ectural historians as Australia's most significant building in the Filigree style) to fire in 1982 and the Alexandra Hotel to demolition in the 1970s.
Eddie Mabo, who later became famous for his involvement in overturning the legal fiction of terra nullius, worked as a gardener at James Cook University in the 1970-1980s. It was here where he first learned of the implications of the terra nullius doctrine and decided to take on the Australian government. The James Cook University Douglas campus library is now named after him.
In October 2000, a Solomon Islands Peace Agreement was negotiated in Townsville
