Despite researching loadsssssss prior to moving here , it didnt take me long to realise there is so much to learn about our amazing State, The first and probably biggest things i found hard to comprehend was just how BIG Queensland is ..

''With an area of 1,727,000 square kilometres, Queensland is the second largest state in Australia. The biggest is Western Australia. Queensland is nearly 5 times the size of Japan,7 times the size of Great Britain and 2.5 times the size of Texas. ''


Can you add any facts ????

Cal x

 

.............More than half of Queensland's population .....................lives outside the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane—
..............a large proportion compared with the rest of highly urbanised Australia.

 

.........Queensland houses five World Heritage listed preservation areas,
........namely Australian Fossil Mammal Sites at Riversleigh in the Gulf Country,
.........Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves,
..........Fraser Island,.......
...........Great Barrier Reef .........
............and the Wet Tropics of Queensland......

 

..........I am not a sports fan.............but the brother in law was impressed with this......

.........The statue of Wally Lewis ...........at the northern end of Suncorp Stadium ...
...........is visited by Rugby League enthusiasts from around the world.......!

 

We dont use Copper coins, totals are rounded up or down...

People living in QLD are nicknamed Banana Benders....

Queenslands representive colour is Maroon,, (although its pronounced Marown??? lol)

 

Yes, it's a massive state, we haven't been out of QLD yet, but it is early days, we want to at some stage visit Perth because oh wants to visit the mint, as for I want to go to Sydney to see the harbour bridge ..... but also want to see more of Queensland, Cairns .... and the Barrier Reef, but unfortunately oh doesn't seem to get much time off work ...... and when he does it is to visit our son ..... Which is good, because there will no doubt come a time when we won't be able to fly so far A) age / health and b) afford it :cry:

 

i love how the Aussies pronounce data ..... It sounds like darta ....... I have suddenly found myself saying local phrases, like 'no worries', 'how's it going', .....

 

Queensland is very diverse containing six of the major climate types: Temperate, Grassland, Desert, Subtropical, Tropical and Equatorial.

 

Queensland country towns are the home of some major Australians icons:

- the labour/Labor movement started in Queensland in the town of Barcaldine. A tree in the main street, named the tree of knowledge, was a place revered by the labour movement as the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party in 1891. Unfortunately the tree was poisoned in 2006, presumably by a conservative It has been replaced by a bizarre brown steel faux tree/monument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Knowledge_(Australia)

Barcaldine's main street with it's row of pubs:



- the town of Winton is the birthplace of the Australian airline Qantas (Which stands for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services if you didn't know). It is the longest continuously operating airline in the world. Early in it's life it moved down the road to the town of Longreach which now hosts the Qantas Founders Museum which has the first 747 Qantas owned parked next to the carpark (there is an amazing story of how they got it there as the runway is not long enough). You can pay to tour the guts of the plane and walk on the wing if you want:




Longreach also hosts the Australian Stockman Hall of Fame which documents the lives of the people who lived in remote Australia.




- the town of Winton is also the birthplace of bush ballad Waltzing Matilda, written by the poet Banjo Patterson as a protest song after the great shearers strike which led to the founding of the Australian Labor Party in Barcaldine.




- the town of Winton is also the base for exploring Queensland's (and Australia's) largest dinosaur dig. Amongst others, they have uncovered a ferocious dinosaur named Banjo, named after the poet.



This, and the other discovered dinosaurs, are unique to Australia.

You can pay to join the palaeontologists in the dig for more dinosaurs: http://australianageofdinosaurs.com/

- the town of Cloncurry hosted the first flight of the organisation that became the Royal Flying Doctor Service (they rented a plane from Qantas).



The service also led to the "school of the air", where remote children were taught over radio.




- one of the most well known fundraisers for the Royal Flying Doctors Service is the renowned Australia wide "Birdsville Races" held in the tiny town of Birdsville in the channel country. The town goes from 100 people to approx 6000 for one big party. This is a photo of the parking lot:



And the races:



And the pub:





Murray Island in the Torres Strait Islands was the home of Eddie Mabo, a Queenslander who fought to have the concept of terra nullius declared by the settling British (land belonging to no-one) overturned in the high court of Australia. His 1992 "Mabo" decision opened up the legal avenue to land rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. A great Queenslander:

 

BTW, if you don't know what the Channel Country is (where Birdsville is located) have a look at this photo:

 

Excellent posts Fish.01 very informative :yes:

 

Keeps these coming, I am learning so much about the place I will call home in a couple of month.