Brownsville’s Green

I frequently use the term “Brownsville” as a semi-derogatory way to refer to my home town.  It’s a phrase often used by locals – especially if they are returning to Townsville after visiting someplace greener like, say, I don’t know… anywhere else on the coast.

Townsville is, you see, part of the dry tropics stuck smack-bang in the middle of the wet tropics, so one of the things you notice most about coming to Townsville from either the lush tropics to our south or the even lusher tropics to our north is how brown everything is.  For large parts of the year it requires serious irrigational intervention to keep the green grass alive, while the brown spindly grass that’s endemic to the area has no problem growing in this climate.

It has recently come to my attention, though, that I have failed to appreciate just how much green space Townsville has.  Nobody calls Townsville “the garden city”, but it wouldn’t be a misnomer if they did.

We have four botanical gardens in Townsville.  Four.  Queens Gardens is in the more formal garden style, with flower beds, hedge mazes, a fountain (which rarely works, it must be said) and an aviary.  Dan Gleeson Memorial Gardens is also in the formal gardens vein, with flowerbeds and fountains (which actually do work) and a network of ponds.  Anderson Park Botanical Gardens is a rambling parklands kind of thing, with ponds and groves of trees -- and judicious use of paths, a one-lane-one-way road and the wide swaths of green can see you get four kilometres worth of running in that park without repeating the same scenery.  Finally, there’s the Palmetum – a garden dedicated to showcasing the different environments in which one might find palms (from rainforests to savannah land).

All of these are open to the public and completely free.

In addition to this, there are a network of parks and paths stretched across the city’s coastline so that you could travel from the city’s Strand promenade to the bushwalking trails at cape Palaranda – 10 kilometers away – without ever having to touch a street.  There’s also approximately 40 kilometres of parklands surrounding the river.  And there’s the Town Commons – a wetlands area that could either be considered a paradise for bird watches or a mosquito infested swamp, depending on the time of year.  Like Cape Palaranda, Castle Hill and the Mount Stuart range, the Town Commons has a series of bushwalking tracks through it, so that you never have to leave town to enjoy a stroll through nature.

And, then, the place is lousy with parks.  Actual, honest-to-goodness, suburban parks are all over the place.  Some have football or cricket fields in them, but many just have a handful of trees, a picnic table and some playground equipment – and quite a number have an off-leash dog exercise area as part of them.  The only good thing about the new pre-fabricated neighbourhoods (where no one has a backyard big enough to plant a tree) is that they all have parks woven into their pre-fabricated designs.

I don’t think there’s a single place in Townsville where you would live more than five minute’s walk away from a park.

I currently live in what I would call one of the “middle aged” suburbs – one of the ones that were built during the 1950s and 1960s.  Within a 1km radius of my house are three parks.  Within a 2km radius are five parks and a botanical garden.  Within a 3km radius are seven parks (maybe eight), a botanical garden, two public swimming pools (which both have lawns) and a library (garden of the mind?).  Okay the library thing is pushing it, but you get the idea.

Townsville does green space.  Having grown up here, it’s always been part of the background of my life.  I’ve just always lived a few minute’s walk from a park and a short drive from a botanical garden.

I hadn’t realised how special this was until a couple of years ago, when I noticed the town I was holidaying in didn’t have any public gardens and only had a couple of parks.  Once I started paying attention, I started to notice that gardens – “real” gardens – weren’t a standard part of every town. 

And when I say “real” gardens, I mean gardens big enough for several whole families to spend the afternoon picnicking and playing without disturbing each other, and with enough space for some couples to find a secluded place to canoodle without being seen by the kids from those families.  I’ve been in towns where they say they have “gardens”, but they’re barely big enough for two picnic tables, and you certainly wouldn’t spend hours there.

Recently I’ve been thinking of moving to the Sunshine Coast and I’ve been checking out the area on Google, trying to find the neighbourhoods where there are parks and shops within walking distance.  The Sunshine Coast has more people than Townsville (and covers more land) but, surprisingly, less green space.  Most of the towns don’t have gardens and only have one or two major parks.  Some of the suburbs, alarmingly, don’t even have much by way of trees.

I have a dozen reasons for wanting to move out of “Brownsville” eventually, but I never realised just how good I have it, in terms of parks and gardens.  Now that it has been brought to my attention, I’m going to enjoy it while I can.

And maybe I’ll try using the phrase “the garden city” more often to describe the old town.  I think she’s earnt it.