Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea. The northern boundary is defined as a line from Slade Point, Queensland in the northeast, to Cape Arnhem, Northern Territory in the west. At its mouth, the Gulf is 590 km wide, further south, 675 km; the north-south length exceeds 700 km. It covers a water area of about 300,000 km²; the general depth does not exceed 82 metres. The tidal range in the Gulf of Carpentaria is between three metres; the Gulf and adjacent Sahul Shelf were dry land at the peak of the last ice age 18,000 years ago when global sea level was around 120 m below its present position. At that time a large, shallow lake occupied the centre of; the Gulf hosts a submerged coral reef province, only recognised in 2004. The first European explorer to visit the region was the Dutch Willem Janszoon in his 1605–6 voyage, his fellow countryman, Jan Carstenszoon, visited in 1623 and named the gulf in honour of Pieter de Carpentier, at that time the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
Abel Tasman explored the coast in 1644. The region was explored and charted by Matthew Flinders in 1802 and 1803; the first overland expedition to reach the Gulf was the Burke and Wills expedition, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills which left Melbourne, Victoria in August 1860 and reached the mouth of the Bynoe River in February 1861. The land bordering the Gulf is flat and low-lying. To the west is Arnhem Land, the Top End of the Northern Territory, Groote Eylandt, the largest island in the Gulf. To the east is the Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait which joins the Gulf to the Coral Sea; the area to the south is known as the Gulf Country. The Gulf country supports the worlds largest intact savanna woodlands as well as native grasslands; the woodlands extend up the west and east coast of the Gulf. They are dominated by Melaleuca species from the family Myrtaceae; the climate is humid with two seasons per year. The dry season lasts from about April until November and is characterized by dry southeast to east winds, generated by migratory winter high pressure systems to the south.
The wet season lasts from December to March. Most of the year's rainfall is compressed into these months, during this period, many low-lying areas are flooded; the Gulf is prone to tropical cyclones during the period between April. The gulf experiences an average of three cyclones each year that are thought to transport sediments in a clockwise direction along the Gulf's coast. In many other parts of Australia, there are dramatic climatic transitions over short distances; the Great Dividing Range, which parallels the entire east and south-east coast, is responsible for the typical pattern of a well-watered coastal strip, a narrow band of mountains, a vast, inward-draining plain that receives little rainfall. In the Gulf Country, there are no mountains to restrict rainfall to the coastal band and the transition from the profuse tropical growth of the seaside areas to the arid scrubs of central Australia is gradual. In September and October the Morning Glory cloud appears in the Southern Gulf; the best vantage point to see this phenomenon is in the Burketown area shortly after dawn.
It has been hypothesized that the Gulf experienced a major asteroid impact event in 536 A. D; the Gulf of Carpentaria is known to contain fringing reefs and isolated coral colonies, but no near-surface patch or barrier reefs exist in the Gulf at the present time. However, this has not always been the case. Expeditions carried out by Geoscience Australia in 2003 and in 2005 aboard the RV Southern Surveyor revealed the presence of a submerged coral reef province covering at least 300 km2 in the southern Gulf; the patch reefs have their upper surfaces at a mean water depth of 28.6 ± 0.5 m, were undetected by satellites or aerial photographs, were only recognised using multibeam swath sonar surveys supplemented with seabed sampling and video. Their existence points to an earlier, late Quaternary phase of framework reef growth under cooler-climate and lower sea level conditions than today. In the Top End the Roper River, Walker River and Wilton River flow into the Gulf; the Cox River, Calvert River, Leichhardt River, McArthur River, Flinders River, Norman River and the Gilbert River drain the Gulf Country.
A number of rivers flow from the Cape York Peninsula into the Gulf, including Smithburne River, Mitchell River, Alice River, Staaten River, Mission River, Wenlock River and Archer River. Extensive areas of seagrass beds have allowed commercial shrimp operations in the Gulf. Zinc and silver is mined from the McArthur River zinc mine and exported via the Gulf. Another zinc mine, Century Zinc is in the gulf on the Queensland side of the border, it exports its product through the port facility at Karumba. The cattle industry is a important part of the regional economy in the gulf. According to the Chairman of the Gulf of Carpentaria's Commercial Fisherman's Organisation, Gary Ward, the number of sightings of Indonesian vessels fishing illegally in the gulf's waters increased in early 2005. By 2011 the numbers of illegal fishing boat interceptions had declined with the cause attributed to enforcement efforts and education programs in Indonesia. In 2012, a major new port located to the west of Karumba and rail conne
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia; the land is flat and about half of the area is used for grazing cattle. The undisturbed eucalyptus-wooded savannahs, tropical rainforests and other types of habitat are now recognized and preserved for their global environmental significance, but native wildlife is threatened by introduced species and weeds. In 1606, Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken reached Australia as its first known European explorer, discovering the Cape York Peninsula. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa, on the western shore of Cape York – This was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, it marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. Edmund Kennedy was the first European explorer to attempt an overland expedition of Cape York Peninsula, he had been second-in-command to Thomas Livingstone Mitchell in 1846 when the Barcoo River was discovered.
The aim was to establish a route to the tip of the peninsula, where Sydney businessmen were attempting development of a port for trade with the East Indies. The expedition set out from Rockingham Bay near the present town of Cardwell in May 1848, it turned out to be one of the great disasters of Australian exploration. Of the thirteen men who set out, only three survived; the others were speared by hostile aborigines. Kennedy died of spear wounds within sight of his destination in December 1848; the only survivor to complete the journey was an aborigine from New South Wales. He led a rescue party to the other two, unable to continue; the peninsula was reached in 1864 when the brothers Francis Lascelles and Alexander William Jardine, along with eight companions, drove a mob of cattle from Rockhampton to the new settlement of Somerset where the Jardines’ father was commander. En route they lost most of their horses, many of their stores and fought pitched battles with Aborigines arriving in March 1865.
The west coast borders the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast borders the Coral Sea. The peninsula is bordered on three sides. There is no clear demarcation to the south, although the official boundary in the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007 of Queensland runs along at about 16°S latitude. At the peninsula’s widest point, it is 430 km from the Bloomfield River in the southeast, across to the west coast just south of the aboriginal community of Kowanyama, it is some 660 km from the southern border of Cook Shire, to the tip of Cape York. The largest islands in the strait include Prince of Wales Island, Horn Island and Badu Island. At the tip of the peninsula lies Cape York, the northernmost point on the Australian mainland, it was named by Lieutenant James Cook on 21 August 1770 in honour of Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany, a brother of King George III of the United Kingdom, who had died three years earlier: The point of the Main, which forms one side of the Passage before mentioned, and, the Northern Promontory of this Country, I have named York Cape, in honour of his late Royal Highness, the Duke of York.
The tropical landscapes are among the most stable in the world. Long undisturbed by tectonic activity, the peninsula is an eroded level low plain dominated by meandering rivers and vast floodplains, with some low hills rising to 800 m elevation in the McIlwraith Range on the eastern side around Coen; the backbone of Cape York Peninsula is the peninsula ridge, part of Australia’s Great Dividing Range. This mountain range is made up of ancient Palaeozoic rocks. To the east and west of the peninsula ridge lie the Carpentaria and Laura Basins, themselves made up of ancient Mesozoic sediments. There are several outstanding landforms on the peninsula: the large expanses of undisturbed dunefields at the eastern coast around Shelburne Bay and Cape Bedford-Cape Flattery; the soils are remarkably infertile compared to other areas of Australia, being entirely laterised and in most cases so old and weathered that little development is apparent today. It is because of this extraordinary soil poverty that the region is so thinly settled: the soils are so unworkable and unresponsive to fertilisers that attempts to grow commercial crops have failed.
The climate on Cape York Peninsula is tropical and monsoonal, with a heavy monsoon season from November to April, during which time the forest becomes uninhabitable, a dry season from May to October. The temperature is warm to hot, with a cooler climate in higher areas; the mean annual temperatures range from 18 °C at higher elevations to 27 °C on the lowlands in the drier southwest. Temperatures over 40 °C and below 5 °C are rare. Annual rainfall is high, ranging from over 2,000 millimetres in the Iron Range and north of Weipa to about 700 millimetres at the southern border. All this rain falls between November and April, only on the eastern slopes of the Iron Range is the median rainfall between June and September above 5 millimetres. Between January and March, the median monthly rainfall ranges from about 170 millimetres in the south to over 500 millimetres in the north and on the Iron Range; the Peninsula Ridge forms the drainage divide between the Gulf of Car
Shire of Aurukun
The Shire of Aurukun is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The shire covers part of western Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland, it covers an area of 7,375.0 square kilometres, has existed as a local government area since 1978. The territory of the Shire of Aurukun was an Aboriginal reserve administered under the Queensland Aborigines Act by the Presbyterian Church; the Aurukun Mission was established in 1904 and Aboriginal people from all over Cape York were relocated there. In 1978, the land was taken over by the Queensland Government, who enacted the Local Government Act 1978, proclaimed the Shire of Aurukun and granted to it Aboriginal Land Lease No.1. An elected Aboriginal council lasted just an administrator was appointed; the State's media at the time was of the opinion that bauxite revenues were a major factor in the Government's decision making on the issue. In the 1990s, an elected council once again took charge; the Shire of Aurukun includes the following settlement: Aurukun The Aurukun Shire Council operate the Wik Mungkan Indigenous Knowledge Centre in Aurukun.
The population of the Shire of Aurukun, along with Cook and Mornington, have been singled out by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, who conduct the quinquennial census, as difficult to measure accurately. Reasons for this include cultural and language barriers and geographical spread of the population, who are located in isolated communities; as such, all figures are to be lower than the actual population on the census date. "Aurukun Aboriginal Shire Council". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland
Frank Nicklin
Sir George Francis Reuben Nicklin, was an Australian politician. He was the Premier of Queensland from 1957 to 1968, the first non Labor Party premier since 1932. Nicklin was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales on 6 August 1895, the son of newspaper proprietor George Francis Nicklin and his New Zealand-born wife, Edith Catherine, née Bond, he was educated at Murwillumbah Public Highfield College in Turramurra, Sydney. In 1910 the family moved to Beerwah in Queensland. Nicklin enrolled in the army in 1916 served with distinction during World War I, where he was promoted to corporal and was awarded the Military Medal. On his return to Queensland he bought a small pineapple farm at Palmwoods, 100 kilometres north of Brisbane, through a soldier-settler scheme. Nicklin saved wisely and put his farming experience to good use, his farm succeeded where many others failed, he led many fruit-growers' organisations, became involved in Country Party politics. When the Member for the solid Country Party seat of Murrumba retired in 1932, Nicklin became the new candidate for the hybrid urban-regional seat in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
He won the seat, although the Country and Progressive National Party Government of A. E. Moore was defeated. Nicklin, entered Parliament as a humble opposition backbencher, he transferred to the newly created Sunshine Coast seat of Landsborough in 1950. Nicklin was a popular and hardworking local member, remained popular throughout difficult times for the Country Party in Queensland; the opposition was fractured and weak, the Government of William Forgan Smith secure. Nicklin's preferred area was agriculture, he made many speeches on the subject. In 1941 the opposition suffered another severe defeat, with Labor winning 41 seats to the Country Party's 14 and the United Australia Party's four. After the election, the Queensland caucuses of the two non-Labor parties decided to merge as the Country-National Organisation. Opposition leader Ted Maher stood down, Nicklin was elected to lead the merged party; the merger fell apart in 1944. Nicklin was leader of the opposition for sixteen years, losing five elections in a row.
In 1942 Labor abolished full preferential voting in favour of first-past-the-post, meaning that the Country Party and UAP could no longer rely on each other's preferences in seats that they both contested. More damaging to the coalition's chances was the introduction of a zonal electoral system in 1949, in which seats in the traditional Labor north and west of the state required fewer members than the Country-Party dominated south-east or the Queensland People's Party dominated metropolitan areas. Despite these setbacks, Nicklin was never challenged for the leadership. Many coalition members appeared to have despaired of defeating Labor, were content to represent their constituencies. Accordingly, Nicklin was left to handle most of the business of opposition, he acknowledged to a 1955 conference of leading Country Party figures that their chances of being seated to the right of the speaker were slim, but he continued as opposition leader anyway. After the 1956 election, in which he was defeated by Labor's Vince Gair, Nicklin considered retiring from politics.
However, his fortunes would soon change. The late 1950s saw increasing fear of communism in Australia, increasing tensions between the Parliamentary Labor Party and the party's union-dominated Central Executive in Queensland; these tensions boiled over in 1957, when the QCE pushed the Government to introduce three weeks' paid leave for public servants. Gair refused, Nicklin backed him, arguing that the QCE was dominated by unaccountable left-wing trade union leaders with communist sympathies. On 24 April Gair was expelled from the ALP, he and his supporters formed the Queensland Labor Party; this body would join the anti-communist Democratic Labor Party which had arisen out of a split in the ALP in Victoria. Reduced to a minority government, Gair negotiated with Nicklin for support from the Country Party in Parliament. However, Nicklin broke them off at the suggestion of federal Country Party leader Arthur Fadden, who believed that given the ructions in Labor, Nicklin had a good chance to become Premier himself.
On 12 June 1957, Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice of Queensland Alan Mansfield ordered Parliament to reassemble. Shortly after 10:30 pm that night, Treasurer Ted Walsh moved that supply be granted to the Gair QLP government; the remnants of the ALP, now led by Jack Duggan, voted against the Government. Sensing his long-denied chance had come, Nicklin instructed the Coalition to block supply as well, bringing the Gair government down, it had been the shortest session of Parliament in Queensland's history. In the ensuing 3 August elections, every QLP MP faced an ALP challenger, while every ALP MP faced a QLP challenger; this created dozens of three-cornered contests, the two Labor factions could not direct preferences to each other if they'd wanted to do so. Taking advantage of the split in the Labor vote, Nicklin's Country-Liberal coalition came to power with 42 seats – the first non-Labor Government since 1932; the two Labor factions won only 31 seats between them. Nicklin was the first of six consecutive Country/National Party leaders.
Nicklin's first priority was to reverse the zonal electoral system in favour of his Government. Nicklin's redistribution was fairer than Hanlon's. The
Bauxite
Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium. Bauxite consists of the aluminium minerals gibbsite and diaspore, mixed with the two iron oxides goethite and haematite, the aluminium clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase and ilmenite. In 1821 the French geologist Pierre Berthier discovered bauxite near the village of Les Baux in Provence, southern France. Numerous classification schemes have been proposed for bauxite but, as of 1982, there was no consensus. Vadász distinguished lateritic bauxites from karst bauxite ores: The carbonate bauxites occur predominantly in Europe and Jamaica above carbonate rocks, where they were formed by lateritic weathering and residual accumulation of intercalated clay layers – dispersed clays which were concentrated as the enclosing limestones dissolved during chemical weathering; the lateritic bauxites are found in the countries of the tropics. They were formed by lateritization of various silicate rocks such as granite, basalt and shale.
In comparison with the iron-rich laterites, the formation of bauxites depends more on intense weathering conditions in a location with good drainage. This enables the precipitation of the gibbsite. Zones with highest aluminium content are located below a ferruginous surface layer; the aluminium hydroxide in the lateritic bauxite deposits is exclusively gibbsite. In the case of Jamaica, recent analysis of the soils showed elevated levels of cadmium, suggesting that the bauxite originates from recent Miocene ash deposits from episodes of significant volcanism in Central America. Australia is the largest producer of bauxite, followed by China. In 2017, China was the top producer of aluminium with half of the world's production, followed by Russia and India. Although aluminium demand is increasing, known reserves of its bauxite ore are sufficient to meet the worldwide demands for aluminium for many centuries. Increased aluminium recycling, which has the advantage of lowering the cost in electric power in producing aluminium, will extend the world's bauxite reserves.
In November 2010, Nguyen Tan Dung, the prime minister of Vietnam, announced that Vietnam's bauxite reserves might total 11,000 Mt. Bauxite is strip mined because it is always found near the surface of the terrain, with little or no overburden; as of 2010 70% to 80% of the world's dry bauxite production is processed first into alumina and into aluminium by electrolysis. Bauxite rocks are classified according to their intended commercial application: metallurgical, cement and refractory. Bauxite ore is heated in a pressure vessel along with a sodium hydroxide solution at a temperature of 150 to 200 °C. At these temperatures, the aluminium is dissolved as sodium aluminate; the aluminium compounds in the bauxite may be present as boehmite or diaspore. The undissolved waste, bauxite tailings, after the aluminium compounds are extracted contains iron oxides, calcia and some un-reacted alumina. After separation of the residue by filtering, pure gibbsite is precipitated when the liquid is cooled, seeded with fine-grained aluminium hydroxide.
The gibbsite is converted into aluminium oxide, Al2O3, by heating in rotary kilns or fluid flash calciners to a temperature in excess of 1,000 °C. This aluminium oxide is dissolved at a temperature of about 960 °C in molten cryolite. Next, this molten substance can yield metallic aluminium by passing an electric current through it in the process of electrolysis, called the Hall–Héroult process, named after its American and French discoverers. Prior to the invention of this process, prior to the Deville process, aluminium ore was refined by heating ore along with elemental sodium or potassium in a vacuum; the method was consumed materials that were themselves expensive at that time. This made early elemental aluminium more expensive than gold. Bauxite is the main source of the rare metal gallium. During the processing of bauxite to alumina in the Bayer process, gallium accumulates in the sodium hydroxide liquor. From this it can be extracted by a variety of methods; the most recent is the use of ion-exchange resin.
Achievable extraction efficiencies critically depend on the original concentration in the feed bauxite. At a typical feed concentration of 50 ppm, about 15 percent of the contained gallium is extractable; the remainder reports to the red mud and aluminium hydroxide streams. Bauxite, Arkansas Rio Tinto Alcan United Company RUSAL MS Bulk Jupiter Bárdossy, G.: Karst Bauxites: Bauxite deposits on carbonate rocks. Elsevier Sci. Publ. 441 p. Bárdossy, G. and Aleva, G. J. J.: Lateritic Bauxites. Developments in Economic Geology 27, Elsevier Sci. Publ. 624 p. ISBN 0-444-98811-4 Grant, C.. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry p. 385–388 Vol.266, No.3 Hanilçi, N.. Geological and geochemical evolution of the Bolkardaği bauxite deposits, Turkey: Transformation from shale to bauxite. Journal of Geochemical Exploration USGS Minerals Information: Bauxite Mineral Information Institute "Bauxite". New International Encyclopedia. 1905
Government of Queensland
The Government of Queensland referred to as the Queensland Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended from time to time. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, Queensland has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Constitution of Australia regulates its relationship with the Commonwealth. Under the Australian Constitution, Queensland ceded legislative and judicial supremacy to the Commonwealth, but retained powers in all matters not in conflict with the Commonwealth. Key state government offices are located at 1 William Street in the Brisbane central business district; the Government of Queensland operates under the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government based on the model of the United Kingdom. The Governor of Queensland, as the representative of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, holds nominal power, although in practice only performs ceremonial duties.
The Parliament of Queensland holds legislative power, while executive power lies with the Premier and Cabinet, judicial power is exercised by a system of courts and tribunals. The Parliament of Queensland is the state's legislature, it consists of Her Majesty The Queen, a single chamber. Queensland is the only Australian state with a unicameral parliament after a second chamber, the Legislative Council, was abolished in 1922; the Legislative Assembly has 93 members. Elections for the Legislative Assembly are held every four years; the Cabinet of Queensland is the government's chief policy-making organ, consists of the Premier and all ministers. The Queensland Government delivers services, determines policy and regulations, including legal interpretation, by a number of agencies grouped under areas of portfolio responsibility; each portfolio is led by a government minister, a member of the Parliament. As of April 2016 there were nineteen lead agencies, called government departments, that consist of: Department of the Premier and Cabinet Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services Department of Education and Training Department of Energy and Water Supply Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Queensland Health Department of Housing and Public Works Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning Department of Justice and Attorney-General Department of National Parks and Racing Department of Natural Resources and Mines Queensland Police Service and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation Department of State Development Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland Treasury Department of Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth GamesA range of other agencies support the functions of these departments.
The judiciary of Queensland consists of the Magistrates Court, the District Court, the Supreme Court, as well as a number of smaller courts and tribunals. The Chief Justice of Queensland is the state's most senior judicial officer; the Magistrates Court is the lowest tier of the judicial hierarchy of Queensland. The court's criminal jurisdiction covers summary offences, indictable offences which may be heard summarily, but all criminal proceedings in Queensland begin in the Magistrates Court if they are not within this jurisdiction. For charges beyond its jurisdiction, the court conducts committal hearings in which the presiding magistrate decides, based on the strength of the evidence, whether to refer the matter to a higher court or dismiss it; the court's civil jurisdiction covers matters in which the amount in dispute is less than or equal to $150,000. Appeals against decisions by the Magistrates Court are heard by the District Court; the District Court is the middle tier of the judicial hierarchy of Queensland.
The court has jurisdiction to hear all appeals from decisions made in the Magistrates Court. Its criminal jurisdiction covers serious indictable offences; the court's civil jurisdiction covers matters in which the amount in dispute is more than $150,000 but less than or equal to $750,000. Appeals against decisions by the District Court are heard by the Court of Appeal, a division of the Supreme Court; the Supreme Court is the highest tier of the judicial hierarchy Queensland. The court has two divisions; the Trial Division's jurisdiction covers serious criminal offences, civil matters involving claims of more than $750,000. The Court of Appeal's jurisdiction allows it to hear cases on appeal from the Trial Division, the District Court, a number of other judicial tribunals in Queensland. Appeals against decisions by the Court of Appeal are heard by the High Court of Australia. There are several factors; the legislature has no upper house. For a large portion of its history, the state was under a gerrymander that favoured rural electorates.
This, combined with the decentralised nature of Queensland, meant that politics has been dominated by regional interests. Queensland, along with New South Wales operated a balloting system known as Optional Preferential Voting for state elections; this is different from the predominant Australian electoral system, the instant-runoff voting system, in practice is closer to a first past the post ballot, which some say is to the
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 and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Pacific Ocean. To its north is the Torres Strait, with Papua New Guinea located less than 200 km across it from the mainland; the state is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 square kilometres. As of 15 May 2018, Queensland has a population of 5,000,000, concentrated along the coast and in the state's South East; the capital and largest city in the state is Australia's third-largest city. Referred to as the "Sunshine State", Queensland is home to 10 of Australia's 30 largest cities and is the nation's third-largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled by its warm tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by 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. 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. Queensland Day is celebrated annually statewide on 6 June. Queensland was one of the six colonies which became the founding states of Australia with federation 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 and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. The state has witnessed frontier warfare between European settlers and Indigenous inhabitants, as well as the exploitation of cheap Kanaka labour sourced from the South Pacific through a form of forced recruitment known at the time as "blackbirding"; 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 separate colony from New South Wales. A rare record of early settler life in north Queensland can be seen in a set of ten photographic glass plates taken in the 1860s by Richard Daintree, in the collection of the National Museum of Australia; the Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, became divided into over 90 different language groups.
During the last ice age Queensland's landscape became more arid and desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the world's first seed-grinding technology. Warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the state's tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa, on the western shore of Cape York; this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, it 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,'New South Wales'; the Aboriginal population declined after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century. In 1823, John Oxley, a British explorer, sailed north from what is now Sydney to scout possible penal colony sites in Gladstone and Moreton Bay.
At Moreton Bay, he found the Brisbane River. He established a settlement at what is now Redcliffe; the settlement known as Edenglassie, was transferred to the current location of the Brisbane city centre. Edmund Lockyer discovered outcrops of coal along the banks of the upper Brisbane River in 1825. In 1839 transportation of convicts was ceased, culminating in the closure of the Brisbane penal settlement. In 1842 free settlement was permitted. In 1847, the Port of Maryborough was opened as a wool port; the first free immigrant ship to arrive in Moreton Bay was the Artemisia, in 1848. In 1857, Queensland's first lighthouse was built at Cape Moreton. A war, sometimes called a "war of extermination", erupted between Aborigines and settlers in colonial Queensland; the Frontier War was notable for being the most bloody in Australia due to Queensland's larger pre-contact indigenous population when compared to the other Australian colonies. About 1,500 European settlers and their alli
