MRI near Charters Towers, QLD

Charters Towers has no MRI of its own. The nearest one is at I-MED Radiology Thuringowa in Thuringowa Central, about 97 km away, roughly 1 hr 42 min by road. After that, the options are Queensland X-Ray Douglas Discovery Rise in Douglas (98 km) and The Townsville Hospital/Radiology Dept in Douglas (99 km).

Widen the search to 200 km and there are eight MRI practices; the closest five are above.

All of them are on the Australian Government's list of Medicare-eligible MRI locations (last updated 17 February 2026), so a Medicare rebate is possible for scans done there. Whether your scan attracts one depends on the item your referral asks for and on who wrote it — GPs can request a limited set of MRI items and specialists can request more.

What Charters Towers does have locally is x-ray, ultrasound and CT. If your referral is for one of those, you do not need to leave town — see everything Charters Towers has.

To put 97 km in context: of the 1062 QLD towns we hold, 79 are further than Charters Towers from a MRI service. It is a real trip, and worth planning as one.

Across Queensland, 140 practices are accredited for MRI and 71 of those are outside the capital. That is the arithmetic behind the distance above — MRI is not spread evenly, and Charters Towers sits in one of the gaps.

Current Medicare accreditation runs: I-MED Radiology Thuringowa to 30 November 2027, Queensland X-Ray Douglas Discovery Rise to 30 November 2026 and The Townsville Hospital/Radiology Dept to 30 September 2026. We drop a modality the day its accreditation lapses, so if it is listed above it is current.

Of the five practices listed, all publish a phone number, all have a website and three list opening hours. Ring before you go rather than assuming — hours move, and not every accredited scan runs every day.