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Townsville - Queensland, Australia

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Location of Townsville, Queensland
© Geoscience Australia

The city of Townsville is situated on Ross River in the dry topics of Queensland along Australia’s northeast coast. These images were acquired from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper sensor. True and false colour images for both a recent (2009), and an older (1989) scene are available below in high resolution JPEG format.

For acquisition of full resolution files see the Earth Observation Catalogue, or contact earth.observation@ga.gov.au

• Townsville true colour before and after
• 1989 Townsville true colour
• 2009 Townsville true colour
• 1989 Townsville false colour
• 2009 Townsville false colour

In this true colour swipe comparison, colours appear as close as they would naturally to the human eye. Urban areas appear grey to white, trees and grasslands as shades of green and yellow, soils and barren ground as brown to grey, and water bodies as dark blue to black. Residential growth is most prominent along the eastern side of Ross River, and also north of the city centre around Mount Low and Bushland Beach. A large amount of industry development can also be seen appearing in Mount St John. Rural residential properties continue to grow in the hinderlands of the city, particularly in the areas of Oak Valley, Alligator Creek and Mount Elliot. The Port of Townsville can also be observed reclaiming a large amount of land in Cleveland Bay.

	1989 Townsville true colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 3 (visible red), 2 (visible green) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 28 April 1989 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 933KB] © Geoscience Australia
	2009 Townsville true colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 3 (visible red), 2 (visible green) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 21 May 2009 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 997KB] © Geoscience Australia
	1989 Townsville false colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 7 (mid-infrared), 3 (visible red) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 28 April 1989 25m Resolution In these false colour images, urban areas appear as shades of white, cyan and purple. Vegetation shows as variations of the colours green, orange and brown. Bare rock appears in a variety of colours. Water bodies appear very dark blue to black. Download high resolution image [JPEG 908KB] © Geoscience Australia
	2009 Townsville false colour Landsat 5 TM satellite image Red, green, and blue hues are representing TM band’s 7 (mid-infrared), 3 (visible red) and 1 (visible blue) respectively Image taken on 21 May 2009 25m Resolution Download high resolution image [JPEG 900KB] © Geoscience Australia

Topic contact: earth.observation@ga.gov.au Last updated: October 27, 2011