Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park

Acknowledging the Bindal and Wulgurukaba people as the Traditional Owners and first people to live in the Townsville Region for thousands of years and many generations.

Cape Pallarenda Conservation Park is located only 8km north of Townsville's CBD.  It's a great spot for family gatherings, picnics, barbeques, enjoying the shady parks, playgrounds and safe swimming inside the stinger nets.  The network of trails at Cape Pallarenda provides opportunity to put on the walking shoes, get outdoors and go exploring the area.  

Shelly Cove Trail 

(1.5 km return)

Shelly Cove Trail starts as an easy and wide gravel track, gently ascending the coastal walk along a section of Cleveland Bay looking across to Magnetic Island. 

Recent history

• Pallarenda was given it's name in 1864 by Lieutenant George Poynter (G.P.) Heath during a marine survey of Cleveland Bay.  Lt Heath had joined the British Royal Navy in 1845 and worked drawing marine survey charts. In 1860, Lt Heath and his wife sailed to Brisbane and he was appointed Portmaster of Queensland.  Over the next 30 years, Lt Heath was responsible for opening 13 new ports, including Townsville and Cairns, and mapping 450 miles through the Barrier Reef.

• In 1915 a Quarantine Station was established at Cape Pallarenda to quarantine passengers from arriving ships with suspected cases of ship-borne diseases.  Some of the quarantine station buildings came from a previous location built at West Point - Magnetic Island in 1884.  The Spanish Flu epidemic impacted Australia in 1919, with almost 15,000 lives lost.  Cape Pallarenda's Quarantine Station closed in 1973.

• During World War II, Townsville in 1942 was a supply base for Australian and United States defence efforts.  Two gun emplacements at Cape Pallarenda were constructed to protect the Townsville Harbour. The Cape Pallarenda area included a command post, base camp for troops and the Quarantine Station which was used as a hospital treating casualties mainly from Papua New Guinea.

 

The first gun emplacement on Shelly Cove Trail, looking back to Castle Hill

Second gun emplacement overlooking Shelly Cove

From here the Shelly Cove Trail becomes a narrow path, 

winding through the trees and scrub on a gradual descent to the beach via rock steps. 

View of Magnetic Island from track leading down to Shelly Cove

Shelly Cove, Cape Pallarenda

    

Looking from Shelly Cove across Cleveland Bay to Magnetic Island and Cape Cleveland

Graves Circuit (2 km)

On the way back from Shelly Cove, taking the Graves Circuit track uphill leads to a ridge

 

Graves Circuit track, looking towards Townsville and the iconic landmark of Castle Hill

Hypolimnas bolina

Common names for this butterfly are Blue Moon 

or Varied Eggfly (because of the egg shaped white spot on each forewing of the male)

The Graves Circuit trail is a memorial to 13 Vietnamese immigrants 

who died in quarantine at Cape Pallarenda due to an outbreak of meningitis in 1920.