Portal:Queensland

The Queensland Portal

Queensland (locally /ˈkwiːnzlænd/ KWEENZ-land, commonly abbreviated as QLD) is a state in northeastern Australia, the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south, respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean; to the state's north is the Torres Strait, separating the Australian mainland from Papua New Guinea, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north-west. With an area of 1,723,030 square kilometres (665,270 sq mi), Queensland is the world's sixth-largest subdivision of any country on earth; it is larger than all but 16 countries. Due to its size, Queensland's geographical features and climates are diverse, and include tropical rainforests, rivers, coral reefs, mountain ranges and white sandy beaches in its tropical and sub-tropical coastal regions, as well as deserts and savanna in the semi-arid and desert climatic regions of its interior.

Queensland has a population of over 5.5 million, concentrated in South East Queensland, where nearly three in four reside. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city and comprising fully half of the state's population. Ten of Australia's thirty largest cities are located in Queensland, the largest outside Brisbane being the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Ipswich, and Toowoomba. 24.2% of the state's population were born overseas. The state has the highest inter-state net migration in Australia. (Full article...)

Selected Article

An Australian dingo, taken at a wildlife sanctuary/rescue center.

The dingo is a type of wild dog, probably descended from the Southern-East Asian Wolf. It is commonly described as an Australian wild dog, but is not restricted to Australia, nor did it originate there. Modern dingoes are found throughout Southeast Asia, mostly in small pockets of remaining natural forest, and in mainland Australia, particularly in the north. They have features in common with both wolves and modern dogs, and are regarded as more or less unchanged descendants of an early ancestor of modern dogs. The name dingo comes from the language of the Eora Aboriginal people, who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.

Dingoes have received bad publicity in recent years as a result of the highly publicised Azaria Chamberlain disappearance and also because of dingo attacks on Fraser Island in Queensland. In 2001 around 200 dingoes lived on the island, and 20 people were attacked in the preceding six years. In April 2001 a nine-year-old child was killed in one such attack near Waddy Point on Fraser Island. This led to a cull of the animals which were actually protected by law.

Selected images

Image 1Brisbane, capital and most populous city of Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 2Sheep shearers and farm hands at Jondaryan Woolshed, c. 1872 (from Queensland)
Image 3The peninsula of Seventeen Seventy, Queensland, where Captain Cook landed in 1770 (from Queensland)
Image 4Blackbirded South Sea Islanders on a Sugarcane plantation in Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 5Fighting between Burke and Wills's supply party and Aboriginal Australians at Bulla in 1861 (from Queensland)
Image 6Passenger train at Oxley railway station on the Ipswich/Rosewood line within the Queensland Rail City network (from Queensland)
Image 7Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland's third largest city and a major tourist destination (from Queensland)
Image 8Lake McKensie, K'gari (Fraser Island) (from Queensland)
Image 9Returned World War II soldiers march in Queen Street, Brisbane, 1944 (from Queensland)
Image 10The Great Barrier Reef, which extends along most of Queensland's Coral Sea coastline (from Queensland)
Image 11The Gold Coast, Queensland's second-largest city and a major tourist destination (from Queensland)
Image 12Gold mine at Ravenswood in North Queensland. Mining is one of the state's major industries (from Queensland)
Image 13Parade of troops in Brisbane, prior to departure for the Boer War in South Africa (from Queensland)
Image 14Hill Inlet at the Whitsunday Islands. (from Queensland)
Image 15Queen Elizabeth II visited Brisbane in October 1982 for the Commonwealth Games (from Queensland)
Image 16Government House, seat of the Governor (from Queensland)
Image 17Commonly designated regions of Queensland, with Central Queensland divided into Mackay and Fitzroy subregions (from Queensland)
Image 18Kanaka workers in a sugar cane plantation, late 19th century (from Queensland)
Image 19Parliament House, seat of the Queensland Parliament (from Queensland)
Image 20The Great Court at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Queensland's oldest university (from Queensland)
Image 21Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law, headquarters of the Supreme Court of Queensland and District Court of Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 22Aftermath of the 1861 Cullin-La-Ringo massacre in which 19 settlers were killed by Aboriginal people, the deadliest attack on settlers in the frontier wars (from Queensland)
Image 23The McPherson Range at Lamington National Park in South East Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 24Captain James Cook claims the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain at Possession Island in 1770 (from Queensland)
Image 25The Ekka (the Royal Queensland Exhibition) is held each August at the Brisbane Showgrounds. (from Queensland)
Image 26Cricket game at The Gabba, a 42,000-seat round stadium in Brisbane (from Queensland)
Image 27Cargo ships at the Port of Gladstone, Queensland's largest commodity seaport (from Queensland)
Image 28The Mossman River, flowing through the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 29Köppen climate types in Queensland (from Queensland)
Image 30Skyline of the Brisbane central business district. Brisbane is a global city and the state's largest economic hub. (from Queensland)

Selected business

Pictured left: Process workers at work at the Golden Circle cannery, 1947

Golden Circle is a subsidiary of US-based Heinz Corporation, based in Brisbane, Queensland. Its main operations are food processing. Golden Circle began operations in 1947 after construction of the main canning factory at Northgate was completed. As of 2009, Golden Circle ceased to be an Australian owned company. The company employs a large number of people, which varies seasonally between 700 and 1,700.

Golden Circle manufactures more than 800 products. Initially, the company processed and canned pineapples and produced fruit jams. Over the years, production has expanded to include other canned fruit and vegetables, fruit cordials, juices, carbonated beverages and baby food. Golden Circle operates the world's largest steam peeler and new beetroot processing lines. The main production facility is at Northgate, a northern suburb of Brisbane. (Full article...)

More selected

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that in its two years of existence, the Hunter River Railway Company initiated construction on what would eventually become the Great Northern Railway connecting Sydney to Queensland?
... that Lachlan Murdoch was forced to resign as a director of Prime Media Group because the company owned a radio station on Queensland's Sunshine Coast?

More did You Know?

Billy Slater after the 2009 NRL Grand Final

...that at age 16, Billy Slater (pictured) was working in Sydney as a roustabout for the racehorse trainer, Gai Waterhouse?
...that the 283 metre high Vision Brisbane skyscraper was put on hold and then cancelled due to the late-2000s financial crisis?
...that the name for The Veronicas came from a character in the movie Heathers played by Winona Ryder?
...that despite inhabiting the Whitsunday Islands and coastal regions of Queensland from at least 7000 BC until 1870, there is no archaeological evidence of the Ngaro people?