The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL).

Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 179,011 as of the 2021 census, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia. It is unofficially considered the capital of North Queensland. Townsville hosts a significant number of governmental, community and major business administrative offices for the northern half of the state.