Skip to main content

All Exhibits

Step inside the Townsville Museum and discover the stories, objects and everyday moments that helped shape our city. Our exhibitions bring together historic artefacts, local memories and carefully preserved displays, offering visitors a glimpse into Townsville’s homes, workplaces, communities and changing way of life. From early household items and business records to music, printing, radio, fashion and civic history, each exhibit reveals a different part of Townsville’s past and the people connected to it.

Before Electricity

Before Electricity

Step into the home before power points and electric appliances, where wood stoves, kerosene lamps, ice boxes and hand-powered tools were part of everyday life.
Business

Business

Explore how Townsville businesses managed accounts, records and daily operations before computers, using handwritten ledgers, typewriters, adding machines and carefully kept business documents.
City Chambers Window

City Chambers Window

Discover the original Townsville City Council leadlight window, once displayed in the old Council Chambers in Flinders Street and preserved as part of the city’s civic history.
Coastal Radio

Coastal Radio

Step inside a recreated coastal radio station and discover the vital role radio communication played in connecting ships, ports and people across the North Queensland coast.
Dining Room

Dining Room

Step into an elegant dining room from a bygone era, featuring a 1925 dining suite built in Townsville by a local craftsman and surrounded by household treasures from early family life.
Doll Exhibit

Doll Exhibit

Explore a colourful collection of dolls from around the world, donated to the Museum by local resident and collector Millie McLachlan, OAM.
Early Pharmacy

Early Pharmacy

Explore a fascinating collection of early pharmacy bottles, tools and equipment connected with Townsville chemist William Green.
Early Telephone

Early Telephone

Explore the changing world of telephone communication, from field telephones and manual switchboards to distinctive home phones and early push-button models.
John Godschall Johnson

John Godschall Johnson

Discover the work of John Johnson, a world-renowned artist and craftsman known for his skill in creating stringed instruments and violins.
Mavis Cussons

Mavis Cussons

View the striking silk ball gown worn by Townsville Daily Bulletin gossip columnist Mavis Cussons in 1940, screen printed with the news of the day for a fundraising ball at the Townsville Showgrounds.
Organ Exhibit

Organ Exhibit

View a Mason & Hamlin pedal harmonium organ built in 1930, once used by the Masonic Lodge in Walker Street, Townsville, alongside a timber stool from St Peter’s Church in West End.
Printing

Printing

Explore the printing process once used by the Townsville Bulletin and see how large mechanical presses helped produce the daily newspaper before modern digital technology changed the industry.
Queensland Rail Refreshment Rooms

Queensland Rail Refreshment Rooms

Discover a place setting from the old Queensland Rail refreshment rooms, featuring crockery, tableware and dining items that reflect the style of railway travel and hospitality from an earlier era.
Sewing Display

Sewing Display

Explore hand-operated and early electric sewing machines from a bygone era, including an electric sewing machine dating back to the 1930s.