Portal:Queensland

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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 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 are immigrants. (Full article...)

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Selected Article

Qantas Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation arriving at Heathrow from Australia

Qantas was founded in Winton, Queensland on 16 November 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited by Paul McGuiness, Hudson Fysh, Fergus McMaster and Arthur Baird. Initially the airline operated air mail services subsidised by the Australian government, linking railheads in western Queensland. Between 1926 and 1928 Qantas built several aircraft in Longreach and made the inaugural flight of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, departing from Cloncurry. Qantas Empire Airways Limited (QEA) was formed by Qantas and Britain's Imperial Airways in 1934. They flew internationally from May 1935, when the service from Darwin was extended to Singapore. As operations expanded with flying boat service World War disrupted air travel until 1943. In 1947, QEA was nationalised, with the Australian Labor government buying the shares. In the same year the airline took delivery of Lockheed 749 Constellations and these took over the trunk route to London. In 1958, Qantas became the second round-the-world airline, flying Super Constellations westward from Australia to London through Asia and the Middle East.

In 1956, Qantas ordered the Boeing 707-138 jet airliner and the first was delivered in June 1959. The first jet service operated by Qantas was on 29 July 1959 from Sydney to San Francisco via Nadi and Honolulu. On 5 September 1959 Qantas became the third airline to fly jets across the North Atlantic. In 1966, the airline diversified its business by opening the 450 room Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. In 1967, the airline placed orders for the Boeing 747 and Qantas Empire Airways changed its name to Qantas Airways. When Cyclone Tracy devastated the town of Darwin at Christmas 1974, Qantas established a world record for the most people ever embarked on a single aircraft when it evacuated 673 people on a single Boeing 747 flight. In March 1979, Qantas operated its final Boeing 707 flight from Auckland to Sydney, and became the only airline in the world to have a fleet that consisted of Boeing 747s only.

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Selected images

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

More did You Know?

...that Wayne Bennett, an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player, had a reputation for almost never smiling?
...that although Brisbane City Hall (pictured) was officially opened on 8 April 1930, it had been partially occupied since 1927?
...that the Clem Jones Tunnel in Brisbane has Queensland's highest concentration of fixed speed detection devices?
...that the Capricorn Coast is home to a large South Sea Islander population, who are descendents of people indentured, often against their will, to work the sugar cane farms in the 1890s?