Portal:Queensland

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The Queensland Portal

Queensland (locally /ˈkwiːnzlænd/ KWEENZ-land, commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a state in northeastern Australia, 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, southwest and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean; to its 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, including tropical rainforests, rivers, coral reefs, mountain ranges and 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 5.3 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 were immigrants. (Full article...)

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Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry (RSMC Nadi designation: 15F, JTWC designation: 17P) was a tropical cyclone that made landfall in Australia during the 2005-06 Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclone season. Larry originated as a low pressure system over the eastern Coral Sea on 16 March and was monitored by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane, Australia. The low-pressure area formed into a tropical cyclone two days later and quickly strengthened into a Category 5 storm on the Australian tropical cyclone scale. Larry made landfall in Far North Queensland close to Innisfail on 20 March as a Category 4 with wind gusts reaching 240 kilometres per hour (150 mph) and dissipated over land soon after. Cyclone Larry caused nearly A$1 billion in damage, and one fatality.

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

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NightOwl Convenience Stores is a franchised system of stores based in Brisbane, Australia. The first store opened in 1975 and was located in the Auchenflower suburb of Brisbane. The store pre-dated Seven Eleven opening in Australia by 12 months. The store traded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Established by a former Woolworth's Store Manager, the Auchenflower branch offered an extensive range of traditional supermarket grocery items-together with fresh fruit, vegetables and hot BBQ Chickens. Popular with the growing Student and Yuppy community in the district. The business concept was franchised in 1987.

In 1995, NightOwl was floated on the stock exchange and was bought out by Retail Services Limited in 1996. RSL is a diversified holdings group mainly based in the retail sector, this helped take NightOwl nationwide. In 2011, the group had 63 stores including three of the new format 'NightOwl Super Stores'. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that despite being described in 1840, the chestnut-backed buttonquail was only confirmed in Queensland in 2020?
... 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 town of Killarney was hit by a destructive tornado on Saturday 23 November 1968, which destroyed many buildings?
...that the Windorah Solar Farm uses five concentrated solar dishes each containing 112 square mirrors which sit atop 13 m masts and can rotate 360°?
...that Wivenhoe Dam (pictured) is home to the vulnerable Queensland lungfish?
...that Stanthorpe holds the record for the lowest temperature recorded in Queensland at -10.6 °C on 23 June 1961?