Portal:Queensland

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Queensland Portal

Queensland (locally /ˈkwiːnzlænd/ KWEENZ-land, commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a state in north-eastern Australia, the second-largest and third-most populous of the Australian states. 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 its 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 subnational entity; it is larger than all but 16 countries. Due to its size, Queensland's geographical features and climates are diverse, including tropical rainforests, rivers, coral reefs, mountain ranges and 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 5.3 million, concentrated along the east coast, particularly in South East Queensland. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city. 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. 28.9% of the state's population were immigrants. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

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.

Archive • Read more...

Selected images

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

Selected business

New Hope Coal is an Australian coal-mining and energy company with its headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The company's operations include New Acland Mine, Jeebropilly Mine, New Oakleigh Mine and Queensland Bulk Handling. New Hope Coal is 61.11% owned by Washington H. Soul Pattinson.

New Hope's first export shipment, 17,332 tonnes of Bundamba coal, was aboard MV "Floret" which sailed from the Maynegrain grain terminal at Pinkenba on 10 September 1980. At first the company met domestic demand however by 1986 New Hope's market mix had about-faced to 90 per cent export and 10 per cent domestic sales. On 18 July 2008, New Hope entered into an agreement to sell its New Saraji Coal Project to BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) for A$2.45 billion. (Full article...)

More selected

Did you know (auto-generated)

... 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?
... that despite being described in 1840, the chestnut-backed buttonquail was only confirmed in Queensland in 2020?

More did You Know?

...that the town of Killarney was hit by a destructive tornado on Saturday 23 November 1968, which destroyed many buildings?
...that the Windorah Solar Farm uses five concentrated solar dishes each containing 112 square mirrors which sit atop 13 m masts and can rotate 360°?
...that Wivenhoe Dam (pictured) is home to the vulnerable Queensland lungfish?
...that Stanthorpe holds the record for the lowest temperature recorded in Queensland at -10.6 °C on 23 June 1961?