Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent. It is neighboured by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The state is Australia's second largest by area, following Western Australia, and the country's third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.
   The area was first colonised by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived between 40 000 and 65 000 years ago, according to various dating methods. Later, Queensland was made a British Crown Colony that was separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859, a date now celebrated annually as Queensland Day. The area that currently forms Brisbane was originally the Moreton Bay penal colony, intended as a place for recidivist convicts who had offended while serving out their sentences in New South Wales. The state later encouraged free settlement, and today Queensland's economy is dominated by the agricultural, tourist and natural resource sectors.
   The population is concentrated in the south-east corner, which includes the capital Brisbane, Logan City, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Other major regional centres include Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, and Mount Isa. Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizable portion of the state is in the tropics. The people of Queensland are colloquially known as 'Banana Benders' or 'Canetoads', the former possibly due to the large Banana plantations in the tropics, the latter a reference born of the environmental disaster occurring when the cane toad was imported to rid the suger cane fields of cane beetle pest. This is often referred to during the 'State of Origin', an annual Rugby League competition between Queesland and fierce rivals New South Wales.

Etymology

Geography

• The state's borders are defined as:
  
  • North The northernmost part of the state is the triangular Cape York Peninsula, which points toward New Guinea. The western side of the peninsula is washed by the Gulf of Carpentaria, while its eastern side borders the Coral Sea, an arm of the Pacific Ocean.
  • East The eastern border is the Pacific Ocean
  • West To the west, Queensland is bordered by the Northern Territory, at the 138° E. longitude, and to the south-west by the north-eastern corner of South Australia.
  • South by New South Wales. This border has three sections:
    
    • The watershed from Point Danger to the Dumaresq River
    • The river section involving the Dumaresq, the MacIntyre and the Barwon
    • The 29° S. latitude, over to the South Australian border.

The state contains five World Heritage listed preservation areas.

• Australian Fossil Mammal Sites at Riversleigh in the Gulf Country
• Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves
• Fraser Island
• Great Barrier Reef
• Wet Tropics of Queensland

Highest maximum temperature: 49.5 °C (121.1 °F), Birdsville, 24 December 1972 (The temperature of 53.1 °C (127.5 °F) at Cloncurry on 16 January 1889 isn't considered official, the figure quoted from Birdsville is the next highest, so that record is considered as being official). Lowest minimum temperature: -11.0 °C (12.2 °F), Stanthorpe, 4 July 1895 (External Link)

Demographics

Queensland's population is less centralised in the capital city than the rest of the country. At 30 June 2004 the capital city represented 45.7% of the population; for the whole country, capital cities represented 63.8% of the total population.

Not Stated: 12.0% On Friday, 9 December 2005 the population of Queensland officially reached 4 million. Queensland is the fastest growing state in Australia, with over 1500 people moving to the state per week; 1000 in the southern part of the state alone. Predictions show that Queensland will become Australia's second most populous state by the late 2020s.

Economy

Queensland's economy has enjoyed a boom in the tourism and mining industries over the last twenty years. A sizeable influx of and overseas migrants, large amounts of federal government investment, increased mining of vast mineral deposits and an ever expanding aerospace sector ensure that the state will remain Australia's fastest growing economy in the foreseeable future.
   Between 1992 and 2002, the growth in the Gross State Product of Queensland outperformed that of all the other states and territories. In that period Queensland's GSP grew 5.0% each year, while growth in Australia's GDP rose on average 3.9% each year. Queensland's contribution to the Australian GDP also increased (by 10.4%) in that period, one of only three states to do so. (External Link) In 2003 Brisbane city had the lowest cost of living of all Australia's capital cities. As of late 2005 Brisbane is the third most expensive capital for housing after Sydney and Canberra and just ahead of Melbourne by $15,000. Primary industries include: bananas, pineapples, peanuts, a wide variety of other tropical and temperate fruit and vegetables, grain crops, wineries, cattle raising, cotton, sugar cane, wool and a mining industry including bauxite, coal and copper.
Secondary industries are mostly further processing of the above-mentioned primary produce: bauxite from Weipa is converted to alumina at Gladstone. There are also copper refining and the refining of sugar cane to sugar.
Major tertiary industries are the retail trade and tourism.

Tourism

Tourism is Queensland's leading tertiary industry with millions of interstate and overseas visitors flocking to the Sunshine State each year. Queensland is a state of many contrasts that range from sunny tropical coastal areas, lush rainforests to dry inland areas.
   The main tourist destinations of Queensland include –