<P> Such indigenous groups as the Wulgurukaba, Bindal, Girrugubba, Warakamai and Nawagi, among others, originally inhabited the Townsville area . The Wulgurukaba claim to be the traditional owner of the Townsville city area; the Bindal had a claim struck out by the Federal Court of Australia in 2005 . </P> <P> James Cook visited the Townsville region on his first voyage to Australia in 1770, but did not actually land there . Cook named nearby Cape Cleveland, Cleveland Bay and Magnetic (al) Island . In 1819, Captain Phillip Parker King and botanist Alan Cunningham were the first Europeans to record a local landing . In 1846, James Morrill was shipwrecked from the Peruvian, living in the Townsville area among the Bindal people for 17 years before being found by white men and returned to Brisbane . </P> <P> The Burdekin River's seasonal flooding made the establishment of a seaport north of the river essential to the nascent inland cattle industry . John Melton Black of Woodstock Station, an employee of Sydney entrepreneur and businessman Robert Towns, dispatched Andrew Ball, Mark Watt Reid and a detachment of 8 troopers of the Native Police to search for a suitable site . Ball's party reached the Ross Creek in April 1864 and established a camp below the rocky spur of Melton Hill, near the present Customs House on The Strand . Edward Kennedy, a member of the surveying party, recalls the native police chasing local tribesmen into the ocean and' pumping lead' at them . On the return journey to Port Denison, the group' dispersed' another aboriginal clan, rounding up fifteen women' who remained at the scene of combat' and abducted them back to the barracks . No mention is made of the fate of any children . The first party of settlers, led by W.A. Ross, arrived at Cleveland Bay from Woodstock Station on 5 November of that year . In 1866 Robert Towns visited for three days, his first and only visit . He agreed to provide ongoing financial assistance to the new settlement and Townsville was named in his honour . </P> <P> Townsville was declared a municipality in February 1866, with John Melton Black elected as its first Mayor . Townsville developed rapidly as the major port and service centre for the Cape River, Gilbert, Ravenswood, Etheridge and Charters Towers goldfields . Regional pastoral and sugar industries also expanded and flourished . Townsville's population was 4,000 people in 1882 and grew to 13,000 by 1891 . </P>

Why was townsville founded where it is today
find me the text answering this question