Beauty set to bloom on busy street

A major Townsville thoroughfare will have a mini makeover when the Oxley and Eyre streets roundabout receives brand new landscaping during the coming weeks.

During the transformation project Council’s crew will remove the current vegetation and replace it with colourful new plants that will be easier to maintain and more visually appealing to commuters and walkers in the area.

Mayor Nick Dametto said the works would provide a much-needed facelift for the high-traffic area.

“The Oxley and Eyre streets roundabout is a centrepiece for those entering The Strand and the city,” Cr Dametto said.

“As part of our focus on getting back to basics, we’re reviewing and upgrading identified green spaces including roundabouts and median strips, to strike the right balance between saving money on long-term garden maintenance and beautifying areas of our city.

“Council maintains more than 300 parks, playgrounds and open spaces across Townsville. One by one our crews are cleaning them up and raising the standard of maintenance across our city.”

Divisional Councillor Ann-Maree Greaney said the new landscaping extended on Council’s commitment to greening Townsville city and cooling suburban streets.

“The new landscaping at the roundabout includes pairing the bright yellow flowers of Galphimia glauca with the dark purple flowers of Tibouchina heteromalla to create a visually striking garden which is surrounded by a border of vibrant green clumping grass and low maintenance turf. These additions are evergreen, eye catching and very easy for our hardworking open spaces team to maintain,” Cr Greaney said.

“Council planted almost 1600 trees on nature strips in 2025, and we’re looking at planting more than 2000 this year. This is massively important work to offset tree removal and increasing the amount of tree coverage across our suburbs, leading to a cooler city for us.

“The vast majority of the plants our team puts in the ground are grown at our very own Dry Tropics Nursery, making these huge efforts more affordable for Council and our ratepayers.”

Some of the tree species planted across Townsville in 2025 included cinnamon myrtle, flame tree, ivory curl, white oak and evergreen ash.

For more information on parks and open spaces in Townsville, visit Council’s Parks, Beaches and Community Venues page.