top, by road or by goat track. The Goat Track is a rough path that consists of 758 individual stairs from start to finish. Castle Hill is also a popular tourist site. Education groups regularly using the reserve to study natural environments, community history and urban geography. The North Queensland Conservation Council is undertaking a voluntary bush rejuvenation program of the site. History Early records and creation of a Reserve Castle Hill has formerly also been known locally as Cutheringa, Cudtheringa, Cootharinga, and Mt Cutheringa. The Aboriginal history associated with Cutheringa has not been recorded, but its name survives as one of only two known Australian Indigenous place names in the Townsville region, the other being Pallarenda. Castle Hill was one of the earliest sites named by Andrew Ball who, together with MW Reid, were the first Europeans to explore the Ross River area in April 1864. The settlement established here was known initially as Castletown, until the name was replaced by Townsville in 1865. The hill became a much admired local landmark, evoking aesthetic delight and a unique sense of identity. This prominent link between urban life and nature largely determined the disordered layout of Townsville's streets and in the late 19th century was frequented for recreational pursuits such as botanising and nature study. Townsville residents also illegally plundered timber and firewood from Castle Hill. Wild goats further ravaged the native vegetation. By the late 1880s the Townsville Herald (1822–97) voiced considerable public outrage at the continued denudation of Castle Hill. These concerns were part of Queensland-wide debates on forest resource use and conservation. In an innovative approach to conservation, the Townsville Municipal Council applied to the Crown to establish the Hill as a reserve under their protective trusteeship, and on 30 June, Castle Hill was gazetted a Recreation Reserve of . However, despite the appointment of Crown Land Rangers and later, a Conservator of Trees for Castle Hill, the council was able to do little to restore the tree cover of the reserve during the depression years of the 1890s. Alderman Edward Downs and EJ Banfield privately planted various trees through the 1890s, including the surviving banyans, but by the 20th century, popular interest in preserving the natural vegetation of Castle Hill had waned. Small areas of the reserve were excised in the 1890s for water reserves and quarrying, but by 1900 it remained an unimproved reserve of