Portal:Queensland

The Queensland Portal

Queensland (locally /ˈkwiːnzlænd/ KWEENZ-land, commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a state in northeastern Australia, and is 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 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 subnational entity; 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...)

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Selected Article

Bill Brown (born July 31, 1912) is a former Australian Test cricketer who played 22 Tests between 1934 and 1948. Brown captained Australia in one Test in March 1946, against New Zealand in a match retrospectively awarded Test status. A right-handed opening batsman who along with Jack Fingleton formed an opening pair in the 1930s regarded as one of the finest in Test history, Brown was a member of Don Bradman's Invincibles that toured England in 1948 without suffering a defeat.

Due to the presence of Arthur Morris and Sid Barnes as the preferred openers, Brown only played in two of the five Tests, batting out of position in the middle order. Brown was also notable for being the player to be "Mankaded" – In a match in 1947–48, Brown had backed up too far and left his crease before the bowler, India's Vinoo Mankad delivered the ball. Mankad promptly removed the bails with Brown out of his ground.

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Selected images

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

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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?

...that a central state-based authority to coordinate the generation and distribution of electrical power in Queensland was not established until 1938?
...that the Sheng Neng 1's impact on the Great Barrier Reef in 2010 created the reef's longest known grounding scar?
...that Dunk Island (pictured) is the largest island in the Family Islands and was named by Captain James Cook on the 8 June 1770?
...that the Georgina River has a catchment which is roughly the same size as the state of Victoria but only has a mean annual flow of about 0.7 km³?