1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Queensland
–
Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
3.
Mossman, Queensland
–
Mossman is a town and a locality in Far North Queensland, Australia, on the Mossman River. It is within the government area of Shire of Douglas. In the 2011 census, Mossman had a population of 1,732 people, Mossman is located on the Captain Cook Highway 75 kilometres north of the regional city of Cairns, and 15 kilometres east of the Mount Carbine Tableland. Mossman Gorge, an attraction within Daintree National Park, is located west of town. The district was known as Mossman River after the river which flows through it. The Mossman River, in turn, was named by the explorer George Dalrymple on 6 December 1873 after Hugh Mosman who discovered gold in Charters Towers. Dalrymple wrote I named this river the Mossman River, after Mossman, the town was also known for a brief time as Hartsville after Daniel Hart, an early settler. Later the name was simplified to Mossman, Mossman River Post Office opened by 1895 and was renamed Mossman in 1899. Mossman State School opened in January 1898 under head teacher Thomas Garland, the establishment of the sugar mill at Mossman formed the nucleus of the town, which grew at the expense of Port Douglas. The district was served by two separate 2-foot gauge tramway systems, both at one time handled passengers and general goods, as well as sugar cane. Mossman district owes its present prosperity to these tramways which pioneered the first reasonable transport in the neighbourhood, during World War II, Mossman was attacked in a Japanese air raid on 31 July 1942. A single flying boat dropped a bomb fell near a house, Mossman Central Mill Company Limited started life as a grower owned co-operative sugar mill back in 1894. In 1897, Mrs Annie Rose fed the first sugarcane into the mill, in 1906, Mossman Mill became the first Queensland mill to crush over 100,000 tonnes of cane. That season lasted just under 8 months, extending from June 1906 to late January 1907, initially, sugar was shipped from Port Douglas, however road transport eventually came to the forefront and became the preferred mode of transport for sugar to the bulk sugar terminal in Cairns. Prince pioneered the use of computers for cane payment accounting and, in 1971, prior to 2008, Mossman was the seat of the Shire of Douglas. In 2008, the Shire of Douglas was amalgamated into the Cairns Region, in 2014, the Shire of Douglas was de-amalgamated from Cairns Region and reinstated as Shire of Douglas. A young 9 year old Jermaine Ryan broke the record for the fastest 9 year old 100m track. Jove Thompson an 11 year who has broken the record for catching the worlds biggest jungle perch and also the fastest time for a 100m, 200m and 800m track
4.
Cairns
–
Cairns is a major city on the east coast of Far North Queensland in Australia. The city is the 5th-most-populous in Queensland and ranks 14th overall in Australia, Cairns was founded in 1876 and named after William Wellington Cairns, Governor of Queensland from 1875 to 1877. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield and it later developed into a railhead and major port for exporting sugar cane, gold and other metals, minerals and agricultural products from surrounding coastal areas and the Atherton Tableland region. The estimated residential population of the Cairns urban area in 2015 was 147,993, based on 2015 data, the associated local government area has experienced an average annual growth rate of 2. 3% over the last 10 years. Cairns is a popular tourist destination because of its climate and access to the Great Barrier Reef. Prior to British settlement, the Cairns area was inhabited by the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people, the area is known in the local Yidiny language as Gimuy. In 1770, James Cook mapped the site of Cairns. Closer investigation by several official expeditions 100 years later established its potential for development into a port, Cairns was founded in 1876, hastened by the need to export gold discovered on the tablelands to the west of the inlet. The site was predominantly mangrove swamps and sand ridges, labourers gradually cleared the swamps, and the sand ridges were filled with dried mud, sawdust from local sawmills, and ballast from a quarry at Edge Hill. Debris from the construction of a railway to Herberton on the Atherton Tableland, the railway opened up land later used for agriculture on the lowlands, and for fruit and dairy production on the Tableland. The success of local agriculture helped establish Cairns as a port, on 25 April 1926, the Cairns Sailors and Soldiers War Memorial was unveiled by Alexander Frederick Draper, the mayor of the City of Cairns. Combat missions were flown out of Cairns in support of the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, Edmonton and White Rock south of Cairns were major military supply areas and US Paratroopers trained at Gordonvale and the Goldsborough Valley. A Special Forces training base was established at the old Fairview homestead on Munros Hill and this base was officially known as the Z Experimental Station, but referred to informally as The House on the Hill. After World War II, Cairns gradually developed into a centre for tourism, the opening of the Cairns International Airport in 1984 helped establish the city as a desirable destination for international tourism. Cairns is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a strip between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range. The northern part of the city is located on Trinity Bay, to the south of the Trinity Inlet lies the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah. Some of the suburbs are located on flood plains. The Mulgrave River and Barron River flow within the greater Cairns area, the citys centre foreshore is located on a mud flat
5.
Tropical rainforest
–
True rainforests are typically found between 10 degrees north and south of the equator, they are a sub-set of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28 degree latitudes. Within the World Wildlife Funds biome classification, tropical rainforests are a type of tropical moist broadleaf forest that includes the more extensive tropical seasonal forests. Tropical rainforests can be characterized in two words, hot and wet, mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C during all months of the year. Average annual rainfall is no less than 1,680 mm and this high level of precipitation often results in poor soils due to leaching of soluble nutrients in the ground. Tropical rainforests exhibit high levels of biodiversity, around 40% to 75% of all biotic species are indigenous to the rainforests. Rainforests are home to half of all the animal and plant species on the planet. Two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests, a single hectare of rainforest may contain 42,000 different species of insect, up to 807 trees of 313 species and 1,500 species of higher plants. Tropical rainforests have been called the worlds largest pharmacy, because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered within them and it is likely that there may be many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms still undiscovered in tropical rainforests. Tropical rainforests are among the most threatened ecosystems globally due to large-scale fragmentation as a result of human activity, habitat fragmentation caused by geological processes such as volcanism and climate change occurred in the past, and have been identified as important drivers of speciation. However, fast human driven habitat destruction is suspected to be one of the causes of species extinction. Tropical rain forests have been subjected to heavy logging and agricultural clearance throughout the 20th century, tropical rainforests have existed on earth for hundreds of millions of years. Most tropical rainforests today are on fragments of the Mesozoic era supercontinent of Gondwana, the separation of the landmass resulted in a great loss of amphibian diversity while at the same time the drier climate spurred the diversification of reptiles. The division left tropical rainforests located in five regions of the world, tropical America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Madagascar. However, the specifics of the origin of rainforests remain uncertain due to a fossil record. Several biomes comprise the general term tropical forest, Lowland equatorial evergreen rain forests are forests which receive rainfall throughout the year. These true rainforests occur in a belt around the equator, with the largest areas in the Amazon basin of South America, the Congo Basin of Central Africa, Borneo, Mindanao, Indonesia, and New Guinea. Moist tropical seasonal forests receive high rainfall with a warm summer wet season. Some trees in these forests drop some or all of their leaves during the dry season
6.
Australia (continent)
–
It is the smallest of the seven traditional continents in the English conception. When sea levels were lower during the Pleistocene ice age, including the Last Glacial Maximum about 18,000 BC, geologically, a continent extends to the edge of its continental shelf, so the now-separate islands are considered part of the continent. Due to the spread of animals, fungi and plants across the single Pleistocene landmass the separate lands have a related biota, New Zealand is not part of the continent of Australia, but of the separate, submerged continent of Zealandia. New Zealand and Australia are both part of the regions known as Australasia and Oceania. The term Oceania is often used to denote the region encompassing the Australian continent, with a total land area of 8.56 million square kilometres, the Australian continent is the smallest and lowest human inhabited continent on Earth. The continental shelf connecting the islands, half of which is less than 50 metres deep, covers some 2.5 million square kilometres, including the Sahul Shelf and Bass Strait. As the country of Australia is mostly on a single landmass, archaeological terminology for this region has changed repeatedly. In the early 1970s, the term Greater Australia was introduced for the Pleistocene continent, then at a 1975 conference and consequent publication, the name Sahul was extended from its previous use for just the Sahul Shelf to cover the continent. Others have used Meganesia with different meanings, travel writer Paul Theroux included New Zealand in his definition and others have used it for Australia, New Zealand, another biologist, Richard Dawkins, coined the name Australinea in 2004. Australia-New Guinea has also been used, the continent primarily sits on the Indo-Australian Plate. Because of its location on its tectonic plate Australia doesnt have any active volcanic regions. The lands were joined with Antarctica as part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana until the plate began to drift north about 96 million years ago, for most of the time since then, Australia–New Guinea remained a continuous landmass. When the last glacial period ended in about 10,000 BC, rising sea levels formed Bass Strait, separating Tasmania from the mainland. Then between about 8,000 and 6,500 BC, the lowlands in the north were flooded by the sea, separating New Guinea, the Aru Islands, and the Australian mainland. A northern arc consisting of the New Guinea Highlands, the Raja Ampat Islands, the Outer Banda Arc was accreted along the northwestern edge the continent, it includes the islands of Timor, Tanimbar, and Seram. As the continent drifted north from Antarctica, a fauna, flora. Marsupials and monotremes also existed on other continents, but only in Australia–New Guinea did they out-compete the placental mammals, animal groups such as macropods, monotremes, and cassowaries are endemic to Australia. There were three reasons for the enormous diversity that developed in animal, fungal and plant life
7.
Daintree River
–
The Daintree River is a river that rises in the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river is located about 100 kilometres northwest of Cairns in the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Wet Tropics of Queensland, the area is now primarily a tourist attraction. The river rises on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range within the Daintree National Park below Black Mountain at an elevation of 1,270 metres AHD . The river flows in highly meandering course generally north, than east, then south and then east, at this convergence point, an abundance of wildlife congregate, particularly fish. The mouth of the Daintree River opens onto a giant sandbar that shifts with each changing tide, the river descends 1,270 metres over its 127-kilometre course. The catchment area of the river occupies an 2,107 square kilometres of which an area of 33 square kilometres is composed of estuarine wetlands, the river is surrounded by mountains and deep valleys. In March 1996, record flood levels swamped roads and properties throughout the Daintree region, statistics gathered at the time recorded 606 millimetres of rain falling in 24 hours. In 2011, two new causeways were completed over Cape Tribulation Road, making the drive mostly floodproof in all, in particular, the notorious bottleneck at Cooper Creek was raised 3 metres. People are drawn to the area for its ancient vegetation, scenic surroundings, currently, there is no bridge to enable crossing the river, so access is limited to the Daintree River Ferry, a commercial ferry that traverses the river for the purpose of tourism. Other features that surround the river include Black Mountain, Daintree Range, Thornton Peak, the Daintree River is home to a dazzling array of tropical life. The Kuku Yulanji is the people who once inhabited the regions surrounded by the Daintree River. It has been estimated that the tribe resided on the banks of the Daintree river for over 9,000 years, due to the ever-shifting deep centre of the sandbar, entering the Daintree River has always been a problem for ship captains. The area was missed by Captain Cook when passing in the voyage where his ship was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree River was discovered by Europeans in 1873 after they were attracted to nearby regions due to its vast natural reserves of gold. The river is part of the much larger Daintree Rainforest, region in Northern Queensland encompassing 894,000 hectares, the river and its surroundings are home to some of the most primitive forms of animal and plant life in the world. The surrounding mountains and valleys provided protection from the forces to adapt to change by sheltering several species of plants. A notable example is the primitive She-oak Gymnostoma australianum and this pine-like tree is the only remaining species in the Gymnostoma group of plants in Australia, and is now restricted to very isolated pockets north of the Daintree River. The genus was widespread throughout Gondwana, and its relatives are still found in parts of the Pacific. Of the five species of possum found in north Queensland rainforests
8.
Q150
–
Q150 was the sequicentenary of the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. Separation established the Colony of Queensland which became the State of Queensland in 1901 as part of the Federation of Australia, many local communities celebrated Q150 in various ways. In Coominya, the heritage society commissioned a series of murals depicting early life at the town. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010
9.
Richard Daintree
–
Richard Daintree CMG was a pioneering Australian geologist and photographer. In particular, Daintree was the first Government geologist for North Queensland discovering gold fields, Daintree was a pioneer in the use of photography during field trips and his photographs formed the basis of Queenslands contribution to the Exhibition of Arts and Industry in 1871. Richard Daintree was born in Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire in England, the son of Richard Daintree, a farmer and he was educated at Bedford School, and started a degree at Christs College, Cambridge in 1851, but left after a year due to ill health. Migrating to Australia for a climate, he was briefly a prospector in the Victorian gold rush in 1852. In 1854, Daintree accepted an appointment as assistant geologist to Alfred Selwyn in the Victorian Geological Survey, Daintree returned to London to study assaying and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines Laboratory. During his studies in 1857, Daintree became interested in photography, Daintree rejoined the Geological Survey Office in January 1859 and pioneered the use of photography in geological field work. His photographs of the Victorian goldfields were exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition in London and he may have also collaborated with Antoine Fauchery in a volume of photographic works called Australia published in 1857. Richard Daintree married Lettice Agnes Foot, the daughter of surveyor Henry Foot on 1 December 1857 and they would go on to have a family of two sons and six daughters. Daintree left the Geological Survey Office to become a resident partner with William Hann in pastoral properties on the Burdekin River in 1864 and this enabled him to pursue his interests in prospecting and photography. He made a number of discoveries over the few years including several goldfields at Cape River in 1867, Gilbert in 1869. Daintree was the first person to examine the coal seams near the Bowen River at Collinsville in Queensland. During his time in Queensland, Daintree advocated a government geological survey office and he was named as the geologist in charge of north Queensland between 1868 and 1870. During that time, he carried out a survey of North Queensland. He was succeeded as government geologist by Robert Logan Jack, Richard Daintree was also collecting botanical specimens in his travels. Queensland herbarium records show that he collected specimens from Rockhampton, Queensland. However, his work proved crucial to attracting prospectors to North Queensland which led to other discoveries, Richard Daintree was appointed as commissioner in charge of Queenslands display at the 1871 Exhibition of Art and Industry in London. Despite this significant setback, the made a favourable impression due to his photographs. The Australian colonies were all keen to make an impression as the Exhibitions were well attended by both potential investors and prospective migrants
.jpg)
