The City of Thuringowa (19°18′26″S 146°43′54″E / 19.30722°S 146.73167°E / -19.30722; 146.73167) was a city and local government area in North Queensland, Australia covering the northern and western parts of what is now Townsville. The suburb of Thuringowa Central is the main business centre in this area.

Thuringowa was named after the German state of Thuringia where the shire's first chairman, John von Stieglitz, originated. Prior to its proclamation as a city on 1 January 1986, Thuringowa was a large rural shire, almost surrounding the City of Townsville.

In 2007 the Queensland Government recommended that the Thuringowa City Council and the Townsville City Council be merged as part of the review of councils and boundaries, with the merged entity to be referred to as the Townsville City Council and the city being called the New Townsville City. The transition was completed with the election of a new combined Council on 15 March 2008.

Prior to European settlement, the Nyawaygi Aboriginal people lived in the area around Thuringowa, Townsville and the Burdekin. The earliest European on record to live in Thuringowa was James Morrill whose boat washed ashore in 1846.

In 1860, the newly formed Queensland Government passed an act opening up the area to pastoral leases, and by 1861 there were many runs in Thuringowa. By 1865, Robert Towns and John Melton Black had purchased a number of properties throughout Thuringowa. In 1865 Robert Towns built a boiling down works – at the time, there was no facilities for shipping cattle or sheep, so in 1865 Andrew Ball and Mark Reid left Woodstock Station to find a harbour around the Cleveland Bay shores and the Town and port of Townsville was established at the mouth of Ross Creek.

The City of Thuringowa had its genesis in the Thuringowa Division, created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 638.

On 16 January 1888, the Ayr Division was created out of Subdivision 3 of the Thuringowa Division in 1888 under the Divisional Boards Act 1887.

Considerable progress ensued over the following decades – by 1902, Thuringowa had 1,020 dwellings listed on its ratebooks. Early chairmen Arthur Bundock and Joseph Hodel were involved in construction of key architecture such as the Ross River Bridge, the bridge at the Causeway and the Stuart Creek Bridge. These roads and bridges were constructed to serve not only Thuringowa's rural base but also its residential subdivisions of Hermit Park, Mundingburra and Rosslea. Water reticulation and sanitary services were established in these suburbs and street lighting and beautification work was carried out along Charters Towers Road. Also during this period the Council's first administration building was constructed at the Causeway, near the intersection of Flinders Street West and Ingham Road.

Under the Local Authorities Act 1902, divisions were renamed shires, and on 31 March 1903, Thuringowa Division became the Shire of Thuringowa. The period up to 1918 was one of consolidation and minor works, rather than major projects.

In 1918, much of the Shire of Thuringowa's urban area was transferred to Townsville. This initially caused great hardship for the Shire, as its rate base had been reduced to 2,500 ratepayers and its council headquarters was outside the shire. The Council adopted a conservative approach to policy during this period that included not only the depression years of the 1930s but also during World War II, when the area became an important staging point and was host to significant numbers of military personnel.

From the 1960s onwards, significant suburban development and growth took place in the area and the Council was providing new facilities and infrastructure. In 1979, a new Shire administration centre was constructed, moving it back into the local area, and on 1 January 1986, the Shire of Thuringowa became the City of Thuringowa.

In 2007, the state government engaged in a programme of local government reform centred on amalgamating LGAs across Queensland. The Local Government Advisory Committee recommended that the Cities of Thuringowa and Townsville should be amalgamated into a new City of Townsville. Though it was the source of some controversy, the merger ultimately took place, with the City of Thuringowa ceasing to exist in March 2008. Les Tyrell, Thuringowa's mayor of 17 years, won against Townsville's mayor, 19-year incumbent Tony Mooney, in the mayoral election for the combined city.

Thuringowa grew in population rapidly from the 1980s becoming one of the fastest-growing cities in Australia. The population had increased from 26,000 in 1986 to over 65,000 in 2007.

year	census population	% growth per annum
1936	1,500
1954	2,627
1961	2,572
1966	2,863	2.17
1971	3,432	3.69
1976	10,914	26.03
1981	17,728	10.19
1986	30,104	11.17
1991	37,722	4.62
1996	44,319	3.27
2001	52,715	2.90
2006	62,935	2.96
2007	65,782	4.5

More: Thuringowa travel guide from Wikivoyage

The City of Thuringowa included the following settlements:

The following is a list of chairmen and mayors of the Thuringowa Division, Shire of Thuringowa and City of Thuringowa from 1880 until 2008:

Year Name 1880–1882 William Aplin 1882–1883 Frederick Gordon 1883–1884 James Miller and Arthur Glennie Bundock 1884–1885 William Clayton and Arthur Glennie Bundock 1885–1888 Arthur Glennie Bundock 1888–1890 Frederick Johnson 1890–1891 Joseph Hodel 1891–1892 Joseph Hodel and Frederick Johnson 1892–1898 Joseph Hodel 1898–1900 Robert Mawby 1900–1901 Frederick Johnson 1901–1910 Joseph Hodel 1910–1912 Henry Abbot 1912–1914 Joseph Hodel

Year Name 1914–1915 Edward Crowder or Joseph Hodel 1915–1916 Joseph Hodel 1916–1917 Edward Crowder 1917–1920 William Ireland 1920–1929 James Cummins 1930–1948 Charles Wallace Wordsworth March–May 1949 James Kelso 1949–1960 William Howard Favell Wordsworth 1961–1966 John Richard Brabon 1967–1969 William DeCourcey 1970–1973 John Richard Brabon 1973–1976 William DeCourcey 1976–1991 Dan Gleeson (Mayor 86–91) 1991–2008 Les Tyrell

• Jensen, Judith (2004), Serving Thuringowa : chairmen and mayors (PDF), City of Thuringowa, ISBN 978-0-9577305-8-8, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2014
• Vance, Diane; Thuringowa (Qld.). Council (1988), Thuringowa, past and present (PDF), Thuringowa City Council, ISBN 978-0-7316-5538-0, archived (PDF) from the original on 15 November 2018

• Former Thuringowa City Council
• "History of the Thuringowa City Council" (PDF). Townsville City Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 April 2019.
• More history of Thuringowa, including searchable historical image collection – from Thuringowa Library Heritage Services