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 5.5 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

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.

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Selected images

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

Selected business

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 Mount Bellenden Ker, Queensland's second highest peak, holds the record for the highest rainfall in a calendar year of 12,461 mm in 2000?
...that Lamington National Park contains the most northern stand of Antarctic Beech in Australia?
...that Urangan Pier (pictured) which was built between 1913 and 1917, originally to a length of 1107 metres, served as an extension to the Hervey Bay railway line?
... that the Queensland Ambulance Service is the fourth-largest ambulance service in the world?