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Toowoomba

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Ruthven Street Looking South
City Skyline From Neil Street
File:Toowoombacbd1.jpg
City CBD Looking South

Toowoomba (also known as the 'Garden City' by locals.) is a city in the South East of Queensland, Australia. It is located 132 km west of Queensland's capital city, Brisbane, and two hours drive from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast beaches. With a population of 113,687 (2003 ABS estimate), Toowoomba is Australia's second largest inland city after Canberra, the nation's capital.

History

Main article: History of Toowoomba, Queensland
  • 1849 first permanent European inhabitant
  • 1852 the name Toowoomba first used
  • 1860 declared a municipality (township)
  • 1904 declared a City

Geography

Location of Toowoomba in Queensland (red)

Toowoomba is situated at a latitude and longitude of 27°33′S 151°57′E / 27.550°S 151.950°E / -27.550; 151.950.

The postcode of Toowoomba is 4350. The postcode of the Toowoomba Mail Centre is 4352.

The city sits on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, around 700 metres above sea level. A few streets are on the eastern side of the edge of the range, but the majority of the city is west of the divide.

The City occupies the edge of the range and the low ridges behind it. Two valleys run north from the southern boundary, each arising from springs either side of Middle Ridge near Spring Street at an altitude of around 680 m. These waterways, East Creek and West Creek flow together just north of the CBD to form Gowrie Creek.

Gowrie Creek drains to the west across the Darling Downs and is a tributary of the Condamine River, part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The water flowing down Gowrie Creek makes its way some 3000 km to the mouth of the Murray River near Adelaide in South Australia. Rain which falls on the easternmost streets of Toowoomba flows east to Moreton Bay a distance of around 170 km.

Climate

Toowoomba enjoys four distinct seasons and the rich volcanic soil in the region helps maintain the 150 public parks that are scattered across the city. Jacaranda and camphor laurel trees line many of the city streets. The city's reputation as 'The Garden City' is highlighted during the Australian Carnival of Flowers festival held in September each year. Deciduous trees from around the world line many of the parks, giving a display of Autumn colour rarely see in Australia, a continent that is almost entirely forested with evergreens.

Temperatures in Toowoomba average 27 degrees Celsius in summer and 15 degrees Celsius in winter.

Late summer sees temperatures as high as 39 degrees. Official temperatures given are often lower then those experiences in homes in summertime. Winter temperatures seldom go below freezing. Snow has been reported on the higher parts of the city on rare occasions but never settles.

Below average rainfall, coupled with population growth has seen water restrictions imposed, including a ban on watering lawns, while allowing bucket watering of plantings. It is expected that a complete ban on garden watering will come into play sometime in late 2006.

Governance

Main article: Politics of Toowoomba, Queensland

Toowoomba is located in and is the seat of the City of Toowoomba. The city is represented in the Parliament of Queensland by three seats: Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South and Cunningham. Toowoomba North is the only Labor held seat in Toowoomba, possibly owing to North Toowoomba's working class roots. In the Commonwealth Parliament, Toowoomba forms part of the Division of Groom, which is held by Ian MacFarlane for the Liberal Party of Australia.

Economy

The largest industry employers in Toowoomba (2004) are retail trade (17.8%); health and community services (13.3%); manufacturing (12.2%); and education (11.1%). Professional employment was the most prominent occupation (18.2%) followed by clerical, sales and service workers (17.7%) and tradespersons and related workers (13.3%). 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, 29 km NW of Toowoomba) and Borneo Barracks at Cabarlah to the city's North.

The City also has many large shopping centres including Grand Central Shopping Centre, Garden Town, Clifford Gardens and KMart Plaza.

Toowoomba normal retail hours are 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Saturday. Most major retailers and specialty stores open Thursday evenings, especially in summer. Major grocery stores etc are not open Sundays and Public Holidays.

Education

Toowoomba is a regional education centre.

Primary

There are numerous primary schools in Toowoomba. Among these are: State

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

Private/Religious

  • Holy Name School
  • Mater Dei School
  • Our Lady Of Lourdes School
  • Sacred Heart School
  • St Anthony's School
  • St Saviour's Primary School
  • St Thomas More's School
  • Toowoomba Preparatory School

Secondary

Toowoomba has been claimed to have more secondary schools per capita than any other Australian city.

Tertiary

  • University of Southern Queensland, Darling Heights (Toowoomba) was established in 1967 and has approximately 27,000 students. The University of Southern Queensland has the fifth largest enrollment of international students in Australia due to its distance education expertise, English language courses and university bridging courses. The university contributes more than $61 million annually to the regional economy and was awarded the 2000/2001 University of the Year - Good Universities Guide for 'developing the e-university'.
  • Southern Institute of TAFE (SQIT) has extensive campuses to the east of the CBD.
  • University of Queensland has a small centre in Toowoomba.
  • There are several private post-secondary colleges and training providers in Toowoomba.

Culture

Architecture

Toowoomba's history has been preserved in its buildings. Brilliant examples of fine architecture drawing from the city's wealthy beginning's include Toowoomba City Hall, the National Trust Royal Bull's Head Inn and many examples in the heritage listed Russell Street. Immediately to the east of the CBD is the Caledonian Estate, an area of turn of the 20th Century housing ranging from humble workers cottages to large stately homes, in the classic wooden Queenslander style.

Toowoomba also boasts one of the best performing arts theatres in the country. The Empire Theatre was originally opened over 90 years ago in June 1911, as a silent movie house. In February 1933, fire broke out almost completely destroying the Empire Theatre. However, the Empire was rebuilt and was reopened in November 1933. The architectural styling of the new Empire Theatre was art deco, in keeping with the trend of the 30's.

After years of neglect the Empire Theatre was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, but retains much of the Art Deco architecture and decorations for which it is famous, especially the proscenium arch. Equipped with the most modern of facilities, and able to seat 2,400 people, the Empire Theatre is now the largest regional theatre in Australia.

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 1800's to transport mail and passengers to Brisbane and beyond. It also houses Australia's largest collection of horse-drawn vehicles.

File:CondamineCentre.jpg
Condamine Centre
Heritage Plaza
Cottesloe Crest

Notable current and former residents of Toowoomba

Media

Print

Radio

AM
  • 4QS 747 AM (ABC National Radio) (Offices & Studios located on Margaret Street)
  • 4GR 864 AM (commercial) (Offices & Studios on Margaret St with C FM)
  • 4WK 1359 AM (commercial)- Relay of 4WK Warwick.
  • 4AK 1242 AM (commercial)- Based in Oakey, located 20 km west of Toowoomba CBD.
  • Radio 2 1620 AM (commercial)- Relay of Radio 2 network Sydney.
FM
  • C FM 100.7 (commercial) - Named "C" fm rather than SEA due to Toowoomba's inland location, offices & studios on Margaret St with 4GR
  • Double 8FM (narrowcast) 88 FM - Non-community FM station featuring tourist information and the best 60s and 70s music, established in 1996. 88FM Toowoomba & 87.6FM Pittsworth
  • JJJ 104.1 FM - Also available 103.3 from Warwick and 107.7 from Brisbane
  • ABC Radio National 105.7 FM
  • ABC Classical FM 107.3
  • Country FM 91.5
  • 92.9 FM The Light
  • 93.7 FM (narrowcast)
  • 99.1 FM (narrowcast)Kids FM - exclusively kids music and stories
  • 4DDB 102.7 FM (community)
  • River 949 94.9 FM - Ipswich based station broadcast into Toowoomba

Television

Toowoomba is serviced by 6 commercial stations and 2 non commercial stations.

  • ABC Television
  • SBS Television
  • Nine Network (Relay of Brisbane Television Station)
  • Seven Network
  • WIN Television
  • Southern Cross Ten
  • Ten Network (Relay of Brisbane Television Station)

News for Toowoomba is broadcast every weeknight at 6:00 on WIN Television. On weekends, news is relayed from Brisbane on 7,9 and 10. The current newsreaders on WIN News are Ann-Louise Kruger (Main news), Pat O'Shea (Sports) and Peter Byrne (Weather).

Channel 7 and 10 have a physical presence but news programs focused on the Toowoomba region do not exist on these channels. Instead they have news bulletins broadcast from Brisbane at 5:00 on Ten and 6:00 on Seven respectively.

Austar and selecTV are the only subscription (pay / satellite / cable) television services available to Toowoomba viewers.

Infrastructure

Transport

There are suburban bus services throughout the city from around 9:00am to around 5:00pm Monday to Friday. A limited service runs Saturday. There are no Sunday services.

Students at the University of Southern Queensland may experience difficulties using buses to reach class commencing at 8:00am or reach home after classes finishing at 6:00pm. Students are advised to obtain a Transport card to ensure discount fares.

There are bus services to Brisbane and other centres, however these are commercial intercity coach services and comparatively expensive (similar trip fares under Translink are 30% to 50% lower). Toowoomba is not included in TransLink the Southeast Queensland integrated public transport system.

Toowoomba has a twice a week rail service from Brisbane to Charleville, Queensland and return on QR's Westlander.

There are no local rail or lightrail/tram services.

Taxi fare from the CBD to the edge of the city is usually under $20.

Health

Toowoomba is serviced by one public hospital, Toowoomba Base Hospital, and two private hospitals - St. Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital and Saint Vincents Hospital.

Utilities

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 80,000 megalitres bringing total capacity of the three dams, Cooby, Perseverance, and Cressbrook, to 126,000 megalitres.

The city also has underground supplies in fractured basalt, it sits above the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) and to the west underground water is available beneath agricultural alluvium.

The average rainfall in the period 1998 to 2005 has been 30% below the long term average consistent with a prolonged drought. During March 2006 the surface water storage in the dams fell below 25% of full capacity.

Toowoomba City Council's Mayor Dianne Thorley has proposed a controversial potable reuse project under the Toowoomba Water Futures plan which will 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. Consultant reports indicate that after flocculation, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection the product water to be piped to Cooby Dam will contain 30 milligrams per litre Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of an unknown composition and unknown organic compounds. Other water supply options include importing water from Oakey Creek Groudwater Management Area (average TDS = 1660 mg/L), importing water from Condamine Groundwater Management Area (Average TDS = 740 mg/L), and water from coal steam gas production (TDS = 1200-4300 mg/L). Pre-feasibility study 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

One of the difficulties with the Water Futures proposal was that it relied on Acland Coal, a subsidiary of New Hope Corporation, taking the reverse osmosis waste stream. However, they had never agreed to this. Without their involvement, 6 square kilometres of evaporation ponds, costing an additional $70 million, would have been required. This amount was not included in Council's budget for the Water Futures project.

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.

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