Sunshine Coast Region
The Sunshine Coast Region is a local government area located in the Sunshine Coast district of South East Queensland, Australia. It was created by the amalgamation in 2008 of the City of Caloundra and the Shires of Maroochy and Noosa, it contains 4,194 kilometres of roads, 211 kilometres of coastline and a population of 295,000 at the 2016 Census. The first budget of the new Council for the 2008–2009 financial year totals A$673 million including $498 million operating expenditure, $168 million capital expenditure and $25.2 million for repayment of loans. On 1 January 2014, the Shire of Noosa was re-established independent of the Sunshine Coast Regional council. Prior to 2008, the new Sunshine Coast Region was an entire area of three previous and distinct local government areas: the City of Caloundra. At the establishment of regional local government in Queensland on 11 November 1879 with the Divisional Boards Act 1879, most of the area was part of the Caboolture Division, while the northernmost part around Noosa was part of the Widgee Division centred on Gympie.
The Maroochy Division split away from Caboolture on 5 July 1890. All three divisions became Shires on 31 July 1903 under the Local Authorities Act 1902. In 1910, the Shire of Noosa split from Widgee, on 22 February 1912 the Shire of Landsborough split from Caboolture; the two new entities together with Maroochy were to remain stable for 100 years. On 19 December 1987, the Shire of Landsborough was granted City status, was renamed the City of Caloundra, reflecting the population boom in the coastal section of the City. In July 2007, the Local Government Reform Commission released its report and recommended that the three local governments amalgamate. While it noted all three were "functioning councils with moderate to strong financial performance", it argued that they covered a self-contained region in a geographic and economic sense and that the advantages of coordinated planning in a high-growth area and the avoidance of duplication of facilities were arguments in favour of amalgamation; the councils opposed the amalgamation, the Commission itself noted that the bulk of statewide individual submissions came from this region reflecting a "depth of feeling" regarding the issue.
On 15 March 2008, the City and two Shires formally ceased to exist, elections were held on the same day to elect twelve councillors and a mayor to the Regional Council. In the 2011 census, the Sunshine Coast Region had the 4th largest population of any local government area in Australia. In 2012, a proposal was made to de-amalgamate the Shire of Noosa from the Sunshine Coast Region. On 9 March 2013, Noosa residents voted to de-amalgamate Noosa from the Sunshine Coast Council. On 18 March 2013, the Sunshine Coast Regional Council decided its new planning scheme should not apply to those areas that were part of the former Noosa Shire; the Shire of Noosa Shire was re-established on 1 January 2014. The Region is divided into 10 divisions, each represented by one councillor, plus an elected mayor who represents the entire Region; the council is elected for a four-year term. The populations given relate to the component entities prior to 2008; the next census, due in 2016 and will not include the Shire of Noosa's census figures.
The Sunshine Coast economy is dominated by two sectors – Healthcare and Retail, which provide 30% of the regional employment. Other significant areas are Accommodation & Food Services, Construction and Professional Services. Efforts are being made to diversify the regional economy by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. Local educational institutions and community groups have funded a number of initiatives to encourage entrepreneurial and innovative businesses to the area; the University of the Sunshine Coast's Innovation Centre acts as an incubator startup companies, as does the Spark Bureau. The University site at Sippy Downs is designated as a'Knowledge Hub' as part of the Queensland Government's South East Queensland Regional Infrastructure Plan and is master planned as Australia's first university town based on the UK models with the potential for over 6,000 workers in knowledge-based businesses. Sippy Downs was highlighted as an'Innovation Hotspot' in July 2010, by top European Business magazine CNBC Business, with the potential to be'Australia's no-worries-answer to Silicon Valley'.
The Sunshine Coast's major university is the University of the Sunshine Coast with its main campus at Sippy Downs. Central Queensland University has a campus in Noosa. TAFE Queensland services the Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay regions through TAFE East Coast, with three Sunshine Coast campuses at Mooloolaba, Maroochydore & Nambour as well as a Noosa campus; the Sunshine Coast has many varied denomination and public primary and secondary schools. The Lexis English group, providing English classes to international students, has a campus in Maroochydore, while Lexis TESOL Training Centres provides teacher training programs such as the Cambridge CELTA and TESOL; the Sunshine Coast Regional Council operates libraries at Beerwah, Caloundra, Coolum Beach, Maleny and Nambour. It operates a mobile library service visiting Beerburrum, Bli Bli, Caloundra West, Eudlo, Glass House Mountains, Little Mountain, Mooloolah Valley, Mount Coolum, Mountain Creek, Pacific Paradise, Parklands, Pelican W
Bird vocalization
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls; the distinction between songs and calls is based upon complexity and context. Songs are longer and more complex and are associated with courtship and mating, while calls tend to serve such functions as alarms or keeping members of a flock in contact. Other authorities such as Howell and Webb make the distinction based on function, so that short vocalizations, such as those of pigeons, non-vocal sounds, such as the drumming of woodpeckers and the "winnowing" of snipes' wings in display flight, are considered songs. Still others require song to have syllabic diversity and temporal regularity akin to the repetitive and transformative patterns that define music, it is agreed upon in birding and ornithology which sounds are songs and which are calls, a good field guide will differentiate between the two. Bird song is best developed in the order Passeriformes.
Some groups are nearly voiceless, producing only percussive and rhythmic sounds, such as the storks, which clatter their bills. In some manakins, the males have evolved several mechanisms for mechanical sound production, including mechanisms for stridulation not unlike those found in some insects. Song is delivered from prominent perches, although some species may sing when flying; the production of sounds by mechanical means as opposed to the use of the syrinx has been termed variously instrumental music by Charles Darwin, mechanical sounds and more sonation. The term sonate has been defined as the act of producing non-vocal sounds that are intentionally modulated communicative signals, produced using non-syringeal structures such as the bill, tail and body feathers. In extratropical Eurasia and the Americas all song is produced by male birds; these differences have been known for a long time and are attributed to the much less regular and seasonal climate of Australian and African arid zones requiring that birds breed at any time when conditions are favourable, although they cannot breed in many years because food supply never increases above a minimal level.
With aseasonal irregular breeding, both sexes must be brought into breeding condition and vocalisation duetting, serves this purpose. The high frequency of female vocalisations in the tropics and Southern Africa may relate to low mortality rates producing much stronger pair-bonding and territoriality; the avian vocal organ is called the syrinx. The syrinx and sometimes a surrounding air sac resonate to sound waves that are made by membranes past which the bird forces air; the bird controls the pitch by changing the tension on the membranes and controls both pitch and volume by changing the force of exhalation. It can control the two sides of the trachea independently, how some species can produce two notes at once. One of the two main functions of bird song is mate attraction. Scientists hypothesize that bird song evolved through sexual selection, experiments suggest that the quality of bird song may be a good indicator of fitness. Experiments suggest that parasites and diseases may directly affect song characteristics such as song rate, which thereby act as reliable indicators of health.
The song repertoire appears to indicate fitness in some species. The ability of male birds to hold and advertise territories using song demonstrates their fitness. Therefore, a female bird may select males based on the quality of their songs and the size of their song repertoire; the second principal function of bird song is territory defense. Territorial birds will interact with each other using song to negotiate territory boundaries. Since song may be a reliable indicator of quality, individuals may be able to discern the quality of rivals and prevent an energetically costly fight. In birds with song repertoires, individuals may share the same song type and use these song types for more complex communication; some birds will respond to a shared song type with a song-type match. This may be an aggressive signal, however results are mixed. Birds may interact using repertoire-matches, wherein a bird responds with a song type, in its rival's repertoire but is not the song that it is singing; this may be a less aggressive act than song-type matching.
Song complexity is linked to male territorial defense, with more complex songs being perceived as a greater territorial threat. Communication through bird calls can be between individuals of the same species or across species. Birds communicate alarm through vocalizations and movements that are specific to the threat, bird alarms can be understood by other animal species, including other birds, in order to identify and protect against the specific threat. Mobbing calls are used to recruit individuals in an area where an owl or other predator may be present; these calls are characterized by wide-frequency spectra, sharp onset and termination, repetitiveness that are common across species and are believed to be helpful to other potential "mobbers" by being easy to locate. The alarm calls of most species, on the other hand, are characteristically high-pitched, making the caller difficult to locate. Individual birds may be sensitive enough to identify each other through their calls. Many birds t
Logan City
Logan City is a local government area situated within the south of the Brisbane metropolitan area in South East Queensland, Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast to the south, the City borders the Scenic Rim Region, the City of Ipswich, Redland City LGAs. Logan City is divided into 70 suburbs and 12 divisions, for which a councillor is elected to each of the latter. Gaining significant area in 2008 from the amalgamation of parts of the Albert and Beaudesert Shires, Logan City extends north to Priestdale, south to Mundoolun near the Albert River, east to Carbrook at the Logan River, west to Lyons. Logan City is located across parts of the sub-basin of Oxley Creek, the Logan and Albert Rivers; the Daisy Hill Koala Centre serves as an example of Logan's prominent bushland, reminiscent of Karawatha Forest, the Tamborine and Venman Bushland National Parks, that border Logan suburbs. Etymologically, the region is named after Captain Patrick Logan, as is the aforementioned river, alongside the commercial hubs of Logan Central, Shailer Park's Logan Hyperdome, Browns Plains.
Other populous suburbs include Beenleigh, Rochedale South, Springwood, Woodridge and the rural towns of Jimboomba and Logan Village The city facilitates much of the transport between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Its motorway network is extensive: in the city's north-east, the Logan Motorway joins the Pacific Motorway, while the Mount Lindesay Highway and Sydney–Brisbane rail corridor cross the city along a central north-south axis. New developments are common those being built at Yarrabilba and Greater Flagstone, while Griffith University has established a Logan campus in Meadowbrook, being developed into a specialist area based around health and education. In 2016, Luke Smith was elected mayor of Logan, but Cherie Dalley is the the Acting Mayor of the city after the Minister for Local Government suspended Smith while allegations of serious integrity offences are investigated; the Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Captain Patrick Logan. Patrick Logan was a compulsive explorer and in 1826 on his first expedition he discovered the Logan River.
Logan noted the river was well suited to large-vessel traffic and was a first-class avenue to access the high-quality arable land along its banks. He named the country Darling, in honour of the Governor; the Governor renamed the river after Logan. The penal settlement based in Brisbane was closed in 1841 and the land was taken up by squatters; the first leases of land in the Logan area were issued from 1849 and immigration was encouraged following the separation from NSW in 1859. The declaration of the Logan and Eight Mile Plains Agricultural Reserves in 1862 led to extensive settlement of the area. German immigrants arrived in batches from the 1864 onwards. Generous land orders for immigrants in Queensland created a drawcard in the possibility of owning their own farm. A cotton gin, converted to a sugar mill, was built at Loganholme in 1867. Cotton growers faced problems with both the weather and a lack of available labour despite the introduction of Kanaka labour. By the 1870s few working cotton plantations remained along the Logan River.
While this crop was marginally successful, between 1866 and 1874, sugar was soon to become the staple industry. Many small sugar mills were started by farmers seeking to avoid processing costs charged by big mills; however these proved to be uneconomic. Many farmers in the area abandoned sugar after a severe frost in 1885 and a catastrophic flood in 1887 which saw crops destroyed and covered with metres of silt. Others continued growing sugar cane to make 1890 one of the best harvests ever; the Wild Water Water Slide Park began operations in October 1982. The site was to become the Logan Hyperdome with the first work on the regional shopping centre beginning in October 1988, it was opened in July 1989. Construction work on the Logan Hospital started in February 1989. In August 2011, the Logan suburb of Slacks Creek was the location for Queensland's worst house fire. In 2017, a water treatment plant at Round Mountain became the first in Australia to be powered off-grid; the Department of Local Government instigated the formation of the new Logan Shire, which included the northern suburbs of both Albert and Beaudesert Shires.
A section in the north belonged to the Shire of Tingalpa. There were about 69,000 people living to the north of the Logan River. On 31 May 1978 Local Government Minister Russ Hinze introduced the Local Government Bill and, approved on 8 June 1978. Logan was declared a city on 1 January 1981 and the administration building on Wembley Road was opened in February 1981; the city was named after Captain Patrick Logan, one of the founders of the Moreton Bay convict settlement. Logan was honoured in the names of many locales in the district, such as the Logan River, the suburbs of Loganlea, Logan Village, Logan Reserve and Logan Central, the Logan Motorway and Logan Road, which connects Logan City with the nearby state capital of Brisbane. With the major changes to local government in Queensland which took effect at 15 March 2008 local elections, Logan more than tripled in area and added 78,400 people to its population; this came about through annexing a large section of the now-dissolved Shire of Beaudesert as well as the Beenleigh-Eagleby suburban area to its southeast, part of the Gold Coast.
In its rationale for the changes, the Local Government Reform Commission argued that the area added brought the South East Queensland urban footprint and future growth areas to 2026 under the one local government, which could plan for
Rathdowney, Queensland
Rathdowney is a small town in south-eastern Queensland, Australia. It is on the Mount Lindesay Highway 32 kilometres south of Beaudesert at the base of the McPherson Range, it is located in the Scenic Rim local government area. At the 2011 census, Rathdowney had a population of 434; the town was named after the former Rathdowney station, which derived its name from Rathdowney in Ireland. The Beaudesert Shire Tramway was extended to Rathdowney in 1911 but closed in 1944. Timber clearing was the first major industry in the area. Cattle grazing and dairy farming are now the main industries. Rathdowney has the following heritage-listed sites: 8-12 Hardgrave Street and 14-18 Prior Street: St David’s Church of England 157-159 Mount Lindesay Highway: St Joseph’s Catholic Church The eastern boundary is marked by the Logan River, it is close to some of the areas of greatest biodiversity in Australia, a gateway to various National Parks such as Border Ranges National Park and Mount Barney National Park with a variety of lush rainforest, eucalypt forest, mountain heath and other habitats.
In the west, where Burnetts Creek enters the Logan is Bigriggen Reserve Park. The park provides camp sites with a kiosk by the river with access available to caravans and buses. There are many tours, farm stays, guest houses and other opportunities available for visitors to experience this region, about a 90-minute drive from Brisbane or the Gold Coast. In Autumn every year the population rises by several thousand for one day at the Rathdowney Heritage Festival, organised by the Rathdowney and District Historical Association, who run an information centre with information on natural heritage, indigenous heritage and history of white settlement from the time of the first pioneers to present day. Mount Maroon is 12 km west of Rathdowney. At 966 m the summit provides 360 degree views; the small town has a police station, a small shop, a pub, a service station, a post office, memorial grounds, information centre, a bowls club and a small school. The Rathdowney Primary School opened in 1912 and has a 25 m swimming pool in which every spring and summer the swimming club has races on a Friday night.
The swimming club has swimming training during the week after school. The Scenic Rim Regional Council operates a mobile library service. Boonah, Queensland Media related to Rathdowney, Queensland at Wikimedia Commons
Bird
Birds known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the world's most numerically-successful class of tetrapods, with ten thousand living species, more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds. Birds have wings which are less developed depending on the species. Wings, which evolved from forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in flightless birds, including ratites and diverse endemic island species of birds; the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming; the fossil record demonstrates that birds are modern feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier feathered dinosaurs within the theropod group, which are traditionally placed within the saurischian dinosaurs.
The closest living relatives of birds are the crocodilians. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Many of these early "stem-birds", such as Archaeopteryx, were not yet capable of powered flight, many retained primitive characteristics like toothy jaws in place of beaks, long bony tails. DNA-based evidence finds that birds diversified around the time of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all the non-avian dinosaur lineages, but birds those in the southern continents, survived this event and migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. This makes them the sole surviving dinosaurs according to cladistics; some birds corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animals. Many species annually migrate great distances. Birds are social, communicating with visual signals and bird songs, participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting and mobbing of predators.
The vast majority of bird species are monogamous for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or polyandrous. Birds produce offspring by laying eggs, they are laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching; some birds, such as hens, lay eggs when not fertilised, though unfertilised eggs do not produce offspring. Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs and feathers. Songbirds and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser. Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, hundreds more before then. Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them.
Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry. The first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system in use. Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria. During the late 1990s, Aves was most defined phylogenetically as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and Archaeopteryx lithographica. However, an earlier definition proposed by Jacques Gauthier gained wide currency in the 21st century, is used by many scientists including adherents of the Phylocode system. Gauthier defined Aves to include only the crown group of the set of modern birds; this was done by excluding most groups known only from fossils, assigning them, instead, to the Avialae, in part to avoid the uncertainties about the placement of Archaeopteryx in relation to animals traditionally thought of as theropod dinosaurs.
Gauthier identified four different definitions for the same biological name "Aves", a problem. Gauthier proposed to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group consisting of the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants, which corresponds to meaning number 4 below, he assigned other names to the other groups. Aves can mean all archosaurs closer to birds than to crocodiles Aves can mean those advanced archosaurs with feathers Aves can mean those feathered dinosaurs that fly Aves can mean the last common ancestor of all the living birds and all of its descendants (a "c
National park
A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. It is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas. While this type of national park had been proposed the United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve, the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain are seen as the oldest protected areas, predating Yellowstone by nearly a century.
The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the U. S.'s Mackinac, in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac National Park was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was lost; as a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. Canada established Parks Canada in 1911, becoming the world's first national service dedicated to protecting and presenting natural and historical treasures; the largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, established in 1974. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. National parks are always open to visitors. Most national parks provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities as well as classes designed to educate the public on the importance of conservation and the natural wonders of the land in which the national park is located.
In 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a large area with the following defining characteristics: One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty. In 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park; these include: Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence Statutory legal protection Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, etc. While the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example: Swiss National Park, Switzerland: IUCN Ia - Strict Nature Reserve Everglades National Park, United States: IUCN Ib - Wilderness Area Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe: IUCN III - National Monument Vitosha National Park, Bulgaria: IUCN IV - Habitat Management Area New Forest National Park, United Kingdom: IUCN V - Protected Landscape Etniko Ygrotopiko Parko Delta Evrou, Greece: IUCN VI - Managed Resource Protected AreaWhile national parks are understood to be administered by national governments, in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation of Australia.
In Canada, there are both national parks operated by the federal government and provincial or territorial parks operated by the provincial and territorial governments, although nearly all are still national parks by the IUCN definition. In many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks. In 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy; the painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United States might be preserved...in a magnificent park... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty! The first effort by the U. S. Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on 20 April 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the futur
