Queensland

I

Introduction

Queensland, state in northeastern Australia, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the east by the Coral Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean), on the south by the state of New South Wales, on the southwest by the state of South Australia, and on the west by the Northern Territory. Queensland is the second largest of Australia’s states and territories (after Western Australia), covering about 1,727,200 sq km (666,880 sq mi), or 22.5 percent of Australia. Queensland has 7400 km (4600 mi) of coastline, with the magnificent Great Barrier Reef stretching along the shoreline in the Coral Sea. The capital of Queensland is Brisbane, on the southeastern coast.

II

Land and Resources

The Great Dividing Range, a sprawling system of mountain ranges running the length of the state from north to south, separates Queensland into four regions: the eastern plains, islands, and reefs of the coast; the eastern highlands; the western plains; and the northwestern uplands. The eastern coast is notable for fine beaches and excellent farmland. Its most extraordinary feature is the coral reef chain of the Great Barrier Reef, which extends about 2,010 km (about 1,250 mi) from north to south. To the west of the Great Dividing Range is a region of rolling grasslands, which gives way to a vast, semiarid plain. Located at the northern end of the range, in the Bellenden Ker Range, is Mount Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest point, at 1,622 m (5,322 ft). The Atherton Plateau, an isolated highland area, also lies at the northern end of the range, and the Darling Downs, a fertile farming region, lies in the south.

Roughly bisected by the tropic of Capricorn, Queensland has a climate ranging from tropical (hot and humid) and subtropical (warm and somewhat humid) in the north to temperate (moderate in temperature and humidity) in the south, with increasing aridity west of the Great Dividing Range. Temperatures at coastal Brisbane average 21° C to 29° C (70° F to 84° F) in January and 10° C to 20° C (50° F to 68° F) in July. January temperatures in the interior routinely surpass 40° C (104° F). Queensland’s year-round warm and sunny climate has earned it the nickname “The Sunshine State,” although it also receives adequate rainfall: 90 percent of Queensland has at least 200 mm (8 in) of rain annually, and several parts of the state receive much more. As a result, Queensland has the largest livable area of any Australian state. Its size and climatic diversity make Queensland’s output of major farm products almost immune to seasonal influences.

III

The People of Queensland

Queensland has a population (2004) of 3,882,037, giving it an average density of 2.2 persons per sq km (5.7 per sq mi), one of the lowest in Australia. Slightly more than one-quarter of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders live in Queensland: They totaled 70,070 at the 1991 census, or 2.4 percent of Queensland’s population.

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Brisbane is Australia’s third largest city and one of its fastest growing; its population more than doubled between 1940 and 1986. Brisbane is unusual for an Australian capital city in that only 45 percent of the state’s total population lives there. By contrast, 70 percent of Victoria’s residents live in Melbourne, and 63 percent of New South Wales's residents live in Sydney. Brisbane is also one of the least ethnically diverse of Australia’s major cities; more than 80 percent of its population is Australian born.

Queensland has a greater number of large cities and towns than any other Australian state. The tourist center of Gold Coast is Queensland’s second city and one of the fastest growing in Australia. Other important cities are the port of Townsville; the resort of Toowoomba; the beef center of Rockhampton; and the port, industrial, and tourist center of Cairns.

IV

Economy

In the 1970s and 1980s, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and tourism gave Queensland a consistently higher growth rate than the national average. Agriculture provided the original base for the state economy and remains important. In the early 1990s, about one-quarter of Australia’s total farm production came from Queensland, with grains, wool, meat, and sugar accounting for 70 percent of Queensland’s farm profits. Sugar, the major crop, is produced in fertile coastal valleys and on river flats, especially north of Mackay. Almost all of Australia’s raw sugarcane exports, which are the second largest in the world, come from Queensland. Queensland is also Australia’s leading producer of beef cattle, contributing about 40 percent of Australia’s annual beef and veal output. Usually prosperous, Queensland’s farmers struggled in the early 1990s against a volatile world sugar market and a severe drought.

Although agriculture remains a vital source of state income, the large-scale development of mining and manufacturing is changing the balance of Queensland’s economy. Queensland has one of the world’s largest known deposits of bauxite and also has rich reserves of coal, gold, copper, silver, lead, and zinc. Natural gas and oil are exploited, while known resources of uranium, tin, and mineral sands have not yet been tapped. The state’s rich minerals, along with its farm products, fuel Queensland’s manufacturing sector: Processed minerals, processed agricultural goods, machinery, ships, cement, and basic consumer goods are important manufactures.

The tourism and convention industry is also becoming increasingly important. Chief tourist attractions are the Great Barrier Reef and the resort towns south of Brisbane that merged to become the Gold Coast. Tourism is aided by international airports in Brisbane and Cairns.

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