24.9900. Townsville (Postcodes: 4810-4819) is a city on the north-eastern coast of Australia, located in the state of Queensland.

It is adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef in the dry tropics. The city enjoys over 300 days of sunshine each year, which lends itself to tourism activities all year round and an abundance of outdoor activities.

Popular attractions include 'The Strand', a long tropical beach and garden strip; Reef HQ, a large tropical aquarium holding many of the Great Barrier Reef's native flora and fauna; the Museum of Tropical Queensland, built around a display of relics from the sunken British warship HMS Pandora; and Magnetic Island, a large neighbouring island, the vast majority of which is national park.

Townsville is divided by two local government areas, the City of Townsville and the City of Thuringowa which are administrated by Townsville City Council and the Thuringowa City Council respectively. The urban area is collectively referred to as Townsville, while locally, the two local government areas are referred to as the "twin cities" or Townsville/Thuringowa. The most recent population statistics of the Townsville Statistical District (urban Townsville and Thuringowa) is 148,767 (June 2005).[1] The combined population of the two local government areas which encompass Reid River in the South-East to Paluma in the North-West is estimated at 164,000 (102,936[2] and 61,072[3] respectively). Townsville is Australia's the largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast (South-East Queensland). Townsville is seen as the unofficial capital of North Queensland as it hosts a significant governmental and non-governmental administrative concentration for the northern half of the State.