The Stable began in a church at Mt Louisa in 1999 as a cooperation between the church and the child care. There were just a few simple scenes and 120 people attended the first night with 6 Churches involved. It grew and in 2002 it moved to the Strand, at the request of and with the support of Townsville City Council. At that point it became an activity of the Combined Churches of Townsville and today over 60 Churches are involved.
For 18 years Stable on the Strand has been North Queensland‘s Christmas Festival, a signature event held at Strand Park, Townsville for 5 nights from 18-22nd December and attended by 40,000 people. We have re-created the Christmas story in the town of Bethlehem with live animals, convincing actors, authentic props, a real Baby Jesus and heaps of activities for the whole family.
In 2020 we created a Covid safe drive by event called Stable on the Streets. The Christmas message was brought alive across this city through, Christmas scenes, stars, lights and performances and in 2021 again with Covid in mind we moved to Riverway.
Since 2022, our 21st year, we have continued to hold Stable at Riverway. It’s a much larger space, where we can have heaps of different activities, attract new people but still have all our favourite scenes and props to tell the wonderful story of Christmas.
