Mount Townsend, Mountain in New South Wales, Australia

Mount Townsend is a mountain in the Main Range of the Great Dividing Range, in Kosciuszko National Park, New South Wales. At 2,209 metres it is the second-highest peak of mainland Australia, 3.68 kilometres north of Mount Kosciuszko and only 19 metres lower.

Mount Townsend was named in 1885 by Austrian alpinist Robert von Lendenfeld after the surveyor Thomas Scott Townsend. For decades its summit was confused with Mount Kosciuszko; in 1940 the cartographer and historian B. T. Dowd clarified that Kosciuszko was indeed Australia's highest peak. The 1941 publication of James Macarthur's field book confirmed this, and the name Targangil, mentioned in an 1885 letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, was shown to refer to Mount Townsend.

The mountain carries the Aboriginal name Targangil, recorded in a letter by Spencer published in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1885. For decades this name was wrongly attached to Mount Kosciuszko; the cartographer and historian B. T. Dowd clarified in 1940 that it belongs to Mount Townsend.

Prepare for significant temperature changes and shifting weather by bringing gear suited to both cold and warm conditions. Physical fitness matters as the elevation and steep terrain demand stamina and careful footing.

Mount Townsend's Aboriginal name, Targangil, appears in a letter published in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1885. For decades the name was wrongly attached to Mount Kosciuszko; the cartographer B. T. Dowd clarified in 1940 that it belonged to Mount Townsend.