Toowoomba
Queensland's 'Garden City' at 700m elevation. Gateway to Darling Downs agriculture. University of Southern Queensland campus. Inland rail project positions it for logistics growth.
Toowoomba sits on the edge of the Great Dividing Range—a position that made it the gateway between coastal Queensland and the Darling Downs. At 700 meters elevation, the city escaped the tropical humidity of the coast, becoming Queensland's 'Garden City' with parks and jacaranda-lined streets.
The Darling Downs made Toowoomba wealthy. The black soil plains west of the range produced wheat, cotton, and cattle that flowed through the city. The railway arrived in 1867; cold storage facilities processed meat for export. The agricultural service economy still anchors the region.
The University of Southern Queensland maintains its main campus here, drawing students to regional education. The city became a hub for health and education services for the wider Darling Downs region.
Modern Toowoomba is Queensland's second-largest inland city. The 2015 opening of the Toowoomba Bypass and planning for the inland rail project connecting Melbourne to Brisbane position the city for logistics growth. The Second Range Crossing, completed 2019, improved highway access over the range.
By 2026, Toowoomba tests whether infrastructure investment can transform a garden city into a logistics hub—whether the gateway can become a destination.