Where to Stay in Toowoomba, State of Queensland

What is Toowoomba known for?

High on the crest of the Great Dividing Range above the Lockyer Valley, it grew as the capital of the rich Darling Downs, and it keeps wide parks and Victorian streets, a spring flower carnival, the Cobb and Co coach museum, and the grand old Empire Theatre. The plains fall away to the east. Street murals colour the lanes.

What are the main landmarks in Toowoomba?

The parks and gardens are the pride of Toowoomba. Wide flowerbeds and green squares, ablaze each spring for the flower carnival, spread through the city, the emblem of the town, along the streets. A grand theatre stands downtown.

The art-deco Empire Theatre fills with crowds, while the Cobb and Co Museum, the old cathedrals, and the escarpment lookout at Picnic Point mark the country around Toowoomba.

What is the history of Toowoomba?

Toowoomba grew as the town of the Darling Downs. Squatters ran sheep and cattle on the rich Downs from the eighteen-forties, and a settlement rose on the range where the drays climbed up from the coast, becoming the market and rail town of the whole tableland. Wool built the place.

Fortunes made from wool and wheat raised the churches, banks, and broad streets that still line the old centre. The city turned early to gardens. Its cool air and deep soil made it a town of parks and nurseries, and a great flower carnival began in the nineteen-forties that still fills the spring, giving Toowoomba its name as the garden city.

Coaches once ran from here. The Cobb and Co works built horse coaches for the outback until the motor age, and their story fills a museum in the town. The old streets keep their grand fronts.

Toowoomba keeps its gardens and its range views above the Downs.

Where is Toowoomba?

Toowoomba stands on the crest of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, at the eastern edge of the Darling Downs. The city sits high on the escarpment about seven hundred metres up, where the tableland breaks off in a steep wooded scarp above the Lockyer Valley, with the rich farmland of the Downs rolling away to the west. Deep gorges cut the range edge.

The plains stretch inland for miles.

What is the climate of Toowoomba?

Toowoomba has a mild highland climate cooled by its height. Warm summers and cool, crisp winters cross the range top, far gentler than the coast below, with frost on winter mornings and rain enough to keep the gardens green. Cloud often sits on the scarp.

Spring brings the city into flower.

How do you get to Toowoomba?

Toowoomba lies in southern Queensland, on the range about two hours west of Brisbane. A highway climbs the steep scarp to it from the coast, and a newer bypass carries the inland freight around the city. Country roads run out across the Downs.

Brisbane lies about ninety minutes to the east.