something out of a Marvel comic strip.

Magnetic Island

The island has around 2500 people living on it, but the visitors who go are probably more interested in the populations of koalas and rock wallabies. Having just been to see the koalas in Kuranda, we didn't bother with the koala sanctuary, and we didn't spot any of the wild ones, despite it being the largest colony.

Magnetic Island

We got the bus around to Horseshoe Bay, and took a look around the market. It wasn't as large as we had expected, but it was quite pleasant. There were some nice little cafes nearby too.

Magnetic Island

Two thirds of the island is national park, and it is home to 166 species of animal. I think you would have to spend more time than we did to see many of them though. We did make our way around to see the rock wallabies.

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

People here used to feed them, so they still tend to congregate in that area at the same time. They didn't do too much, but were quite nice to watch for a while.

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island

Townsville

Townsville

We arrived in Townsville on the Greyhound at around 6am, and our hostel didn't open for a couple of hours. Nic had checked out a place that opened early, so we had somewhere we could sit and have a nice breakfast. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that that place had closed down.

Townsville

The only place that we found open was a pie shop, called Pie Face, that had a takeaway counter open during the night to cater for the clubbers. The guy was mid clean-up, but kindly let us come in and sit at the counter area. So breakfast that morning was a pie - which was a first for us. It was a very nice pie though.

After our pie, and having reached the magical opening time of other places, we found a nice little coffee shop to while away another hour.

Townsville

Townsville is the unofficial capital of North Queensland, is apparently the only city in the world to refine three different base metals, zinc, copper and nickel, and is the hometown of Greg Norman and, perhaps more dubiously, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.

I wasn't very keen to see the huge spider, sitting above the street as we arrived, and we didn't bother with the Museum of Tropical Queensland, but we did go along to the Reef Aquarium.

Reef HQ, Townsville

That was pretty good and there was a nice little feeding tour, where they showed the incredibly fast and quite violent move of the barramundi when it feeds, and the similarly quick snap of the little crocodile.

We also took a tour of the turtle hospital, where they treat and care for rescued turtles that have been injured. Some have had they shells damaged when struck by the propeller of a boat, but some have either injested, or become entangled in our rubbish.

Reef HQ, Townsville

Carrier bags in the sea are a huge problem; one of the turtles here got a bag wrapped around it when it was young, and as the turtle grew, the bag tightened and restricted the proper growth of the shell, causing it to be badly misshapen.

We can, and must, do much more to both reduce and properly dispose of our waste, so that we stop causing needless suffering to our wildlife.

Aside from the aquarium, we took a look at - but didn't go up - Castle Hill, and went for a wonder around Flinders Street, including trying out the beers in Townsville Brewery, and the foodie area of Palmer Street

Townsville

Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville