Much like other areas of northern Queensland, the tropical municipality of Townsville is brimful with palm trees, glistening oceans, white sandy beaches and lush heritage-listed rainforest. Also comparable to other areas in the Tropical North is its annual run of great weather. Townsville boasts around 300 days of sunshine a year, which goes a long way to luring in events and conferences that want to make the most of the great outdoors.
However, what really sets this destination apart from its neighbours, and indeed the rest of Australia, is its ability to combine its perfect weather and picturesque settings with a range of contemporary meeting facilities (indoor and al-fresco) and top-quality accommodation options.
Townsville has the venue capacity to host banquet-seated functions for 1000 people. The destination’s largest indoor venue, the Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre (TECC) can take on conferences of up to 5000 delegates, and the new $16.5 million Tony Ireland Stadium, which will open December 8, 2007, will have the capacity to seat 10,000, including 1000 in the grandstand.
The cosmopolitan region is also home to a raft of accommodation with meetings facilities, such as the four-star Mercure Inn Townsville, set on 4.5 acres of tropical gardens, which offers 143 guest rooms and a conference room for up to 400. There’s also Jupiters Townsville Hotel & Casino with conference facilities for up to 800 plus 194 guest rooms, and the Rydges Southbank Townsville (formerly the Quality Hotel Southbank & Convention Centre) which boasts both hotel rooms and self-contained apartments, and can cater for 10 to 500 people in its conference facilities.
There’s no shortage of unique function spaces either, and the Billabong Sanctuary is certainly one that warrants a mention. Just 20 minutes from the CBD, this interactive wildlife park with 25 hectares of bush can hold twilight functions from 30 to 1000, giving guests the opportunity to mingle with the park’s host of native animals. Reef HQ Aquarium also offers unique animal encounters, providing dining and cocktail experiences with live coral reef galleries as a backdrop.
For a conference break, escaping town is as easy as jumping on one of 14 passenger and four car ferry trips to Magnetic Island. Only 20 minutes from Townsville, the 50-square-kilometre island provides a wealth of sights and experiences, from bird-watching and horse riding, to diving, golfing and watersports. And as three-quarters of the island is covered in national parkland, there’s an almost endless amount of walking tracks to embark on. The island also offers several accommodation options: the four-star Magnetic International Resort in Nelly Bay with conference facilities for banquets of up to 150; the waterfront resort Peppers Blue on Blue Resort which has 157 apartment-style guest rooms; and Mantra One Bright Point which offers 124 apartment-style guest rooms plus space for meetings.
Townsville itself is easy to get to. It boasts more than 18,000 direct airline seats each week with direct flights from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and Mackay serviced by Qantas, VirginBlue and Jetstar. So if you haven’t visited the region recently, if at all, there are no excuses when it comes to accessibility.
 Jupiters Townsville Hotel & Casino pulled out all the stops in July this year when the venue hosted the Australian Festival of Chamber Music – Chefs in the North Festival Dinner on its poolside lawns overlooking Magnetic Island and the Coral Sea.
Hosted by Lyndey Millan, food director of the Australian Women’s Weekly and co-host of the Channel 9 national program “Fresh”, the dinner catered for 290 people in an outdoor setting under scattered hexagon-shaped, fairy-lit marquee structures.
Ten chefs (five local and five Australasian) prepared a five-course degustation menu for guests, which included delights such as paneforte of kangaroo, sour cherries and pistachio nuts; North Queensland berbere spiced prawns with Middle Eastern coleslaw; five-spiced quail with soft polenta, shiitake mushrooms and chocolate jus; and lime and coconut marinated red claw on Asian-inspired soba noodles with a light chilli dressing.
Special musical performances featured between courses showcasing artists such as violinist Jack Liebeck and pianist Piers Land, as well as William Barton who treated guests to a didgeridoo solo.
Accommodating a piano performance proved testing, as a baby grand piano needed to be moved from the hotel foyer to the poolside lawns for the event. One key challenge was keeping the piano dry as it was required to stay overnight on the lawn area.
Additional challenges included serving an open air event, given the possible weather changes, and ensuring there was enough kitchen space to allow for an additional eight chefs to be accommodated.
2007 marks the third year in which the Chefs in the North Festival Dinner has been held at Jupiters Townsville Hotel & Casino.
Top |