Townsville - Sport and Recreation

Sport and Recreation

Townsville hosts several sporting teams that participate in national competitions. These include the North Queensland Cowboys (National Rugby League), the Townsville Fire (Women's National Basketball League) who play at the Townsville RSL Stadium and the Townsville Crocodiles, (National Basketball League) who play out of the Townsville Entertainment Centre, known as The Swamp during Crocs home games.

The Dairy Farmers Stadium is the home ground for the Cowboys. Built in 1995 the stadium has a capacity of 30,302. Dairy Farmers Stadium was an official venue the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup, with three matches played in Townsville. Townsville hosted the popular Japanese national rugby union team. The Super Rugby rugby union team Queensland Reds have also played at Dairy Farmers Stadium. Tony Ireland Stadium, in the suburb of Thuringowa, has an international standard cricket and AFL stadium.

Townsville also hosts two Touch Football associations. The Townsville/Castle Hill Touch Association (TCHTA) conducts competitions annually at its grounds at Queens Park, Townsville. Thuringowa Touch Association (TTA) also conducts competitions at Greenwood Park, Kirwan. Both competitions have produced a host of regional, state and national representative players and officials.

Townsville and its surrounding suburbs host a number of junior and senior rugby league sides in the successful Townsville District Rugby League, including A-grade sides: Bindal Sharks, Brothers Townsville, University Saints and Centrals ASA Tigers. The junior league has produced a number of Australian internationals such as, Gordon Tallis and Gene Miles and it is an important junior nursery for the National Rugby League

AFL Townsville operate a regional Australian rules football league in the region. Jake Spencer is the first local player to play in the AFL.

Several Australian Test and ODI cricketers have come out of Townsville including current fast bowler Mitchell Johnson and also former Australian squad member Andrew Symonds who both honed their skills as juniors at Wanderers Cricket Club.

A V8 Supercars race track is located in Townsville, and the inaugural annual Townsville 400 was held in July 2009.

Townsville also has a go cart track and motocross track, Townsville had a 1/4 mile dragstrip, but it closed it's gates on the 25/8/2012 due to urban development. A new site for a dragway and Motorsport complex is being looked into.

Rowing is also available at Riverway Rowing Club and caters to competitive masters, social, learn to row and school based rowing programs. 2010 saw Riverway claim their first Queensland Club Premiership.

Townsville has 2 Tennis Clubs. The Western Suburbs Tennis Club Inc] and Tennis Townsville Inc]. Each year Tennis Townsville host the NQ Open Championships and Western Suburbs Tennis Club host the Townsville Open. These tournaments see Australian and international players competing for up to $10,000 prize money and the opportunity to improve their Australian Tennis Ranking.