Toowoomba - WikiHQ

Architecture and heritage

thumb|right|St. James Church of England during construction in 1869

thumbnail|New and old buildings in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba CBD

Toowoomba's history has been preserved in its buildings. Examples of architecture drawing from the city's wealthy beginnings include Toowoomba City Hall which was Queensland's first purpose-built town hall,

Toowoomba is also home to the Empire Theatre, which was originally opened in June 1911, as a silent movie house. In February 1933, fire broke out, almost completely destroying the building. However, the Empire was rebuilt and reopened in November 1933. The architectural styling of the new Empire Theatre was art deco, in keeping with the trend of the 1930s. After years of neglect, the Empire Theatre was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, but retains much of its art deco architecture and decorations,

The former Drayton railway station now functions as the DownSteam heritage railway and museum. Rollingstock includes the only surviving C16 Class, No. 106 "Pride of Toowoomba", Built in 1914 and originally retired in Cairns by 1964.

The city also is home to the Cobb & Co Museum, hailing to the famous mail company's beginnings as a small mail run in the 1800s to transport mail and passengers to Brisbane and beyond. It also houses Australia's largest collection of horse-drawn vehicles. The museum has undergone a A$8 million redevelopment before reopening in September 2010.

Heritage listings

Toowoomba has many heritage-listed sites, with over fifty on the Queensland Heritage Register in addition to listings on other local heritage registers.

Governance

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Toowoomba is the seat of the Toowoomba Region local government area. The city is represented in the Parliament of Queensland by three seats: Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Condamine. In the Commonwealth Parliament, Toowoomba forms part of the Division of Groom, which is held by Garth Hamilton for the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

The current mayor of the Toowoomba Region is Geoff McDonald, who succeeded Paul Antonio after his retirement in July 2023.

Crime

Toowoomba has had some amounts of crime, but is still on average less than other parts of Queensland. In 2018, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland described Toowoomba as "one of Queensland's car theft hot spots", noting that there were insurance claims for over 3,000 cars stolen over a three-year period from Harristown alone.

Economy

The Australian Defence Force is also present in the local community, with the city providing housing and amenities for many of the personnel based at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre (in Oakey, NW of Toowoomba) and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah to the city's North. The headquarters of People First Bank (Heritage Bank), which is Australia's largest mutual bank, FK Gardners, Wagners, McNab, Mort and Co Beef and Namoi Cotton are all located in Toowoomba. The city itself acts as the service centre for an economic area that reaches from the Western edge of Ipswich in the East, to Northern New South Wales in the south and the QLD Border to the west.

Education

Toowoomba is a major education centre with a strong presence of boarders from Western Queensland attending Schools such as Toowoomba Grammar, Fairholme College, Downlands College and The Glennie School.

Primary

State

Darling Heights State School
Drayton State School is the oldest school in Toowoomba.
Fairview Heights State School
Gabbinbar State School
Glenvale State School
Harlaxton State School
Harristown State Primary School
Middle Ridge State School
Newtown State School
Rangeville State School
Rockville State School
Toowoomba East State School
Toowoomba North State School
Toowoomba South State School is the oldest school in Toowoomba proper.
Wilsonton State School

Private/Religious

Christian Outreach College Toowoomba
Concordia Lutheran College (2 campuses)
Darling Downs Christian School
Downlands College independent Catholic Co-educational Day and Boarding school
Fairholme College
The Glennie School
Grammar Junior
Glenvale Christian School
Holy Name Catholic Primary School
Mater Dei Primary School
Our Lady of Lourdes School
Sacred Heart School
St Anthony's Primary School Toowoomba
St Thomas More's School
St Saviours Primary School
Toowoomba Anglican College and Preparatory School
Toowoomba Christian College

Secondary

State

Centenary Heights State High School
Toowoomba Flexi School (annexe of Centenary Heights State High School)
Clifford Park Special School
Harristown State High School
Toowoomba State High School
Wilsonton State High School

Private/Religious

Christian Outreach College, Christian co-educational school.
Concordia College
Darling Downs Christian School
Downlands College, independent Catholic Co-educational Day and Boarding school
Fairholme College, a Presbyterian Church of Queensland school.
The Glennie School, Anglican day and boarding school
St Joseph's College
St. Mary's College
St Saviour's, Toowoomba's oldest Catholic school
St Ursula's College, Independent Catholic day and boarding school for girls
Toowoomba Anglican College and Preparatory School
Toowoomba Christian College
Toowoomba Grammar School, independent grammar school (established 1875).
Mary Mackillop Secondary College, forms part of the existing primary campus in Highfields, opened in 2016

Tertiary

University of Southern Queensland
TAFE Queensland South West (Formerly SQIT) has extensive campuses to the east of the CBD.
University of Queensland has a small centre in Toowoomba.
Griffith University has a small health training facility in Toowoomba.

Culture

Festivals

thumb|right|upright|The annual Flower Festival is a chance to show off Toowoomba's parks and gardens at their best

thumb|right|The Alfred Thomas Memorial in Queens Park during the Carnival of Flowers

Toowoomba is nationally renowned for the annual Carnival of Flowers, held each year in September. Many of the city's major parks and gardens are especially prepared for the carnival, including an important home garden competition and parade of flower floats. Buses bring people from around the nation, and a popular way to arrive at the carnival from Brisbane is on chartered antique steam and diesel trains, which captures the yester-year aspect of travel to Toowoomba with 19th-century wooden carriages. The "Food and Wine Festival", which usually spans 3 days, happens every year during the Carnival of flowers. It provides entertainment, food and drinks and is a well-known spectacle of the Carnival.

In 1953 the Carnival of Flowers was the subject of a sponsored film produced by the Queensland Minister for Lands and Irrigation. The Carnival of Flowers depicts the floral parade, the home gardens competition and the crowning of the Floral Queen and is a wonderful portrait of life in 1950s Queensland.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Carnival of Flowers was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an "Events and festivals".

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers received the Gold Award for Major Festival and Event at the Queensland Tourism Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and Australian Tourism Awards in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, 255,639 people recorded as having attended the event.

Toowoomba also hosts 'First Coat Art and Music Festival'. First Coat is a street art festival, held annually in May. As a result of the festival, over 50 pieces of large-scale, public art exist throughout the Toowoomba CBD, which has led to a transformation of previously underutilised lane and alleyways, as well as a reduction in costs associated with graffiti management.

Toowoomba was previously home to Easterfest, which was held annually over the Easter weekend but was discontinued after 2015 due to budgetary constraints.

In March 2024, the innaugral Toowoomba Fashion Festival was held. It hosted three runways featuring emerging and established designers. The festival is an annual event aimed at reinvigorating the fashion industry in regional Australia.

Food

Toowoomba was home to the Weis Bar, famous for being the birthplace of the Weis brand, until 2021 when the parent company Unilever relocated production to a factory in Western Sydney and the bar was closed down. Toowoomba is also credited as the origin of Home Ice Cream, Homestyle Bake, and possibly the Lamington. Toowoomba has a thriving cafe and restaurant scene that is often compared to Melbourne in its maturity and depth.

Sport

Rugby league

Rugby league is a popular sport in Toowoomba. A team representing Toowoomba used to compete in the Bulimba Cup tournament. Toowoomba currently does not host a team in any of the major national competitions but was home to the Toowoomba Clydesdales in the Queensland Cup state league.

The Clydesdales were the feeder team for Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League (NRL) from 1999 to 2006. The Clysedales dropped out of the Queensland Cup after the 2006 season due to financial difficulties and are no longer a feeder club for the Brisbane Broncos. Toowoomba Sports Ground (Clive Berghofer Stadium) has hosted trial National Rugby League (NRL) matches since 2003 and premiership matches have been played since 2018 with an average attendance of 7,559 and a record crowd of 10,000 in 2004.

Association football

Toowoomba features a semi-professional football club, South West Queensland Thunder, that has a large following within the community. Toowoomba is the headquarters of Football Darling Downs which administers football in Toowoomba and surrounding towns and regions. Toowoomba is home to 12 clubs including South West Queensland Thunder, Fairholme College, Garden City Raiders, Highfields, Rockville Rovers, St Albans, South Toowoomba Hawks, St Ursula's College, University of Southern Queensland, West Wanderers and Willowburn. A-League Men pre-season matches have been held at Toowoomba Sports Ground since 2006 with a record crowd of 4,571.

Other sports

Toowoomba has clubs for other sports including cricket (Toowoomba Cricket Inc), archery, swimming, tennis, softball, baseball, netball (Toowoomba Netball Association), hockey (Toowoomba Hockey Association), gridiron (Chargers) and basketball (Toowoomba Basketball Association). The city is also home to the Toowoomba Mountaineers basketball team, which participates in the Queensland Basketball League (QBL).

Toowoomba also shares two golf courses; Toowoomba Golf Club Middle Ridge, and City Golf Club Toowoomba. These two clubs, as well as several other clubs in the district, conduct an annual Pennant season. Each club take on each other in match play and in several different divisions to be crowned the Pennant winners of the Year. City Golf Club also hosted the Queensland PGA Championship from 2009 to 2013.

Toowoomba is home to Clifford Park Racecourse. Clifford Park Racecourse was acquired as a block in 1861. The Toowoomba Turf Club was formed in 1882 and the first recorded Toowoomba Cup was run in 1919. In 1992, the club made Australian racing history by staging the first race ever run under electric lights: the Fosters Toowoomba Cup, which was won by Waigani Drive. In 1996 the club staged the first night race meeting in Australia.

Toowoomba has a number of rugby union teams, including University of Southern Queensland Rugby Union Club, Toowoomba Rangers Rugby Union Club, Toowoomba City Rugby Club, which compete in the Darling Downs Rugby Union competition, against such teams as the Roma Echidnas, the Condamine Cods, the Dalby Wheatmen, the Goondiwindi Emus, the Warwick Water Rats and the University of Queensland Rugby Union Club (Gatton Campus).

Cycling is a popular sport in Toowoomba. The Tour of Toowoomba in 2010 became a round of the Subaru National Road Series and attracted 15 teams. A proposal to stage a National Road Series event in Toowoomba was first presented to the Toowoomba Cycling Club in late 2009 by John Osborne OAM, a lifelong cycling enthusiast. The inaugural FKG Tour of Toowoomba was won by Patrick Shaw riding for the Virgin Blue RBS Morgan team. Patrick was later named Cycling Australia's Road Cyclist of the Year – 2010.

Founded in 1950, the Toowoomba Auto Club ran races at the nearby Leyburn Airfield and Lowood Airfield Circuits in the 1950s and 1960s, and also ran races on the streets of Middle Ridge as part of the Carnival of Flowers in 1958, 1960 and 1961, with the feature races won by Glynn Scott, Alec Mildren and Arnold Glass respectively. The club built the Echo Valley facility, initially as a hillclimbing venue officially opened on 18 September 1966, The Australian Hillclimb Championship was held on Prince Henry Drive in 1955 and 1961. From 1923 to 1928 racing for both motorcycle speedway and for cars was held at Werrington Park Speedway on a site south of the Toowoomba City Aerodrome.

Speedway took place around the old Toowoomba Showgrounds, off Campbell Street from 1955 to 1981. The motorcycle speedway track hosted the Queensland Solo Championship in 1955.

Toowoomba is home to three parkrun events: Toowoomba (founded 2013 at Queens Park), South Toowoomba (founded 2018) and Picnic Point (founded 2023). Toowoomba's parkrun events are some of the best attended in Australia with as many as 500 participants.

Community groups

The Toowoomba branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association meets at 263 Margaret Street and the Toowoomba City Business Women's branch meets at 161 Margaret Street.

There are 6 Rotary clubs operating within Toowoomba. All are active within the community raising funds annually in excess of $200,000. The Rotary Cub of Toowoomba meets at Burke and Wills Hotel, 554 Ruthven Street.

Media

Print

The Darling Downs Gazette (June 1858 to October 1922)
The Chronicle (since July 1861 to July 2013)

Television

Toowoomba is serviced by three commercial national network stations and two national non-commercial network stations. These are Seven Queensland, SCA 10 (Network 10), WIN Television (Nine Network), ABC Television and Special Broadcasting Service. Each broadcasts television services in digital format, with analogue transmissions having been deactivated on 6 December 2011.

Seven Queensland (STQ), 7two, 7mate, 7Bravo, 7flix, 7Bravo: Seven Network owned and operated channels.
WIN Television, 9Gem, 9Go!, 9Life: Nine Network affiliated channels.
Network 10, 10 Drama, 10 Comedy, Nickelodeon, Sky News Regional: Network 10 owned and operated channels.
Special Broadcasting Service, SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS Food, SBS World Movies, SBS WorldWatch and NITV
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC TV, ABC Family, ABC Kids, ABC Entertains, ABC News

Of the three commercial networks, Seven Queensland and WIN Television both air 30-minute local news bulletins at 6pm each weeknight, produced from newsrooms in the city but broadcast from studios in Maroochydore and Wollongong respectively. Southern Cross Nine aired a regional Queensland edition of Nine News from Brisbane, featuring local opt-outs for Toowoomba and the Darling Downs from August 2017 to February 2019.

Brisbane metropolitan commercial channels BTQ-7 (Seven Network), QTQ-9 (Nine Network) and TVQ-10 (Network Ten) broadcasting from transmission towers at Mount Coot-tha can also be received in some parts of Toowoomba.

Radio

Toowoomba has many different radio stations including FM and AM channels. Below is a list of some stations available in Toowoomba.

Hit 100.7 Darling Downs (100.7 FM)
Triple M Darling Downs 864 (864 AM)
ABC Southern Queensland Toowoomba was the headquarters for McCafferty's that operated a national long-distance coach network until its sale to Greyhound Australia in 2004.

Toowoomba station has a twice-weekly return rail service from Brisbane to Charleville on Queensland Rail's The Westlander. Toowoomba is a centre for several railway lines that are used both for freight and passenger services, and idle railway stations can be found in the suburbs (including Ballard, Drayton, Harlaxton and Harristown), dating to when these localities were separate centres.

Toowoomba is served by Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, which is serviced by QantasLink and Rex Airlines, with flights to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville,

Infrastructure

Health

Toowoomba is serviced by four hospitals: Toowoomba Base Hospital, which is a public hospital and one of the largest hospitals in regional Australia, this will soon be replaced via a redevelopment at the Baillie Henderson Hospital site; a specialist psychiatric hospital called Baillie Henderson Hospital; and two private hospitals: St. Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital and St. Vincents Hospital. There is also the Toowoomba Hospice, a community-based private healthcare facility providing palliative care to the terminally ill.

Water

Toowoomba's third water storage Cressbrook Dam was completed in 1983 and supplied water to Toowoomba in 1988. It has a full capacity of about bringing total capacity of the three dams, Cooby, Perseverance, and Cressbrook, to . The city also has underground supplies in fractured basalt of the rock unit known as the Main Range Volcanics. Toowoomba also sits above the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin and to the west underground water is available beneath unconsolidated alluvium.

Rainfall during the period from 1998 to 2005 was 30% below the long term average, consistent with a prolonged drought; with this trend continuing through to the spring of 2007. In mid-2005, the water situation for the city was becoming critical with water supply levels below 30%. During March 2006 the surface water storage in the dams fell below 25% of full capacity, falling further to 12.8% on 10 March 2008 and reaching an all-time low of 7.7% in December 2009.

The former Toowoomba Mayor Di Thorley proposed a controversial potable reuse project under the Toowoomba Water Futures plan which would result in water reclaimed from the Wetalla Sewage Treatment Plant being returned to Cooby Dam to provide 25% of the potable water supply for Toowoomba. Other water supply options include importing water from Oakey Creek Groundwater Management Area (average TDS 1660 mg/L), importing water from Condamine Groundwater Management Area (average TDS 740 mg/L), and water from coal seam gas production (TDS 1200–4300 mg/L).

thumb|Their Royal Highnesses, [[George VI|The Duke and Duchess of York, with Mayor James Douglas Annand in Toowoomba, 1927.]]

On 29 July 2006, Toowoomba City Council conducted a poll of Toowoomba residents on the proposal to use this multi-barrier filtration system for filtering sewage for drinking purposes. The poll question was: "Do you support the addition of purified recycled water to Toowoomba's water supply via Cooby Dam as proposed by Water Futures – Toowoomba?" 38% of voters supported the proposal and 62% opposed. This meant that despite dams reaching critical levels, the city rejected the use of recycled water in a plebiscite. Since the public rejection in 2006 of adding recycled sewage to the drinking water supply, water conservation measures have included harvesting stormwater for use in public parks and adding filtered groundwater to the town water supply. The city was under level 5 water restrictions as of 26 September 2006. This prohibits residents from using town water on their lawns, gardens or cars, and residents are strongly urged to cut down on water consumption.

In 2007, the Toowoomba City Council commenced a bore drilling program to augment the dwindling dam supplies and constructed several subartesian bores across the city and one artesian bore at Wetalla in the city's north. Many of the subartesian bores provided potable water with a reliable yield and have been developed into production however the artesian bore's water quality was very poor, prohibiting development as a potable source. This was an expensive setback for the city as the cost was over A$2 million for drilling to over . In January 2008, yield testing had been stalled due to the unavailability of appropriate pumping equipment. The Toowoomba Regional Council began supplementing the city's water supply with bore water from the Great Artesian Basin in September 2009. Groundwater has become a significant contributor to the city's water supply needs and now constitutes one third of the total volume of water treated for reticulated supply ( per week).

The state government has built a $187 million pipeline from Wivenhoe Dam to Toowoomba. Water pumping along the pipeline to Cressbrook Dam began in January 2010.

Notable people

Sister cities

Toowoomba has sister city relations with three international cities: Whanganui, New Zealand; Takatsuki, Japan; and Paju, South Korea.

Religion

The recorded the following statistics for religious affiliation in Toowoomba: No religion 32.5%; Catholic 20.2%; Anglican 14.2%; Other Christian 5.1%. It is part of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia.

Toowoomba Chinese Wesleyan Methodist Church is at 21 Kookaburra Court, Glenvale (). It is part of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia. This was exemplified by the Logos Foundation under the leadership of Howard Carter in the 1980s.

References

Attribution

External links

Toowoomba.org – Toowoomba's Homepage
Toowoomba Tourist Information
Toowoomba Historical Society Inc newsletter archive, State Library of Queensland
Peter Fischmann Toowoomba photographs 1985-1989, State Library of Queensland
Qld Open House Toowoomba website archive, State Library of Queensland
Toowoomba Art Society newsletter archive, State Library of Queensland
Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers Photographs, State Library of Queensland
Toowoomba Railway goods shed archival record, State Library of Queensland