Queensland Travel Queensland is one of the six
states in Australia and probably most famous
because of its association with several major
world heritage sites including the Great
Barrier Reef and the Daintree National Park.
Eastern Queensland has a climate ranging from subtropical to tropical, and it's a popular wintertime tourist attraction. Large areas of western Queensland are very arid. Much of Queensland has a wet and dry season due to its latitude, and this is more notable further north you travel. One of the major tourist areas is the beach-based tourist resort just south of Brisbane, known as the Gold Coast. South-east Queensland is one of the fastest-growing areas of Australia.
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, Hervey Bay and Mount Isa. Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizeable portion of the state is in the tropics.
Queensland Regions of Most Interest to the Tourist |
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 history of Queensland spans
thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy
indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times
of post-European settlement. Estimated to have
been settled by Indigenous Australians
approximately 40,000 years ago, the north-eastern
Australian region was explored by Dutch,
Portuguese and French navigators before being
encountered by Captain James Cook in 1770.
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