Moving to Townsville

[Linz]

We lived in Townsville in 1986/1987 at Cranbrook, in a bank managers rental property (dump), when I worked in the bank at Hermit Park.
The humidity was terrible in the summer and it was as dry as a bone most times. The only thing up there then was the casino and Maggy island...everything else was well away from the town itself.
I remember a TV ad from back then saying "come to beautiful Townsville, so much to see and do"...only thing was, you had to drive for an hour or so to get to the good parts or a cruise to the island.
Luckily for me, one of the bank customers owned a wrecking yard, so that kept me entertained for a while.
The only nice place that we found that we'd live in (if we HAD to stay) was North Ward, the rest of the town (away from Castle Hill) looked pretty old and tired apart from Annandale, which was reasonably new then.
Anyway, enough of the good points.....but seriously, we just didn't like Townsville at all, we didn't suit it and it didn't suit us... a lot of unfriendly people (especially when they found out that we came from Brisbane, they seemed to have an instant dislike for anyone south of Rockhampton).
I'll never forget the night that we left to drive back to Brisbane...I said to my wife "have a last look at Townsville in the rear view mirror"...she looked at me and stomped on the accelerator .
From what I've read on here though, things sound like they've changed for the better at last, we were just unlucky to have lived there too long ago it seems.
Good luck with your new venture, hope everything goes well for you and your family.