People being discharged from Townsville University Hospital at Douglas. This is the tertiary referral hospital for all of North Queensland, so it discharges not only Townsville residents but participants who travelled in from Mount Isa, the Burdekin, Charters Towers and the north west. Getting supports in place before a discharge date is a recurring pressure point.
Registered NDIS Provider · 405 358 3296
NDIS Provider in Townsville, North Queensland
A North Queensland team, not a southern provider flying someone up.
How we work in Townsville
Our head office is at 338 Waller Road, Park Ridge, which is roughly 1,100 kilometres south of Townsville. We're not going to pretend that distance doesn't exist. It's why our Townsville supports are delivered by workers who live in Townsville, recruited locally and rostered locally.
That distinction matters more here than almost anywhere. Participants in North Queensland have been burned repeatedly by southern providers who list the region on a website, take the referral, and then can't staff a single shift.
GOTLEHS CARE is a registered NDIS provider, number 405 358 3296, audited against the NDIS Practice Standards. We can invoice agency-managed plans as well as plan-managed and self-managed ones, which matters in a region where the choice of registered providers is genuinely limited.
We cover Townsville and Thuringowa: the CBD, Kirwan, Aitkenvale, Cranbrook, Mundingburra, Hermit Park, Annandale, Douglas, Idalia, Mount Louisa, Condon, Rasmussen, Deeragun, Burdell, Bushland Beach and Alice River, along with Magnetic Island.
NDIS services we deliver in Townsville
All ten of our registered supports are available in Townsville. Four come up most often in this region.
Transport, because Townsville is a car-dependent city with a thin bus network and no commuter rail, and a participant who doesn't drive is genuinely stuck. Personal care, delivered as consistent rostered shifts rather than whoever is free that week. Social and community participation, built around the Strand, the local clubs and the neighbourhood centres rather than a fixed activity list. And assist life stages and transition, particularly around discharge from Townsville University Hospital.
The rest are equally available: accommodation and tenancy assistance, daily living and life skills, physical wellbeing activities, therapeutic supports, specialised driver training, and assistance animals and innovative supports.
Accommodation and Tenancy Assistance
Assist Life Stages, Transition and Support
Assist Personal Activities
Assist Travel and Transport
Development of Daily Living and Life Skills
Physical Wellbeing Activities
Social and Community Participation
Therapeutic Supports
Specialised Driver Training
Assistance Animals and Other Innovative Supports
Who we support in Townsville
Participants across the whole city and the Thuringowa suburbs, of all ages and all disability types.
Students and young adults around James Cook University and the local high schools, including school leavers who need something structured lined up for February.
Participants living on Magnetic Island, where every support has a ferry timetable wrapped around it and most mainland providers simply decline.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants, who make up a significant share of the Townsville population and for whom culturally safe support is not an optional extra.
And participants in the surrounding areas who use Townsville as their service centre, including Ayr, Home Hill and the Burdekin.
How support works in Townsville
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We roster around the heat, which sounds like a small thing and is not. From October through March, outdoor and community activities scheduled for the middle of the day are activities that get cancelled. Morning shifts and late afternoon shifts work. A midday walk in February does not, and pretending otherwise just burns a participant's funding on a shift nobody completed.
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We plan for the wet season rather than reacting to it. Between November and April, roads flood, routines break and access changes at short notice. Every participant should have a version of their support plan that works on a wet week, agreed in advance, so the answer to a closed road isn't a cancelled shift.
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For Magnetic Island participants we build the ferry into the roster instead of treating it as a complication. Fewer, longer shifts generally work better than short daily visits, because the crossing time is the same either way.
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And we make scarce allied health go much further. Where a therapist sets a program, our workers deliver it between sessions. In a region where an occupational therapy appointment might be months apart, that carryover is often the difference between progress and standing still.
The problems Townsville participants face
The workforce shortage is the structural problem and it is worse than in the south. Townsville competes for support workers against defence, mining services, health and aged care, in a city with a limited pool to begin with. Funded, approved supports sit undelivered for months.
Provider claims that don't survive contact with reality. Participants tell us about signing with organisations headquartered in Brisbane, then discovering the nearest actual worker was a thousand kilometres away and the shifts were never going to happen.
Allied health scarcity. Occupational therapy, speech pathology and psychology are all thin here, and some subspecialties barely exist north of Brisbane. Families end up flying south for assessments, which costs a day and a considerable amount of funding.
Transport, in a city built around driving. The bus network covers the main corridors and not much else, and there is no commuter rail. Without a licence or a support worker who drives, participants in the outer suburbs are isolated in a way that doesn't show up in any service statistic.
The wet season and cyclone risk, which disrupt supports every year and are treated as unforeseeable every year.
And having no realistic choice. In Brisbane, a provider that isn't working out is an inconvenience. In Townsville it may be the only one accepting referrals, and participants stay in arrangements they'd have left years ago in a bigger market.
What we do about it in Townsville
We recruit and roster locally. If we can't staff a shift with someone who lives in the region, we don't take it on. That's the whole answer to the fly-in promise problem, and it's a limit we'd rather state plainly than quietly breach.
We're honest about capacity on the first call. Where a participant has few alternatives, a comfortable maybe is worse than a clear no, because it costs them weeks they didn't have to spare.
We build a wet season version of every support plan before the wet season starts, so a flooded road changes the shift rather than cancelling it.
We roster around the heat from the start, with community and outdoor supports in the cooler parts of the day between October and March.
We deliver therapy programs between appointments, because in North Queensland the gap between sessions is where most of the year happens.
And we take cultural safety seriously as a service requirement rather than a line in a policy. Where we can match a worker appropriately we will, and where we can't we'll say so rather than sending someone and hoping.
Talk to us about supports in Townsville
Tell us your suburb and the hours you need, and you'll get a straight answer about whether we can cover it. Ring 0425 799 687 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, or email info@gotlehscare.com.au.
Frequently asked questions
If your question isn't here, ring us on 0425 799 687. We'd rather answer it properly than have you guess.
Are your Townsville support workers actually based in Townsville?
Yes. Our head office is at Park Ridge in South East Queensland, but Townsville supports are delivered by workers recruited and rostered locally. If we can't staff a shift with someone who lives in the region, we don't take it on.
Which Townsville suburbs do you cover?
The city and the Thuringowa suburbs, including Kirwan, Aitkenvale, Cranbrook, Mundingburra, Hermit Park, Annandale, Douglas, Idalia, Mount Louisa, Condon, Rasmussen, Deeragun, Burdell, Bushland Beach and Alice River, plus Magnetic Island.
Do you support participants on Magnetic Island?
Yes, and we build the ferry timetable into the roster rather than treating it as an obstacle. Fewer, longer shifts usually work better than short daily visits, because the crossing takes the same time either way.
How do you handle the wet season?
We agree a wet season version of your support plan before the wet season starts, so a flooded road changes what a shift looks like instead of cancelling it. It's predictable enough every year that it should be planned for rather than treated as a surprise.
Can you help with supports after discharge from Townsville University Hospital?
Yes. Contact us as soon as a discharge is being discussed rather than once the date is set. Even a few extra days makes a real difference to what we can arrange before you go home.