Robert Towns

While Ben Boyd, for whom Ben Boyd National Park and Ben Boyd Road are named, had in 1847 been responsible for kidnapping and enslaving Polynesians to work on his Australian properties, his pioneering blackbirding efforts were failures.

But in 1863, the idea was revived by Robert Towns, for whom Townsville is named.

He wanted South Pacific labour for his Queensland cotton plantations.

Mr Towns hired a disgraced Royal Navy sailor turned pirate, turned sandalwood trader named Henry Ross Lewin to do this work.

Despite the terrible content here, there's some beautiful moments that you introduce, and one of them is...

Because Robert Towns was one of the other criminals who was the top of a slave trading operation for a long time.

And the city of Townsville is named after him.

And you said, you sort of ponder, well, should there be a campaign to change the name of Townsville? And I think to paraphrase, well, tell me, what was the conclusion you reached?

Because if you erase Towns from the history, maybe we're forgetting that part of history of what he did.

And so rather than take from history, I think we need to add to it.

So Townsville has a statue of Robert Towns on the Pioneers Walk.

But why would we not? use Townsville and use maybe a statue of a Pacific Islander.