QUEENS'LAND. A State of Australia, oc cupying the northeastern part of the continent.
It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Car pentaria and Torres Strait, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by New South Wales, and on the west by South Australia (Map: Australia, G 3). Its extreme length from north to south is 1260 miles, its extreme breadth 940 miles, and its area is estimated at 668.497 square miles, or nearly one-fifth of the area of the United States.
Queensland has a coastline of 2230 miles. Its eastern coast. from Point Danger to Cape York, the northern extremity of York Peninsula, is indented with numerous small bays, afford ing several good harbor-, such as Moreton Bay, the harbor of Brisbane. This coast is lined, at a distance away of 20 to 150 miles, by an im mense coral reef called the Great Barrier Reef, which is about 1000 miles long and inclose, a broad sheet of quiet water filled with numer ous islands. The Great Dividing Range, which, runs along the entire ea-tern coast of the continent. here recedes farther from the' than in the two southern States. lint it sends out a number of spurs, and divides into parallel coast ranges, so that the whole eastern part of the State for 300 miles from the coat is rugged and mountainous. the ranges having an average elevation of 2000 to 3000 feet, with a maximum height of 5400 feet. The western half is an undulating plain traversed in its north central part by a western spur of the Great Divide. There are four principal drain age systems: first, the rivers flowing eastward to the Pacific Ocean, which. though short, are navigable tidal streams for considerable dis tances; second, those flowing through the plain southward to the Darling; third, those flowing north to the Gulf of Carpentaria ; and fourth, those flowing westward and losing themselves in the great central plains of the continent. Queensland is better watered than any of the other States.
Though lying to a great extent within the tropics. Queensland enjoys a eomparatively equa ble climate. The mean annual temperature in the
southeastern part is 69°, and even in the arid western plains the temperature seldom rises above 95'. The rainfall is very unevenly dis tributed. On the east coast it ranges from 50 inches at Brisbane to 100 and even 150 inches farther north. It decreases very rapidly toward the interior, being generally less than 20 inches west of the mountains, and falling to 6 inches in the extreme west. The rainfall throughout the State is very uncertain.
The great western plains have a rich black soil. but are generally treeless, though covered with grass and shrubs. The valleys along the coast are filled with thick deposits of alluvial soil of great fertility, and here we find a lux uriant tropical forest growth. 'Iliough the pre dominating specie; are Australian types. such as Eucalyptus and Acacia. the flora of Queens land differs from that of the other States in having a large admixture of Indian. .11alayan., and Polynesian types, notably among the cg cads and palms. here grow the serew-pines (Pune1nuc) and the Arauearias, while the coasts and tidal streams are lined with man grove thickets. The fauna, on the other hand, is typically Australian.
The great western plains are Cretaceous, part ly consisting of the series known as Desert sand stone. it inclose, a large area of metamorphic rocks in the northwest, and disappears under the Tertiary strata fringing the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The eastern mountain belt consists very largely of granites and igneous rocks, with extensive volcanic areas of more or less recent origin. The granite ranges are flanked by large areas of Paleozoic rocks, chiefly Devonian and Carboniferous. There are exten sive coal beds in the State, both in the Carbon iferous and in the Cretaceous strata of the west. Auriferous quartz veins are also scattered through the mountain region, and lodes of silver, copper. mercury, bismuth. antimony, tin, and co balt arc also found.