qld.in - Queensland Sunshine State

The state of Queensland occupies the north-eastern section of Australia. It is bordered 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. Queensland is Australia’s second largest state by area, followed by Western Australia, and the country’s third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.

Queensland was first occupied by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived between 40,000 and 65,000 years ago. Later, Queensland was made a British Crown Colony that was separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859, a date now celebrated state-wide as Queensland Day.

The state capital of Queensland is Brisbane, which 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. Queensland later encouraged free settlement, and today Queensland’s economy is dominated by the agricultural, tourist and natural resource sectors.

Queensland’s population is concentrated in South East Queensland, which includes Brisbane, Logan City, Redland City, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Other major regional centres include Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Ingham 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.

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