27 Facts About Toowoomba

Toowoomba is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia.

Toowoomba is the second-most-populous inland city in the country after the national capital of Canberra and hence the largest city on the Darling Downs, and it is among the largest regional centres in Queensland.

Toowoomba region is the home of two main Aboriginal language groups, the Giabal whose lands extend south of the city and Jarowair whose lands extend north of the city.

In 1904 Toowoomba was declared a city, and saw the Austral Society founded there by the esteemed national poet George Essex Evans.

University and cathedral city, Toowoomba is largely preserved of its Victorian era architecture and gardens of which there are more than 150 public parks including the historic Queens Park.

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In recent years Toowoomba has seen high rise developments built to accommodate high population growth in the region.

Toowoomba is on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, around 700 metres above sea level.

Toowoomba is home to the Empire Theatre, which was originally opened in June 1911, as a silent movie house.

Toowoomba has many heritage-listed sites, with over fifty on the Queensland Heritage Register in addition to listings on other local heritage registers.

Current Mayor of Toowoomba is Mayor Paul Antonio, who was elected in 2012 and is currently serving his third term.

Toowoomba has had a large amount of crime over the past years, but is still on average less than other parts of Queensland.

Toowoomba is a major education centre with a strong presence of boarders from Western Queensland attending Schools such as Toowoomba Grammar, Fairholme College, Downlands College and The Glennie School.

Toowoomba is home to the Weis Bar, Home Ice Cream, Homestyle Bake and possibly the Lamington.

Toowoomba has a thriving cafe and restaurant scene that is often compared to Melbourne in its maturity and depth.

Toowoomba is the headquarters of Football Darling Downs which administers football in Toowoomba and surrounding towns and regions.

Toowoomba is home to 12 clubs including South West Queensland Thunder - Fairholme College, Garden City Raiders, Highfields, Rockville Rovers, St Albans, South Toowoomba Hawks, St Ursula's College, University of Southern Queensland, West Wanderers and Willowburn.

The four Senior Toowoomba clubs compete with five other clubs in towns such as Dalby, Gatton, Goondiwindi, Highfields and Warwick.

Toowoomba has clubs for other sports including cricket, archery, swimming, tennis, softball, baseball, netball, hockey, gridiron and basketball .

Sport at both junior and senior level in Toowoomba and surrounding areas is promoted by Sports Darling Downs, a non-profit organisation based in Toowoomba.

The inaugural FKG Tour of Toowoomba was won by Patrick Shaw riding for the Virgin Blue RBS Morgan team.

Toowoomba is serviced by three commercial national network stations and two national non-commercial network stations.

Toowoomba was the headquarters for McCafferty's Coaches that operated a national long-distance coach network until its sale to Greyhound Australia in 2004.

Toowoomba station has a twice-weekly rail service from Brisbane to Charleville and return on Queensland Rail's The Westlander.

Toowoomba is criss-crossed by several railway lines that are used for freight, and idle railway stations can be found in the suburbs, dating to when these localities were separate centres.

Toowoomba is served by Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, which is serviced by QantasLink, Airnorth and Regional Express Airlines, with flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and Townsville and destinations west of the city, but there is potential for services to Mackay and overseas.

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Toowoomba sits above the eastern edge of the Great Artesian Basin and to the west underground water is available beneath unconsolidated alluvium.

Toowoomba has sister city relations with three international cities: Wanganui, New Zealand; Takatsuki, Japan; and Paju, South Korea.