Joanna James
As one of Australia's most visited holiday hotspots, Queensland is a fascinating destination lined with highlights. Here are some interesting facts regarding the sunny state of Australia.
Queensland is one of the country's most popular tourist hubs due to a large number of historic and heritage sites occupying the state. Home to a whopping 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the whole of Australia lays claim to only 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, making Queensland the best place to visit a large number of protected sites. The Heritage Sites inside the limits of Queensland include Fraser Island, the Scenic Rim National Parks, the Wet Tropics, the Great Barrier Reef and the Riversleigh Fossil Fields.
Covering an area of nearly of 1,727,000km2, Queensland holds the honour of being the second-biggest state in all of Australia. Queensland is also the largest state in Western Australia and the state as a whole is five times as big as Japan and seven times larger than England while being two and a half times as big as Texas.
Home to a truly diverse populace in terms of culture and ethnicity, one-third of the state's population is made up of children of migrants or migrants themselves. The largest number of settlers to arrive in Queensland travelled from Britain and elsewhere in Europe in the 19th century. South-East Asians also make up a significant portion of the migrant communities living in Queensland while more than 50% of the entire population of the state does not live in the metropolitan confines of Brisbane.
Visitors will be fascinated to know that the first air crossing of the pacific from San Francisco landed in Brisbane as early as 1928 with world-renowned Brisbane native aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and his associates on board. North Queensland's Tjapukai Dance Theatre earned a spot on the Guinness Book of Records in 1997 for staging the longest-running show in the country. Having started its run in May of 1987, the show at the theatre only came to a close in July of '96. Seen by a whopping 1.2 million spectators the venue has staged over 7000 shows in that time.
Queensland also holds the record as the only state to produce four Prime Ministers of Australia. Queensland Statesmen who served in the country's highest office include Andrew Fisher who was the PM from 1908 to 1909 and then again for three years from 1910-1913 and once again in 1914-1915. Arthur Fadden, on the other hand, took office in 1941 while Francis Forde followed in 1945 while Kevin Rudd is the most recent PM to hail from the sunshine state and remained in office from 2007 till 2010.
One of the most iconic folk songs and rhymes associated with Australia is, of course, Waltzing Matilda which was penned by Aussie writer Banjo Patterson. Queensland is the first location in which this now famous song was first publically sung in 1895.
Queensland's popularity as a tourist hub is steeped in the fact that nearly every corner of the state enjoys an average of 8 to 9 hours of sunlight daily. This means visitors based at Oaks Middlemount or any other Middlemount service apartments can take part in outdoor activities for most of the year.
A true believer that the pen is a mighty weapon, ventures into reaching the minds of every reader with the earnest hope of leaving an indelible stream of thought.
A travel writer who has a passion for fashion and a deep interest in admiring new and exotic attractions around the world.
