Saturday Morning with Jack Tame •iHeart
Mike Yardley: Heritage-tinged Toowoomba - Saturday Morning with Jack Tame
Saturday Morning with Jack Tame
Have you ever been to Toowoomba? No, neither had I. Changing the habit of a lifetime on a recent road-trip in Queensland, I took the 2 hour drive west of Brisbane to the Great Dividing Range, where Woombie or Tbar as the locals call it, clings to the escarpment, 700 metres above sea level.
As you enter from the east, the city seemingly dangles on the edge of the elevated plateau, overlooking the undulating green patchwork of the Lockyer Valley. Beyond the city limits of this sprawling country hub, Toowoomba is enrobed by the agricultural powerhouse of the Darling Downs region.
Toowoomba is Australia’s largest inland city and it’s Queensland’s Garden City, playing host to a fiendishly popular Carnival of Flowers in September - the longest running floral event of its kind in Australia. It welcomes hundreds of thousands of hyper-coloured flowers in full bloom, planted across the city’s parks and public spaces. But it’s not just the plants that attract out-of-towners. A glut of gorgeous, manicured gardens lie within the city’s boundaries, graced with stately homes and broad tree-lined streets.
To help get my bearings, I joined a two hour guided excursion with Lindsay from Toowoomba Sightseeing, introducing me to the city staples, from the historic CBD to panoramic vistas over the range. Lindsay remarked that Toowoomba is like a volcanic saucer, with rich red soils. “Everything grows here.” An essential stop is at Picnic Point, located on the eastern side of Toowoomba, serving up enormous views across the topographical grandeur of the region. A picturesque highlight is the imposing sight of Table Top Mountain.
Its name is rather self-explanatory and looks like a mesa from the American Southwest. 600 metres high, the two-hour return climb itself is quite demanding with a lot of large steps over the Camel's Hump and a scramble just before the summit. Used as a training track for hikers prepping for Mount Kilimanjaro and the Kokoda Trail for years, stick to the well-worn trail. But the sweet reward is at the summit, flat-topped and treeless, is the unrivalled horizon-wide panoramic fix. Back in the city, street art is one Toowoomba’s calling cards, with a spree of laneways, building walls and public spaces vividly cast in eye-catching works. There’s a dedicated Street Art Trail that weaves many of the works together, including Mark Lane, Bank Lane and Searle’s Walk.
But it’s Neil Street where most of the action is, with over 50 murals to feast your eyes on. Adding further texture and character to the city centre, Toowoomba’s old bones have been lovingly preserved, with impeccably maintained facades gracing the city centre and some showpiece buildings, including more than 50 heritage-listed sites. The bedazzling 1911 Empire Theatre is the pride of locals, with its resplendent art deco lobby. Then there’s the old post office and courthouse, venerable sandstone masterpieces from the late 19th century.
For a complete change of scenery, I headed to Ju Raku En, the delightful Zen-like Japanese Gardens, located at the University of Southern Queensland. I spent an hour casually zoned out admiring the five-hectare garden, crowned with a rippling lake, carefully aligned boulders, conifers, bamboo stands, cherry blossom trees, photo perfect bridges and curvaceous paths, in one of the largest Japanese gardens in Australia.
Next up, The Cobb & Co Museum which is home to the National Carriage collection’s huge array of vehicles, horse-drawn carriages, outback memorabilia, and extensive displays. The National Carriage Collection comprises 47 restored horse-drawn vehicles, which played an important role in Queensland’s development. Established in 1853 by Freeman Cobb with the intention of initially servicing the Victorian goldfields, Cobb & Co quickly developed to become the most successful company of its kind in Australasia during the 19th Century, pioneering transport routes, delivering mail,...
As you enter from the east, the city seemingly dangles on the edge of the elevated plateau, overlooking the undulating green patchwork of the Lockyer Valley. Beyond the city limits of this sprawling country hub, Toowoomba is enrobed by the agricultural powerhouse of the Darling Downs region.
Toowoomba is Australia’s largest inland city and it’s Queensland’s Garden City, playing host to a fiendishly popular Carnival of Flowers in September - the longest running floral event of its kind in Australia. It welcomes hundreds of thousands of hyper-coloured flowers in full bloom, planted across the city’s parks and public spaces. But it’s not just the plants that attract out-of-towners. A glut of gorgeous, manicured gardens lie within the city’s boundaries, graced with stately homes and broad tree-lined streets.
To help get my bearings, I joined a two hour guided excursion with Lindsay from Toowoomba Sightseeing, introducing me to the city staples, from the historic CBD to panoramic vistas over the range. Lindsay remarked that Toowoomba is like a volcanic saucer, with rich red soils. “Everything grows here.” An essential stop is at Picnic Point, located on the eastern side of Toowoomba, serving up enormous views across the topographical grandeur of the region. A picturesque highlight is the imposing sight of Table Top Mountain.
Its name is rather self-explanatory and looks like a mesa from the American Southwest. 600 metres high, the two-hour return climb itself is quite demanding with a lot of large steps over the Camel's Hump and a scramble just before the summit. Used as a training track for hikers prepping for Mount Kilimanjaro and the Kokoda Trail for years, stick to the well-worn trail. But the sweet reward is at the summit, flat-topped and treeless, is the unrivalled horizon-wide panoramic fix. Back in the city, street art is one Toowoomba’s calling cards, with a spree of laneways, building walls and public spaces vividly cast in eye-catching works. There’s a dedicated Street Art Trail that weaves many of the works together, including Mark Lane, Bank Lane and Searle’s Walk.
But it’s Neil Street where most of the action is, with over 50 murals to feast your eyes on. Adding further texture and character to the city centre, Toowoomba’s old bones have been lovingly preserved, with impeccably maintained facades gracing the city centre and some showpiece buildings, including more than 50 heritage-listed sites. The bedazzling 1911 Empire Theatre is the pride of locals, with its resplendent art deco lobby. Then there’s the old post office and courthouse, venerable sandstone masterpieces from the late 19th century.
For a complete change of scenery, I headed to Ju Raku En, the delightful Zen-like Japanese Gardens, located at the University of Southern Queensland. I spent an hour casually zoned out admiring the five-hectare garden, crowned with a rippling lake, carefully aligned boulders, conifers, bamboo stands, cherry blossom trees, photo perfect bridges and curvaceous paths, in one of the largest Japanese gardens in Australia.
Next up, The Cobb & Co Museum which is home to the National Carriage collection’s huge array of vehicles, horse-drawn carriages, outback memorabilia, and extensive displays. The National Carriage Collection comprises 47 restored horse-drawn vehicles, which played an important role in Queensland’s development. Established in 1853 by Freeman Cobb with the intention of initially servicing the Victorian goldfields, Cobb & Co quickly developed to become the most successful company of its kind in Australasia during the 19th Century, pioneering transport routes, delivering mail,...
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