Major Australian Cities that are not Capitals Quiz

The pretty port city of Bunbury, exactly two hours' drive south of Perth airport, is located on a peninsula surrounded by the Indian Ocean, Koombana Bay and the Leschenault Inlet. Founded in the 1830s as a timber port, Western Australia's third largest city (2020 population approximately 75 000, behind Perth and Mandurah), has a thriving tourism and services industry as well as mining infrastructure.

Must-do items are walking around town observing the street murals and a visit to the Dolphin Discovery Centre with a swim with the 90 or so dolphins that make Koombana Bay their home. The city has a pleasant climate and ocean fronting perfect beaches.

Cairns was formed as a port for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but faltered when better access to the goldfield was possible via Port Douglas to the north. Cairns is a terminus for the 1200 mile railway starting in the capital Brisbane in Queensland's south east, and is a major port for exporting mainly sugar cane, gold and minerals from the interior, and fruit and vegetables from surrounding coastal areas and the fertile volcanic soils of the Atherton Tableland just west of Cairns on top of the Great Dividing Range.

Cairns is located in far north Queensland jammed between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range which is particularly close to the coast in this region and the highest mountains in Queensland are located here, causing the city to spread out along a 45km north-south axis. Ostensibly a sugar city of 30,000 in the 70s, it has grown rapidly into a tourism city of 150 000 plus in 2020 making it Australia's 15th largest city yet is Queensland's fifth largest. The tropical climate and the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef being the main tourism draw cards.

Launceston, Tasmania's second largest city with a 2020 population of over 120 000, lies at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk Rivers where they form the Tamar River, 55km downstream from the northern Tasmanian coast. The city is named after its namesake in Cornwall England. One of Australia's oldest cities, first settled in 1806, it is rare among early colonial settlements in that it was never a penal colony.

The economy is based on being a regional hub with a large services industry and equally important tourism industry. This northern Tasmanian city is thriving thanks to a temperate climate and housing affordability. Tourism centres on Cataract Gorge, a river park where the two Esk rivers meet, and as a hub for the magnificent regional scenery. Launceston has one of the finest collections of Federation architecture in Australia.

Newcastle, named after its English (and smaller) counterpart, is New South Wales' second largest city and located 180km north of its larger state capital in Sydney. With a metropolitan area population of 500 000 in 2020, this shows a 100 000 increase over the 2011 census figures.

Newcastle is the hub for the Hunter Valley, an area of massive coal deposits and with its natural port at the the head of the Hunter river, Newcastle is the largest coal exporting harbour in the world. Because of the proximity of abundant coal, Newcastle once had a thriving heavy industry including shipbuilding and steel production. The demise of such industries in the 90s meant there were some tough economic times for Newcastle before it could reinvent itself in the commodities boom of the noughties.

Newcastle has a burgeoning tourism industry centred around magnificent beaches and nearby Lake Macquarie. Its proximity to Sydney with good transport links makes it an attractive commuting option with its relatively more affordable housing.

The Gold Coast is a 40 km strip of pristine beaches jammed in between the southern outskirts of the Queensland capital, Brisbane, the south Pacific Ocean, the closeness of the McPherson ranges (part of the Great Dividing Range), and the NSW border.

The city has grown from a population of the area of 71 000 in the early 1970s to a city of over 700 000 people, in 2020 making it the sixth largest city in Australia, the second most populous in Queensland and the largest non-capital in Australia. New residents are attracted to the laid back lifestyle, pristine beaches, the rainforest on the western edges (some of it listed by UNESCO) and a pleasant sub-tropical climate. Ten million tourists in 2020 descended on the city each year attracted to the same aspects as the residents, plus the Australian major theme parks are all clustered around the northern Gold Coast. The Gold Coast also hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Geelong, with a population of over 260 000 people in 2018, is the second largest city in Victoria and is located 75km southwest around the Port Phillip Bay from the capital, Melbourne.
First settled in 1838 as a transport hub for a district wool industry the settlement got a large boost in numbers after gold was discovered in nearby (inland) Ballarat in 1851 and the flock of incoming prospectors travelled through Geelong on the way to the goldfields.

The town quickly became a city and developed heavy industry as its major source of income due to its proximity of transport provided by the port and the direct rail line to Melbourne. When the heavy industry declined started in the 70s, Geelong re-invented itself as a healthcare, education and high-tech manufacturing hub.

In 2020, Geelong was Australia's second fastest growing city.

Wollongong is New South Wales' third biggest city (behind capital Sydney and Newcastle) with a 2020 population of 302 000. It was settled early as it is only 60km south of Sydney. In 1812, it became a timber/logging settlement and quickly grew into a sizable town.

The city is shoehorned into a narrow coastal strip between the beaches of the South Pacific Ocean and a vertical cliff face called the Illawarra Escarpment. In the south the plain opens out to a lagoon called Lake Illawarra. This is where the population growth has occurred. The city was known for its heavy industry particularly steelmaking, which in turn, was built in proximity to the nearby coalfields. As such, Wollongong is one of Australia's most multi-cultural cities with many immigrants from many countries, attracted to the high wages associated with steelmaking. As the reliance on heavy industry declined in the 80s, other industries took over, in particularly education. The University of Wollongong has over 38000 students many of which are international students attracted to its programs and the city's lifestyle.

Toowoomba with its 2018 population of 136 000 is Australia's second largest inland city after Canberra (which itself is a planned city built, arguably, to appease the Sydney/Melbourne national capital compromise). Whilst only 120km west of Brisbane, it has its own identity being situated at the top of the Great Dividing Range, 2200 feet above sea level. The city is the main centre of the Darling Downs, a rich agricultural area that serves as a food bowl for Queensland.

Brisbane residents who are looking for a tree change often move to Toowoomba with its cooler climate, traditional Queensland architecture, cheaper housing options and the 'country town feel'. A cathedral and university city, the Garden City is known nationally for its Carnival of Flowers every September.

Mount Gambier is South Australia's second largest city, which is not saying much as in a state the size of Egypt, only 400 000 people in the state live outside the capital Adelaide (which has a 2018 population of 1.35 million people). Hence Mt Gambier's modest 2018 population of 29 500 made it the 47th largest city in Australia.

The city is built around Mount Gambier, an extinct volcano that holds crater lake, a lake that is a very bright cobalt blue in summer and is a major tourism draw card as are the nearby Coonawarra wine region. Other industries centre around timber and government services as expected of a regional hub. Situated only 18km from the Victorian state border and almost exactly halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, the city also acts as a service hub for many people who live in Western Victoria.

By the 1850s the cattle industry based on inland Queensland needed a better port due to periodic flooding of the Burdekin River. Robert Towns (from whom Townsville is named), funded a settlement further north, based between Ross River and Ross Creek in the shadow of the 268m monolith which became known as Castle Hill (and still dominates the modern city skyline). The subsequent construction of the port in the sheltered waters of Cleveland Bay was the start of a thriving city.

With a 2018 population of 168000, Townsville is the largest Australian city north of the Sunshine Coast which is just north of Brisbane, and is the fourth largest city in Queensland. The city also has a heavy mining manufacturing industry including the world's largest zinc refinery. The city is a major military base for army and air force. The city also has a large government services sector and the locals only half joking that the city serves as the unofficial capital of North Queensland as the capital Brisbane is 1800 km down the highway. Occasional threats of North Queensland seceding from Queensland make the media periodically but never move to the next step.