[3] The Port of Townsville is intrinsically linked to the sustainability of the North Queensland economy, and during 2023-24 handled $10 billion in trade.

[4] More than 30 different commodity types are imported and exported through Townsville including mineral ores, fertiliser, concentrates, sugar and motor vehicles.

The establishment, planning and development of the port was undertaken by an entrepreneur, John Melton Black, with financial backing by Robert Towns, a wealthy businessman based in New South Wales.

This changed during 1867-1871, when discoveries of payable gold in the Queensland hinterland at Palmer River, Ravenswood and Charters Towers rescued the port and the town from decline by opening up new opportunities in goods and passenger trade.

By 1874 it was becoming evident that the wharves of the Inner Harbour in Ross Creek would soon be no longer be able to handle the anticipated increased maritime traffic and larger ships.

A year later, William Nesbit, Engineer of Harbors and Rivers, Queensland Government, submitted an ambitious plan to increase the port's capacity through the construction of several long jetties that would also serve as breakwaters, to the west and east of Ross Creek.

Soon after World War II the passenger ship era came to an end because of escalating costs and increased competition from road and rail transport.

During the 1920s wool, frozen meat, tallow and sugar were the dominant exports, with coal and later oil as significant imports.

A 1923 chance discovery of immense deposits of copper, zinc, lead and silver at an outcrop 900 km west of Townsville accelerated further growth of the port.

Mount Isa Mines were established a year later and after the completion of a rail link the first mineral exports started flowing through the port.

Its primary function was to manage the transit of troops, war materials, equipment and bulk fuel supplies for use by the Allied forces in the South-West Pacific.

With the tide of the Pacific War turning in favour of the Allies, shipping at the port gradually started decreasing from 1944, and by 1945 some semblance of pre-war normality had been achieved.