Yabulu

Yabulu is an industrial town on the North Coast railway, 25 km west of central Townsville. It was named after the railway station. Yabulu is thought to be an Aboriginal word describing grass.

Until the 1970s Yabulu was just a locality. The discovery of nickel laterite at Greenvale, 200 km west of Townsville, led to the building of a railway to transport ore to a newly-built nickel refinery at Yabulu. Greenvale ore supplied the refinery from 1974 until 1993, when imports completely replaced the local ore.