(iii.) The South-eastern portion of Queensland—i.e., the area contained approximately south and east respectively of the air lines Gympie to Roma and Roma to Warwick—being relatively cool, in parts elevated, and easily accessible from the coast, is on the whole the most progressive and rapidly developing portion of the State. Here is the Brisbane basin, a fertile lowland, drained by a network of streams (rivers: Brisbane, navigable for light craft to Ipswich, Logan, etc.), open to the sea but enclosed else where by highlands (2,00o-3,000 ft.), with ample rainfall (3o-7o in. and upwards), coal reserves (v. sup., Ipswich field) capital city and leading port, and excellent commercial position. Along the coast are further fertile and well-watered lowlands, possessing in addition attractive scenery (Glasshouse Mountains) and seaside resorts (Southport ; Coolangatta) ; while further inland (Dalby to Roma), are good wheat and fruit-growing soils and climate which merge into the more purely pastoral western interior. Here, there fore, is the most highly and rapidly growing population, with the bulk of the State's dairying, arable agriculture (including all the wheat-growing), and manufacturing industries, in addition to a fair proportion of the production of minerals (v. sup.) and temperate and sub-tropical climate fruits. Purely pastoral in dustries, along with large holdings, are yielding to closer set tlement and to mixed (including wheat and sheep) farming. There were, 1926, 28,25o agricultural farms in the State, with an average of 45.6 ac. each. The total area which is culti vated in Queensland is relatively small: (1926) 1,278,00o ac. —of which 55o,000 ac. was cultivated grassland—or only o.55% of the total occupied area and 0.25% of the area of the State. Partly this is due to the fact that development is recent but partly to uncertain rainfall (v. p. 842: Climate) so that the figures of annual production show remarkable variations. In dairying Queensland ranks third after New South Wales and Victoria, with 612,000 head of dairy cattle yielding 132,000,00o gal. of milk per ann. The Brisbane Basin (Beaudesert, Ipswich, etc. areas) the Wide Bay (Gympie) district, and the Darling Downs (Too woomba, Warwick, and other districts) lead in production and associated are butter and cheese and preserved milk manufactur ing (50-6o,000,000 lb.; 9-12,000,000 lb.; 6,500,000 lb. per ann. respectively), bacon-curing (16–I8,000,000 lb.), besides poultry and bee-keeping. Of cultivated crops, maize is most generally suited to the climate and is widely grown (135,4:m 150,00o ac., 2-3,000,000 bu. per ann. competing with New South Wales for first place; ay. yield 22 bu.). Dairying and maize cul tivation are extending all up the east coast, but wheat is confined to the io-15 in. winter (April–Oct.) rainfall areas of the Darling Downs and westwards as far as Roma. The amount and yield varies widely according to season (55,00o-185,000 ac.; 380,000 2,000,000 bu.; 1927: 3,700,000 bu. ; yield 5-18 bu. per ac.). Some wheat may in future be grown in the summer-rain areas further north (e.g., Emerald district), but other cultures will probably always limit production. Fodder crops (hay, lucerne) and potatoes are of some importance, while fruits—bananas, pine apples (v. p. 844), but mainly citrus, grapes, etc. (e.g., Roma)— and "northern" varieties in cooler areas (e.g., Stanthorpe) are widely grown. Queensland's total agricultural production is valued at £12-13,000,000 (1926: £12,553,000), or without sugar and tropical fruits, £4,670,000. Dairy production (raw products only) is valued at £6,380,000, giving a total of .L1,400,000 for the raw agricultural products and fruit of the south-east area.
The eastern coastal highlands and scarps carry considerable areas of well-grown forests ; in the north more of the tropical rain-forest (brush), further south more of the temperate rain forest. Soft and hard woods—the latter mainly eucalyptus— occur, and in the south are large areas of pure eucalypt forests (e.g., Gympie-Darling Downs; Macpherson Range). Timber felling and sawmilling are carried on right up the coast but of the 250 sawmills in the State nearly 200 are in the southern dis tricts and they produced (1926-27) 104,000,000 cu.ft. of sawn timber and sleepers (L2,070,000), over half being pine, one-third hardwoods, the remainder including "cedar," "oak," silkwood, silky oak, etc. The total Queensland output of dressed timber (1925-26) was valued at L1,58o,000, besides .1860,000 firewood, etc. The State Forest Service holds in working trust 5,200,000 ac. timber reserves and dedicated forests, besides 156,200 ac. reserved as National Parks. In addition c. 34,000 ac. of planta tions or cultivated forest areas had (1927) been created.
(iv.) The Coastal Lowlands, though they consist of a series of individual and more or less independently developed units—the main coast railway-line now complete from Brisbane to Cairns will assist in drawing them together—have many common fea tures in virtue of their physical composition (rough highland interior. , river basins, rich alluvial lowlands, coast-lines, estuarine
or rock-sheltered deep-water harbours, hot humid climate). Thus their present by no means fully developed economy is capable of summary survey, and for further details reference may be made to the towns mentioned below. In many respects the Bris bane area also can not be distinguished from its northern ana logues. Cattle (v. p. 843), and to an increasingextent dairying even as far north as Cooktown, are common to nearly all—the former naturally more and more restricted to wilder and rougher ground, the latter to richer workable ground within reach of factories and markets. Mining has already been dealt with, the most important area at present being that of the Atherton Plateau, based upon Cairns (q.v.). Timber, in some cases a by-product of settlement, is sawn in 5o mills-19,200,000 cu.ft. (L5I5,000), noteworthy being the 22,500,000 cu.ft. of softwoods from the northern dis tricts, in particular the Atherton Plateau. Along the east coast very poor areas alternate with others having extremely rich soils. The agricultural products at present commonly associated with the latter areas are sugar, tropical fruits, and, more recently, cotton, though the cultivation of ground-nuts or peanuts (1926: 775 tons) and tobacco is developing and others again (e.g., coffee) are physically, if not at present economically, possible. Large possibilities, for dairying no less than for agri culture, lie by way of irrigation for which climate, soils, river regimes, and commercial situations are peculiarly favourable. In 1926, c. 38,00o ac. were under irrigation in Queensland, the Daw son River being by far the most important area under develop ment (see ROCKHAMPTON) ; further the Burdekin River (Inker mann area 5,000 ac., being extended to io,000 ac.), besides numer ous smaller undertakings.
Sugar is grown in rich bottom-lands with a high rainfall (40-6o in.). In 1926 c. 266,500 ac. were under cultivation for sugar (i.e., other than fodder cane), of which 190,000 ac. were cut and yielded 2,926,000 tons of cane, valued at L6,355,000 : tons cane yielded 487,000 tons raw sugar). In sugar-production Queensland outdistances New South Wales (q.v.) the only other Australian producer, but her yields (15-20 tons cane per acre) are lower than those of New South Wales (34.2 tons). Of tropical fruits the chief are bananas (1925-26 15,000 ac. ; crop valued at L750,000) and pineapples (4,000 ac.; L301,000), but mangoes and others have also some importance. "Mediterranean" fruits—oranges (1926: Li16,000), peaches, apri cots, etc., are extensively grown but perhaps mainly in the south east of the State (v. p. 843). The banana industry is not free from serious insect pests the nature of which is being investigated. The sugar industry is conducted under fiscal and labour conditions which lend it a somewhat artificial appearance. (See AUSTRALIA.) Cotton-production, on the other hand, though physically possible over considerable areas, is less amenable to economic "hot-house" methods and the future of the industry, for which great hopes were entertained, is dubious. (1926: 58,740 ac. bearing, 9,060,000 lb. [unginned] cotton valued at £190,000; 1927: rather over 7,000,000 lb. unginned.) (v.) To distinguish the coast of Queensland as a separate geo graphical entity is not so artificial when it is remembered that much of the manufacturing industry, as well as of trade and corn merce is concentrated in the ports; that the last-named is con ducted by means of shipping or over railway systems based upon the ports, and that these play an at present altogether major part in the general development of the State. Fisheries (see AUSTRALIA and BARRIER REEF) are mainly for pearl, turtle, trochus shell, and the total ann. value of all products (1925-26) was L420,000. There are two State fish-supply establishments (turnover 1926-27; £45,000). Manufactures are mainly those concerned immediately with the working up of raw materials—the making of butter, cheese, preserved milk, jams, etc.; bacon-curing, meat-freezing and preserving; tanning; sugar-crushing; saw-milling; smelting, etc. They are naturally located where circumstances demand, e.g., smelters at Cairns ; sugar-crushing mills : various cane-centres, e.g., Mackay; meat-works mainly near ports. Ipswicl. and Too woomba, and other towns possessing coal, have developed im portant railway engineering or repair works, while most towns, according to their development, have a variety of minor industries. Brisbane (q.v.), however, is by far the greatest centre: of the total number of factories in the State (1926: 1,897) with an output (crude value added by process) of L18,135,000, Brisbane has 677 factories with output L17,225,000.