There’s lots of military history all along the coast here. Seek it out at Kissing Point Fort and the Army Museum of North Queensland as well as the old quarantine station, built in 1915 on Cape Pallarenda headland and used in the war. You can uncover the history of the area’s Indigenous peoples and get a sense of what life was like for the early settlers in the tropics at the Museum of Tropical Queensland.

More history lurks below the waves – dive boats go out from Townsville's harbour to explore the SS Yongala. The steamship sank off Townsville’s coast during a cyclone in 1911, killing all 122 people aboard. It was dubbed 'Townsville’s Titanic' at the time and only discovered in 1958.

Read on to discover 30 of Australia's most beautiful sites...

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