The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League(NRL) premiership. Since their admission to the competition in 1995, the club has appeared in 1 grand final (2005) and reached the finals 5 times. The team's management headquarters and home ground, 1300SMILES Stadium, are located in the Townsville suburb of Kirwan.

The Cowboys were admitted to the premiership for the 1995 ARL season. They played in the breakaway Super League competition in 1997 before continuing to compete in the re-unified National Rugby Leaguecompetition the following year. After running into financial trouble in 2001, the club was taken over by News Limited.

The Cowboys had to wait ten years to finish a season in the top half of the ladder, finishing in the top 8 for the first time the teams history in 2004. The following season they reached the grand final for the first time. In 2007, the team was sold by News Limited to the Cowboys League Club.

In 2011, they were the most watched NRL club on pay television, and their round four clash with the Parramatta Eels was the fourth most watched sports event in Fox Sport's history. 

In 2014, the Cowboys won the inaugural NRL Auckland Nines tournament, the club's first ever trophy.