Queensland - a thumbnail perspective

Size & Population

Queensland is the second largest of Australia's states, and occupies nearly one-quarter of the continent. Queensland has an area of 1,727,200 square km, and a population (in 1996) of 3,368,850. Queensland has 7400 km of coastline.

Extraordinary features

Queensland is one of the world's centres of plant diversity, with over 8500 species of higher plants (40% of the Australian total). Queensland has more animal species than any other Australian state - both land and sea animals. Queensland's rainforests, coral reefs and open forests and woodlands offer a very wide range of habitats.

The Great Barrier Reef - stretching along the shoreline of the Coral Sea and listed as a World Heritage site in 1981 - is the world's largest structure created by living organisms.

Climate

Queensland is positioned between the latitudes of 10º S and 29º S, and roughly bisected by the Tropic of Capricorn.

Temperatures: The state therefore experiences tropical and subtropical climatic conditions. Maximum summer temperatures average 29º C on the coast to 37º C inland. The mild, sunny winters average maximum temperatures of 20º C in the south to 26º C in the north. The southern interior and highlands have cooler winters - with a frost period of up to 100 days.

Rainfall: is highly variable, with extremes of drought and flood. In summer - December to early March - there is a high risk of cyclone damage on tropical coasts.

The coastal zone receives from 750 to 1,500 millimetres (30 to 60 inches) annually. This amount reduces in relation to distance from the coastline - the dry southwest averages only 125 to 150 millimetres per year. Ninety percent of Queensland has at least 200 mm (8 in) of rain per year.

In the northern tropics the rainfall is concentrated in a summer wet season, and this area receives annual totals of up to 4000 millimetres (160 inches).

For the Bureau of Meteorology's colour graph showing Queensland's rainfall over the last 12 months, click here (copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2001).

Plants

The two most common woody plants in Australia, the Eucalypts ("gum" tress) and Acacias ("wattles") create the character of the Australian landscape.

In Queensland, scattered in coastal and near-coastal valleys and ranges are tropical and subtropical rain forests that contain a remarkable diversity of plant and animal species. Their uniquness and diversity has led to the northern rain forests being included on the World Heritage List in 1988. Rainforest timber species have been logged extensively for both the quality of their timber and to clear land for agriculture in the 200 years since English occupation/settlement of Australia [1].

Coastal areas are covered mainly by eucalyptus open forest and woodland - however, in some coastal areas the majority of land has been cleared for agriculture.

Further inland are the acacia low woodlands of brigalow, mulga, and gidgee or gidyea, with grasslands on heavier soils. Low acacia woodlands are common in central and south-western parts of Queensland that receive less than 450 mm of rain per year - dominated by species such as mulga (Acacia aneura), lancewood (Acacia shirleyi) and myall (Acacia pendula). Extensive forests of brigalow (Acacia harpophylla), belah (Casuarina cristata), and bull oak (Allocasuarina luehmannii) once occurred through much of inner western Queensland - where rainfall averages between 500 and 750 mm per year.

In south central Queensland, in moderate rainfall areas of 400 to 700 mm a year, extensive Cypress forests (Callitris hugelii syn. glaucophylla) can be found. These areas also contain Eucalypts (the two major commercial species: narrow-leaved red ironbark and spotted gum) and a few other tree species.

The arid interior is sparsely vegetated, with the tough, spiky, tussocky spinifex grass being dominant.

Forestry

Forestry resources are generally confined to higher-rainfall coastal areas. The most commercially valuable timber species were cleared from the time of pioneer settlement (from the early 1800's onwards) and the limited stands that remain are confined to poorer soils and steeper slopes. Much of this remaining forestland has been set aside in national parks - and included in World Heritage listed areas. Of the forests remaining, they are valuable sources of hardwood timber (predominantly Eucalypts) and many are commercially managed to supply logs for production of sawn timber, plywood, particleboard, and woodchips for paper production. Australian Cypress is logged commercially from naturally occurring forests in south-central Queensland for timber production - more than 130,000 cubic metres in 1996/97. Other than this commercial logging in native forests, the state relies increasingly on its plantations of introduced species of pine trees and plantations of native conifers (Araucaria cunninghamii, "Hoop pine").

Queensland sawn timber usage for 1994/95 [3]

Local forests supply about 70 per cent of the estimated 943 000 cubic metres of sawn timber consumed in Queensland each year. Of the locally produced timber: 30% is hardwood from native forests, 7% Australian Cypress, 22% plantation Hoop pine, 41% plantation Slash/Caribbean pine.

Thirty percent of Queenslands timber needs are met by imports:

22 percent (of total Queensland consumption) was sourced from overseas - almost all from New Zealand (three fifths of the overseas imports are Radiata pine), the USA (softwoods - Oregon, Western Red Cedar and Western Hemlock make up over one-fifth) and South-East Asia (assorted hardwoods - almost one-fifth).

Eight percent is imported from other Australian states. Just over two-thirds of this is hardwood (predominantly Eucalypts), with Radiata pine making up the balance of these imports [3].

Uses

Structural building materials are the most common products derived from the Queensland exotic softwood plantations. In total, about 85 per cent of Queensland produced and consumed sawn timber (1994/95 year) is used by the Queensland dwelling construction industry [3].

The hardwood that is logged is typically used on higher value items such as furniture.

More Online Information

Follow this link to see the Queensland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) website containing Forest Facts (10 Fact sheets detailing the forest resources in Queensland - in Adobe Portable Document format) [2].

Citations

[1] Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1988). Technology in Australia 1788-1988 ["Rain forests"] [WWW document]. URL www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/209.html

[2] Queensland (Australia) Department of Natural Resources (2000, February). DNR Forest Facts: 10 fact sheets [WWW Document & Portable document format]. URL http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/cgi-bin/php/resourcenet/fact_sheets/groups.phtml?group=Forest

[3] Queensland Department of Primary Industries (2002). Forestry, Timber & Wood [WWW Document] URL http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/forestry/ (visited Feb. 2002: includes 'Industry & Research', 'Timber & uses', and 'Trees').

Copyright D. L. Christiansen [Last updated February 2002] Images: respective copyright owners noted/cited. All hyperlinks on this page were 'live' as at the time of last update.

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