Queensland

Queensland is the country of many Aboriginal nations — among them the Turrbal and Yuggera around Brisbane, the Butchulla of K'gari, and the Kuku Yalanji of the Daintree — and of the Torres Strait Islanders, Melanesian peoples of the islands between Cape York and New Guinea. Rainforest peoples of the far north maintained some of the most intricate cultures on the continent.

A convict settlement opened at Moreton Bay in 1824 and moved to the site of Brisbane the next year. Free settlement followed from 1842, and Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859. Its frontier was among the most violent in Australia: the Native Police, mounted Aboriginal troopers under white officers, carried out killings across the colony for decades, and many survivors were later confined to reserves such as Palm Island and Cherbourg. From 1863 tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders were brought, often by coercion or deception in the practice known as blackbirding, to cut sugar cane; most were deported after 1901. Gold rushes at Gympie, Charters Towers and the Palmer River drew thousands, including many Chinese miners.

The shearers' strike of 1891 around Barcaldine is remembered as a founding moment of the Labor Party. The Torres Strait Islands were annexed in 1879, and in 1992 the High Court's Mabo decision, in a case brought by Eddie Mabo of Mer (Murray Island), overturned the doctrine of terra nullius and recognised native title. Later decades brought the long premiership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Fitzgerald corruption inquiry of the late 1980s, and Brisbane's World Expo 88; the city is due to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

Queenslanders are often cast by the rest of Australia as laid-back and parochial, and many embrace the label. Life is lived outdoors, and the traditional "Queenslander" house — timber, raised on stumps, with wide verandahs to catch the breeze — is an emblem of the state. Queensland does not observe daylight saving time.

Rugby league is the dominant football code, and the State of Origin series, with Queensland playing as the Maroons against the New South Wales Blues, is the state's great annual ritual. Surf life-saving clubs anchor beach communities, and the Gold Coast is Australia's surfing and theme-park capital. Brisbane's Royal Queensland Show, the Ekka, is held each August; the Woodford Folk Festival fills the Sunshine Coast hinterland over New Year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are prominent, especially in the north. The Laura Quinkan Dance Festival on Cape York brings together dance groups from across the peninsula, and Torres Strait Islander dance, song and headdress-making are distinct from mainland traditions. Descendants of the Pacific Island labourers, the Australian South Sea Islander community, were recognised as a distinct group by the Commonwealth in 1994.

Queensland has about 5.6 million people, and it is Australia's most decentralised mainland state. Greater Brisbane has about 2.7 million, the Gold Coast about 700,000 and the Sunshine Coast about 400,000, and a string of regional cities — Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns — each has between about 80,000 and 200,000 people.

The economy is built on resources and tourism. The Bowen Basin, one of the world's largest coal deposits, supplies coking coal for steelmaking, Gladstone exports liquefied natural gas, and cattle stations cover much of the interior. Sugar cane lines the coast from Bundaberg to Mossman, and bananas and tropical fruit grow around Innisfail and Tully. Tourism centres on the reef and the south-east coast.

Migration from the southern states has fuelled rapid growth and rising house prices in south-east Queensland. The main public debates concern coal and climate change, the health of the reef after repeated mass bleaching events, floods — Brisbane flooded badly in 2011 and 2022 — and preparations for the 2032 Olympics.

Queensland's table is built on seafood and tropical produce. Moreton Bay bugs, a flat slipper lobster named after the bay near Brisbane, mud crabs from mangrove estuaries, prawns, coral trout from the reef and barramundi, a prized native fish, are the signature catches, often eaten simply grilled or with chips at the water's edge.

The state grows bananas, pineapples, mangoes — the Bowen area gave its name to the Kensington Pride, locally called the Bowen mango — as well as avocados, papayas and macadamias. Farmers' markets on the Sunshine Coast and in the Atherton Tablelands sell tropical fruits such as custard apple, lychee and dragon fruit, and the Tablelands also grow coffee and tea.

The lamington, a square of sponge cake dipped in chocolate and coated in coconut, is widely held to be named after Lord Lamington, governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. Bundaberg produces the state's best-known rum, distilled from local sugar-cane molasses, as well as ginger beer, and Brisbane's Castlemaine XXXX lager is a Queensland institution. The Granite Belt around Stanthorpe, high enough for cool nights, makes wine and grows apples and stone fruit.

The Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches along almost the entire coast. From Cairns and Port Douglas boats reach Green Island and the outer reef, and the Low Isles; further south, Lady Elliot and Heron islands sit on the reef itself, and turtles nest at Mon Repos near Bundaberg. Cairns is also the base for the Daintree rainforest, Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, and for the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Atherton Tablelands.

The Whitsundays are reached from Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island, with Whitehaven Beach and the Hill Inlet lookout on Whitsunday Island. Magnetic Island lies off Townsville. Brisbane's highlights are South Bank, the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, the Story Bridge and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

The Gold Coast offers Surfers Paradise, theme parks and the rainforest of Lamington and Springbrook national parks, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area. North of Brisbane lie the Glass House Mountains and Noosa, with its coastal national park and the Noosa Everglades. K'gari, a World Heritage Site, has Lake McKenzie, Seventy-Five Mile Beach, Eli Creek and the wreck of the Maheno, with whale watching from nearby Hervey Bay. Inland, Carnarvon Gorge shelters Aboriginal rock art, and Longreach has the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame.