1.
Far North Queensland
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Far North Queensland, or Tropical North Queensland, is the northernmost part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Centered on the city of Cairns, the region north to the Torres Strait. The region has Australias only international border, with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea, the region is home to three World Heritage Sites, the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics of Queensland and Riversleigh Australias largest fossil mammal site. Far North Queensland lays claim to over 70 national parks, including Mount Bartle Frere with a peak of 1,622 metres it is the highest peak in both Northern Australia and Queensland. The Far North region is the region of Australia that is home to the two oldest continuous cultures on the planet, the Aboriginal Australians and the Torres Strait Islanders. Far North Queensland supports a significant agricultural sector, a number of significant mines and is home to Queenslands largest wind farm, various Government Departments and agencies have different definitions for the region. The main population and administrative centre of the region is the city of Cairns, other key population centres include Cooktown, the Atherton Tableland, Weipa, Innisfail and the Torres Strait Islands. The region also consists of many Aboriginal and farming groups, the north-eastern point of Highway 1 passes through the region in the city of Cairns and connects the southern running Bruce Highway to the western running Savannah Way. Highway 1 circumnavigates the continent at a length of approximately 14,500 kilometres and is second longest national highway in the world after the Pan-American Highway. Despite being Highway 1 not all sections of the Savannah Way are designated as a federally funded National Highway, significant industries include tourism, cattle grazing, agriculture and mining of both sand and bauxite. Agricultural products generate between $600 and $700 million a year, sugar cane, tropical fruits including bananas, mangoes, papaya, lychees and coffee are grown in Far North Queensland. The region is home to the worlds biggest silica mine at Cape Flattery, the mine was established in 1967 and was severely damaged by Cyclone Ita in 2014. Rio Tinto Alcan operates a mine on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula near Weipa which contains one of the largest bauxite deposits in the world. The region supports a tourism industry and is considered a premier tourist destination in Australia. Nearly one third of visitors to the state come to the region. Major attractions around and in Cairns include The Reef Hotel Casino, Kuranda Scenic Railway, Barron Falls, towns and localities attracting large numbers of tourists include Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas, Mission Beach and Cardwell. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates the population at 280,638 in 2014. The region contains 25. 6% of the states Indigenous population, or 28,909 people, Far North Queensland is the location of the first amber fossils to be found in Australia
2.
Kuranda, Queensland
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Kuranda is a town and locality on the Atherton Tableland in the Shire of Mareeba, Far North Queensland, Australia. The town of Myola is also located within the locality of Kuranda and it is 25 kilometres from Cairns, via the Kuranda Range road. It is surrounded by tropical rainforest and adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage listed Barron Gorge National Park and it is within the local government area of Shire of Mareeba. At the 2011 census, the locality Kuranda had a population of 2,966, Kuranda is positioned on the eastern edge of the Atherton Tableland where the Barron River begins a steep descent to its coastal floodplain. The area is an important wildlife corridor between the Daintree/Carbine Tableland area in the north and Lamb Range/Atherton Tableland in the south, two centres of biodiversity, parts of Kuranda, particularly along its eastern edge, are protected within the Kuranda National Park and Barron Gorge National Park. Both national parks belong to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Barron Gorge Forest Reserve and Formatine Forest Reserve have been established in the south of Kuranda. Closer to the centre of the town is Jumrum Creek Conservation Park where a near threatened, an elongated dam created by a weir built for a power station was constructed in 1935 and is used to today for recreation. The rainforest around Kuranda has been home to the Djabugay people for over 10,000 years, europeans began to explore the area throughout the nineteenth century. It is believed a massacre of people took place at the location in Kuranda known as Skeleton Creek. Kuranda was first settled in 1885 and surveyed by Thomas Behan in 1888, construction of the railway from Cairns to Myola began in 1887 and the line reached Kuranda in 1891. The current railway station was built in 1915, Kuranda Post Office opened on 25 June 1891. Between 1912 and 1913 Eric Mjöberg lead an expedition to Queensland in which the Kuranda Aboriginal people were observed, Kuranda District State School and Kuranda State High School amalgamated at the commencement of 2007 to create Kuranda District State College. Although coffee was grown around Kuranda in the twentieth century. Kuranda has been known as a tourist destination since the early 1900s and it was both the rainforest and local Aboriginals which attracted people to the area. Today Kuranda is a village in the rainforest with tourism being the current backbone of the local economy, the village in the rainforest concept promoted from the 1970s onwards served two purposes. It attracted those seeking a bohemian enclave in which to reside as well as a being a tourist promotional strategy, throughout the 1970s and 1980s Kuranda was popular with alternative lifestylers, a theme that still runs through the local community today. The Barron Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station was built nearby in the 1960s, Kuranda has a number of heritage-listed sites, Cairns-to-Kuranda railway line including the Kuranda railway station. The town is surrounded by tropical rainforest which is abundant with wildlife, there are several short walks around the village including the Jum Rum Creek Environmental Park which includes The River Walk
3.
Port Douglas
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Port Douglas is a town in Far North Queensland, Australia, approximately 70 km north of Cairns. Its permanent population was 3,205 at the time of the 2011 census, the towns population can often double, however, with the influx of tourists during the peak tourism season May–September. The town is named in honour of former Premier of Queensland, Port Douglas developed quickly based on the mining industry. Other parts of the area were established with timber cutting occurring in the surrounding the Daintree River. Previous names for the town included Terrigal, Island Point, Port Owen, the town is situated adjacent to two World Heritage areas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. Port Douglas was No.3 on Australian Traveller magazines list of 100 Best Towns In Australia, the town is within the Federal electorate of Leichhardt, and within the State electorate of Cook. At local level, It is within the government area of Shire of Douglas. The Port Douglas township was established in 1877 after the discovery of gold at Hodgkinson River by James Venture Mulligan, Port Douglas Post Office opened on 1 September 1877. It grew quickly, and at its peak Port Douglas had a population of 12,000 and 27 hotels, with the construction of the Mulligan Highway it serviced towns as far away as Herberton. When the Kuranda Railway from Cairns to Kuranda was completed in 1891, a cyclone in 1911 which demolished all but two buildings in the town also had a significant impact. At its nadir in 1960 the town, by little more than a fishing village, had a population of 100. The Port Douglas War Memorial was unveiled on 10 February 1923 by Mrs Tresize, in the late-1980s, tourism boomed in the region after investor Christopher Skase financed the construction of the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort. In November 1996 United States President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton chose the town as their only stop on their historic visit to Australia. When dining at a restaurant they witnessed a couples wedding certificate. On a return visit on 11 September 2001, the then ex-President was again dining at the Salsa Bar and Grill, a local restaurant and he returned to the United States the following day. The town has enjoyed an influx of full-time residents since its rebirth, with most newcomers arriving from Australias south. On 4 September 2006, entertainer a. k. a, irwin was filmed snorkelling directly above the stingray when it lashed him with its tail, embedding its toxic barb. This event was reported both in Australia and overseas
4.
Aboriginal Australians
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Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members of the Aboriginal race of Australia. Until the 1980s, the legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was race. In the era of colonial and post-colonial government, access to human rights depended upon your race. If you were a full blooded Aboriginal native, the Constitution of Australia, in its original form as of 1901, referred to Aboriginals twice, but without definition. Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament power to legislate with respect to the people of any throughout the Commonwealth. The purpose of this provision was to give the Commonwealth power to regulate non-white immigrant workers, the only other reference, Section 127, provided simply that aboriginal natives shall not be counted in reckoning the size of the population of the Commonwealth or any part of it. The purpose of section 127 was to prevent the inclusion of Aboriginal people in section 24 determinations of the distribution of House of Representatives seats amongst the states and territories, after both of these references were removed by the 1967 referendum, the Australian Constitution had no references to Aboriginals. Since that time, there have been a number of proposals to amend the constitution to specifically mention Indigenous Australians, the change to Section 51 gave the Commonwealth parliament the power to make laws specifically with respect to Aboriginal peoples as a race. The case concerned an application of legislation that would preserve cultural heritage of Aboriginal Tasmanians and it was held that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, together or separately, and any part of either, could be regarded as a race for this purpose. As to the criteria for identifying a person as a member of such a race, Deane said, It is unnecessary, for the purposes of the present case, to consider the meaning to be given to the phrase people of any race in s.51. Plainly, the words have a wide and non-technical meaning, the phrase is, in my view, apposite to refer to all Australian Aboriginals collectively. Any doubt, which might otherwise exist in regard, is removed by reference to the wording of par. The phrase is also apposite to refer to any identifiable racial sub-group among Australian Aboriginals, while Deanes three-part definition reaches beyond the biological criterion to individuals self-identification, it has been criticised as continuing to accept the biological criterion as primary. It has been difficult to apply, both in each of its parts and as to the relations among the parts, biological descent has been a fall-back criterion. If it is to be used to refer to us as a group of people. This has just really crept up on us and we are very happy with our involvement with indigenous people around the world, on the international forum because theyre our brothers and sisters. But we do object to it being used here in Australia and her lecture offered a new perspective on the terms urban, traditional and of Indigenous descent as used to define and categorise Aboriginal Australians. She said, Not only are these categories inappropriate, they serve to divide us, governments insistence on categorising us with modern words like urban, traditional and of Aboriginal descent are really only replacing old terms half-caste and full-blood – based on our colouring
5.
Great Dividing Range
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The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australias most substantial mountain range and the third longest land-based range in the world. The width of the range varies from about 160 km to over 300 km, the Dividing Range does not consist of a single mountain range. It consists of a complex of ranges, plateaus, upland areas and escarpments with an ancient. The physiographic division name for the landmass is called the East Australian Cordillera, in some places the terrain is relatively flat, consisting of very low hills. Typically the highlands range from 300 m to 1,600 m in height, the mountains and plateaus, which consist of limestones, sandstone, quartzite, schists and dolomite, have been created by faulting and folding processes. In the north, the rivers on the west side of the drain towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. The higher and more rugged parts of the range do not necessarily part of the crest of the range. At some places it can be up to 400 km wide, notable ranges and other features which form part of the range complex have their own distinctive names. The Great Dividing Range was formed during the Carboniferous period—over 300 million years ago—when Australia collided with what is now parts of South America, the range has experienced significant erosion since. For tens of thousands of years prior to British colonisation the ranges were home to various Aboriginal Australian nations and clans, evidence remains in some places of their traditional way of life including decorated caves, campsites and trails used to travel between the coastal and inland regions. Many descendants of these still exist today and remain the traditional owners. After British colonisation in 1788, the ranges were an obstacle to exploration, although not high, parts of the highlands were very rugged. Towns in the Blue Mountains were later named each of these men. This was the start of the development of the districts of inland New South Wales. A road was built to Blaxland by convicts within six months, easier routes to inland New South Wales were discovered towards Goulburn to the southwest, and westwards from Newcastle. Subsequent explorations were made across and around the ranges by Allan Cunningham, John Oxley, Hamilton Hume, Paul Edmund Strzelecki, Ludwig Leichhardt and these explorers were mainly concerned with finding and appropriating good agricultural land. By the late 1830s the most fertile rangelands adjacent to the ranges had been explored, appropriated from the traditional inhabitants. These included the Gippsland and Riverina regions in the south, up to the Liverpool Plains, various road and railway routes were subsequently established through many parts of the ranges, although many areas remain remote to this day
6.
South East Queensland
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The area covered by South East Queensland varies, depending on the definition of the region. South East Queensland was the first part of Queensland to be settled and explored by Europeans, settlements initially arose in the Brisbane and Ipswich areas with activity by European immigrants spreading in all directions from there. Various industries such as cutting and agriculture quickly developed at locations around the region from the 1840s onwards. Transport links have been shaped by the range of found in South East Queensland. The economy of South East Queensland supports and relies on a diversity of agricultural manufacturing industries, commerce. The region has a public transport system, TransLink. The term South East Queensland has no equivalent political representation, the area covers many lower house seats at the federal and state levels. As Queensland has no house, there are no Legislative Council provinces or regions to bear the name either. South East Queensland was home to around 20,000 Aboriginals prior to British occupation, according to history researchers the Aboriginal population declined to around 10,000 over the next 60 years. Early explorers in the area including Matthew Flinders, Allan Cunningham, John Oxley, around 1839, European settlers were able to move into the region. Logging was the first industry to develop, the first railway built in Queensland linked Grandchester to Ipswich in 1865 along a narrow 1067 mm gauge. Major floods were experienced in 1893,1974 and 2011, in 2005, the region suffered its worst drought in recorded history. Queenslands third highest peak, Mount Barney, is located in the south of the region, the Cunningham Highway passes southwest to the Darling Downs via Cunninghams Gap. Several highways including the Bruce Highway, Warrego Highway and the Pacific Motorway link to the adjoining regions, mcPherson Range, Teviot Range, DAguilar Range, Little Liverpool Range, Blackall Range as well as the Springbrook Plateau and Tamborine Mountain Plateau. Isolated volcanic peaks are found at Moogerah Peaks and the Glass House Mountains, along the coast are several large islands including Bribie Island, Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island with many smaller islands in Moreton Bay. Several major water supply and flood mitigation dams have been constructed here, the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme and Gold Coast Desalination Plant were recently built to counter the effects of drought in South East Queensland. South East Queensland generally consists of the regions, each of which is also a local government area, Brisbane - the capital. Logan City - a largely residential area between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Moreton Bay Region - a largely residential area between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast
7.
Mareeba
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Mareeba /məˈriːbə/ is a town on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. The town is 417 metres above sea level on the confluence of the Barron River, Granite Creek and it is within the local government area of Shire of Mareeba. The towns name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning meeting of the waters, in the 2011 census, Mareeba had a population of 10,181 people. Prior to European settlement, the area around Mareeba was inhabited by the Muluridji people and they maintained a hunter/gatherer existence in the area between Mount Carbine, Mareeba, Rumula and Woodville, mainly concentrated between Biboohra and Mount Molloy. In the local Aboriginal language, Mareeba means meeting of the waters - referring to the point at which the Barron River is joined by Granite Creek. The Mareeba area was first settled by Europeans in 1877 by John Atherton, who arrived with cattle at Emerald End, Mareeba quickly became a busy coach stop for Cobb & Co on the road from Port Douglas to Herberton. When the railway arrived in 1893, Mareeba grew into a busy town, Mareeba Post Office opened on 25 August 1893. A Mareeba Diggings Post Office opened by 1893 and closed in 1905, from 1942 to 1945, up to 10,000 Australian and US service personnel used Mareeba Airfield as a staging post for battles in New Guinea and the Pacific. The Americans referred to it as Hoevet Field in honour of Major Dean Carol Pinky Hoevet who was killed on 16 August 1942, at the 2006 census, Mareeba had a population of 6,806. In October 2011, most of the land of the state farm / research station at Kairi was sold by the Queensland Government. The sale of the land was to fund the establishment of the Agri-Science Hub at Peters Street in Mareeba, the hub focusses on agricultural research and development, together with education and training. James Cook University is a partner of the hub, researching tropical agriculture, aquaculture, the hub opened on 16 December 2011. Poultry and cattle are also common, tobacco was once the main grown crop of the local economy, but is no longer grown within the Mareeba shire. The towns main street is the Mulligan Highway which branches off from the Kennedy Highway when coming in from Cairns away passing localities such as Speewah, Kuranda, tourism also contributes to the local economy. Tourist attractions in the Mareeba Shire include the Golden Drop Mango Winery, Jaques Coffee Plantation, Coffee Works, Mareeba Heritage Museum, Mareeba Rock Wallabies, Mareeba hosts a rodeo yearly attracting many spectators. The first Affiliated Mareeba Rodeo was held in July 1949 and since the Mareeba Rodeo & Festival has been a celebration of all things country. The 2015 dates for the event are from 27 June to 12 July 2015, the rodeo is hosted at the Kerribee Park Rodeo Grounds, located slightly out of town on route to Dimbulah. In 2014, the attendance was 13000, almost double the normal population
8.
Chambered nautilus
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The chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, also called the pearly nautilus, is the best-known species of nautilus. The shell, when cut away, reveals a lining of lustrous nacre and displays a nearly perfect equiangular spiral, the shell exhibits countershading, being light on the bottom and dark on top. This is to avoid predators, because when seen from above, it blends in with the darkness of the sea. The range of the chambered nautilus encompasses much of the south Pacific, It has been found near reefs and on the seafloor off of the coasts of Australia, Japan, and Micronesia. The eyes of the nautilus, like those of all Nautilus species, are more primitive than those of most other cephalopods. The species has about 90 tentacles with no suckers, which is different from other cephalopods. Chambered nautiluses, again like all members of the genus, have a pair of rhinophores located near each eye which detect chemicals, the oldest fossils of the species are known from Early Pleistocene sediments deposited off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines. Indeed, the taxon of the Chambered Nautilus, Nautilus pompilus is actually a grouping of tens of different species of Nautilus under one name. As of the 4th of Oct,2016 at 8,15 pm during CITES Cop17 in Africa, offering them higher protection from massive trade demand. As a carnivore, it feeds on both carrion and detritus, as well as living shellfish and crab. Mainly scavengers, chambered nautiluses have been described as eating anything that smells and this food is stored in a stomach-like organ known as a crop, which can store food for a great deal of time without it denaturing. Two subspecies of N. pompilius have been described, N. p. pompilius and N. p. suluensis N. p. pompilius is by far the most common and it is sometimes called the emperor nautilus due to its large size. The distribution of N. p. pompilius covers the Andaman Sea east to Fiji, exceptionally large specimens with shell diameters up to 268 mm have been recorded from Indonesia and northern Australia. This giant form was described as Nautilus repertus, but most scientists do not consider it a separate species, N. p. suluensis is a much smaller animal, restricted to the Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippines, after which it is named. The largest known specimen measured 160 mm in shell diameter, the chambered nautilus is often used as an example of the golden spiral. While nautiluses show logarithmic spirals, their ratios range from about 1.24 to 1.43, the golden spirals ratio is 1.618. This is actually visible when the cut nautilus is inspected and this was found during research done in New Caledonia on Nautiluses whose Shell chamber fluid densities were tested at various depths, weeks apart. Generally speaking, Chambered Nautiluses inhabit a depth around 1000 feet, although further tests demonstrated that they can, the chambered Nautilus inhabits different segments of the shell as it grows, continuously growing new, larger cells into which it moves its internal organs as it grows in maturity
9.
Emu
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The emu is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird, the emus range covers most of mainland Australia, but the Tasmanian emu and King Island emu subspecies became extinct after the European settlement of Australia in 1788. The bird is common for it to be rated as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Emus are soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds with long necks and legs, Emus can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at 50 km/h, they forage for a variety of plants and insects, but have been known to go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of water when the opportunity arises, breeding takes place in May and June, and fighting among females for a mate is common. Females can mate several times and lay clutches of eggs in one season. The male does the incubation, during this process he hardly eats or drinks, the eggs hatch after around eight weeks, and the young are nurtured by their fathers. They reach full size after around six months, but can remain as a unit until the next breeding season. The emu is an important cultural icon of Australia, appearing on the coat of arms, the bird features prominently in Indigenous Australian mythology. The birds were known on the eastern coast before 1788, when the first Europeans settled there, total length seven feet two inches. The long spines which are seen in the wings of the sort, are in this not observable. The legs are stout, formed much as in the Galeated Cassowary, the species was named by ornithologist John Latham in 1790 based on a specimen from the Sydney area of Australia, a country which was known as New Holland at the time. In his original 1816 description of the emu, the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot used two names, first Dromiceius and later Dromaius. Most modern publications, including those of the Australian government, use Dromaius, another theory is that it comes from the word ema, which is used in Portuguese to denote a large bird akin to an ostrich or crane. In Victoria, some terms for the emu were Barrimal in the Dja Dja Wurrung language, myoure in Gunai, the birds were known as murawung or birabayin to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin. The emu was long classified, with its closest relatives the cassowaries, in the family Casuariidae, however, an alternate classification was proposed in 2014 by Mitchell et al. based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA. This splits off the Casuariidae into their own order, the Casuariformes, the cladogram shown below is from their study. Two different Dromaius species were present in Australia at the time of European settlement, the insular dwarf emus, D. baudinianus and D. n. minor, originally present on Kangaroo Island and King Island respectively, both became extinct shortly after the arrival of Europeans
