Flinders Street, Townsville

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Bowen Independent, Wed 15 June 1938 Pg 2 

So This is Townsville?

..."Fresh from England, I had thought that the sun shone brightly in Brisbane. In Townsville, I found that it could shine more brightly still. Flinders Street, its main thoroughfare, sticks in my memory as the hottest street I know. Perhaps this is the justification for its numerous pubs. They are grouped at the four corners of every cross-road, with a few thrown in between in case a man might be too weak or thirsty to walk the length of the whole block. (As a scientist should avoid inaccuracy, I must confess that there are shops at some of the corners). The air is still between the houses, and the sun beats down on the roofs and nearly blinds one’s eyes; it bounces off the bitumen and nearly scorches one’s feet.
And yet down the middle of Flinders Street runs a line of flower-beds bright with canna lilies and shaded by plumed palms. The freshness of those brilliant flowers in that street of thirst is one of the world’s outstanding miracles."

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