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 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 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...)

Selected Article

Small Mercies is an alternative rock band from Brisbane, Australia. The band formed in 1997 (see 1997 in music), and its current lineup is Steve Blaik, Danny Procopis, Marty O'Brien, and Jeff Reeves. Small Mercies have released two EPs (Is This Life? and Off The Record), and are soon to release their first studio album, Beautiful Hum. "Innocent", a song from Beautiful Hum, was nominated for the 2007 ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist - Single, the band's first and only award nomination.

Small Mercies was first established when the band members were teenagers since Blaik, Procopis and O'Brien all attended high school together. The band also contained Simon O'Connor (guitar) and Shaun Spooner (bass guitar, vocals). In 2001, they made it to the finals of the Brisbane Rock Award (under the name "Seventh Avenue"), earning them the rights to play at Queen Street Mall Basement. This performance attracted the attention of Shawthing Entertainment, as well as industry veterans including John Woodruff.

Selected images

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

Selected business

Bank of Queensland at Maleny

Bank of Queensland (BOQ), one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, Australia, is a retail bank with a network of almost 270 branches, including 152 in Queensland, 52 in New South Wales, 23 in Victoria and 34 in Western Australia. Following the Home Building Society and Pioneer mergers, it now has more than 650,000 customers. In 2007, customer satisfaction with the bank was placed at 88%.

In 1874, the Brisbane Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society was established as the first permanent building society formed in Queensland. The Society incorporated in 1887. The company amalgamated with City and Suburban Building Society in 1921. The company amalgamated with Queensland Deposit Bank a decade later. The company received a licence to operate as a trading bank in 1942. 1971 saw the bank become a publicly traded company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2011, the bank experienced a profit slump due to lending losses from the 2010–2011 Queensland floods. (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?

...that the Gas Stripping Tower (pictured) in West End, Brisbane is only one its kind in Australia?
...that the 2014 G-20 Brisbane summit security arrangements included the largest police operation in Australia's history?
...that the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital in Queensland?
...that Cape Melville has been described as a "lost world" where several animal species have existed in an isolated section of rainforest for millions of years?