Toowoomba

Understand

It's 130 km west of Brisbane on the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range; travel time is approximately 90 minutes by road. After Canberra, Toowoomba is the second largest inland city in Australia.

Getting there

By plane 1 Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport (formerly Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport; WTB IATA) (is 17 km west of Toowoomba). Despite its former name the airport is 130 km from Brisbane and is not a practical alternative to Brisbane Airport (BNE IATA). There are few passenger flights operating from the airport. Services include:

QantasLink operates direct services to Sydney. There are 2 flights on weekdays and 1 flight a day on weekends. Regional Express (REX) operate services from Brisbane to Toowoomba and onwards to the rural towns of St George, Cunnamulla, Thargomindah, Charleville, Quilpie, Windorah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Mount Isa.

Airport transportation Rental car companies are represented at the airport. Given this is not a major airport it may be advisable to reserve a vehicle in advance. Taxis are available from the airport into Toowoomba City however considering the considerable distance from the CBD, commuters should expect at least a $50 fare. No public transport services exist for the airport.

By train Toowoomba does not have frequent rail services – it is not at all a popular means of getting into the city. Queensland Rail's Westlander service passes through the city twice a week on its journey between Brisbane and Charleville. Travel time by train between Brisbane and Toowoomba is approximately 3.5 hours, making the train journey substantially longer than the 90-minute trip by car or bus.

The westbound service departs Brisbane at 7:15PM on Tuesday and Thursdays, travelling through the night to arrive in Toowoomba at 11PM. The eastbound service departs Toowoomba at 7AM on Thursday and Saturday, arriving in Brisbane at 11:30AM. The east bound service descends down the Toowoomba Range in the early morning, offering excellent views of the rugged landscape.

2 Toowoomba railway station, Railway St. (updated Nov 2020)

By car There are three main ways to get into Toowoomba from the south, though there are some additional highways coming

Getting around

There are two taxi companies operating in Greater Toowoomba: Garden City Cabs and Yellow Cabs. Both companies have very reasonable metered fares compared to capital cities. Silver Service is a lesser-used taxi service that offers fully qualified drivers and is often regarded as a pricier but better service. A limited bus service operates in Toowoomba, with 6 bus routes covering the city. For the most part frequencies are hourly, increasing slightly for the AM and PM peak period. On Saturdays some routes are less frequent and others do not operate. No routes operate on Sundays. Information on timetabling and fares is available from the Queensland Government website.

By car

Getting around Toowoomba by car is the most convenient option, as with almost every regional city with a population fewer than 200,000, public transport options are severely limited. There are three major roads that traverse and connect Toowoomba.

The A21 is no longer one single road, but a series of roads that make up the old A2 Warrego Highway. A21 starts at Helidon Spa just before when the A2 Warrego Highway becomes a motorway, heads up towards East Toowoomba, winds its way through the CBD, and then heads west back toward the A2 Warrego Highway where it continues west. The A3 New England Highway traverses Toowoomba in a north-south direction, also passing through the CBD. The A139 Toowoomba-Athol Road connects Toowoomba to the locality of Athol about 10 kilometres southwest. It makes up the road of what used to be the A39, before it got rerouted towards the Warrego Highway on the new bypass. The last one doesn't traverse Toowoomba, but connects the outer suburbs, the A2 Warrego Highway is Toowoomba's only motorway, mostly two lanes in each direction, but not a very convenient route in getting around Toowoomba. The motorway is perhaps one of the most scenic as it passes through mountainous terrain (and no other motorway in Australia outside the ACT goes through this kind of terrain), but i

See

Picnic Point, a beautiful outlook on the edge of 'The Range'.

Museums 1 Cobb+Co Museum (Cobb and Co Museum), 27 Lindsay St, ☏ +61 7 4659 4900. 9:30AM–4PM. A museum displaying many different horse carriages, tools and pretty much everything used in 19th-century inland Queensland. The museum is part of the TAFE Queensland Toowoomba campus, and has a small uni-cafe. $12.50 per adult, $10 per concession holder, $6.50 per child (3-15), $25 per family (1 adult + 3 children), $32 per family (2 adults + 2 children). (updated May 2022)

National parks

There are no national parks "in" Toowoomba, but there are plenty of national parks in the LGA. Surprisingly, unlike most other parks in the state, the state government has invested in a lot of money in bushwalking trails, facilities, barbecue areas, picnic areas etc.

2 Bunya Mountains National Park. The second national park in Queensland established in 1908, best known for the 10-kilogram bunya pine, hence its name. The park is reasonably remote and hard to get to, but has been nominated for world-heritage as an extension to the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia world-heritage site. (updated May 2022) 3 Crows Nest National Park (6 minutes deviation of New England Highway near Crows Nest). This park is about 30-45 minutes north along the New England Highway (A3 / State Route 85) that is known for its impressive dry waterfall and its cliffs that look very much like diamonds. The park also protects a good range of koalas, and if you look carefully enough, you may be able to spot one. (updated May 2022) 4 Ravensbourne National Park. A rather small national park with only an area of 4.4 km2 (1.7 sq mi), containing several bushwalks, including one rainforest loop bushwalk (which is unusual for a place west of the GDR), and a very impressive lookout overlooking the magnificent ranges of the Darling Downs (that you can drive to). (updated May 2022)

Parks and gardens

5 Queens Park and Botanical Gardens, 43-73 Lindsay St, East

Do

There is a tourist drive around the City, there are distinctive signs that mark this route. Empire Theatre, 54-56 Neil St, toll-free: 1300 655 299Country code missing. Established in 1911, watch a show at the heritage-listed threatre. The seating capacity is 1,565. (updated Nov 2020) Visit the Sunday Markets at the Toowoomba PCYC

Festivals The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is hosted by the city in late September each year. Commencing in 1949 the Carnival capitalises on the city's reputation of being the 'Garden City'. While there are many events that make up the carnival period, Toowoomba is known for its annual garden competition and the carnivals street parade.

Buy

Toowoomba has a very spread out and lively city centre, brimming with small shops and cafes. There are also many shopping cen