Wide Bay–Burnett is a region of the Australian state of Queensland, located between 170–400 km (110–250 mi) north of the state capital, Brisbane. The area's population growth has exceeded the state average over the past 20 years, and it is forecast to grow to more than 430,000 by 2031. It is the subject of the Draft Wide Bay–Burnett Regional Plan, which aims to facilitate this growth while protecting over 90% of the region from urban development.
Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait from orbit
Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island
Gympie, 1905
Beach at Hervey Bay, 2007
Queensland is a state in northeastern Australia, the second-largest and third-most populous of the Australian states. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, southwest and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean; to its north is the Torres Strait, separating the Australian mainland from Papua New Guinea, and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north-west. With an area of 1,723,030 square kilometres (665,270 sq mi), Queensland is the world's sixth-largest subnational entity; it is larger than all but 16 countries. Due to its size, Queensland's geographical features and climates are diverse, including tropical rainforests, rivers, coral reefs, mountain ranges and sandy beaches in its tropical and sub-tropical coastal regions, as well as deserts and savanna in the semi-arid and desert climatic regions of its interior.
Captain James Cook claims the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain at Possession Island in 1770
Fighting between Burke and Wills's supply party and Aboriginal Australians at Bulla in 1861
Aftermath of the 1861 Cullin-La-Ringo massacre in which 19 settlers were killed by Aboriginal people, the deadliest attack on settlers in the frontier wars
Blackbirded South Sea Islanders on a Sugarcane plantation in Queensland.