Portal:Queensland

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Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern corner of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The state is Australia's second largest by area, following Western Australia, and the country's third most populous after New South Wales and Victoria.

The area was first colonised by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived between 40,000 and 65,000 years ago, according to various dating methods. Later, Queensland was made a British Crown Colony that was separated from New South Wales on 6 June 1859, a date now celebrated annually as Queensland Day. The area that currently forms Brisbane was originally the Moreton Bay penal colony, intended as a place for recidivist convicts who had offended while serving out their sentences in New South Wales. The state later encouraged free settlement, and today Queensland's economy is dominated by the agricultural, tourist and natural resource sectors.

The population is concentrated in the south-east corner, which includes the capital Brisbane, Logan City, Redland City, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Other major regional centres include Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, and Mount Isa. Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizable portion of the state is in the tropics.

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Small Mercies is an alternative rock band from Brisbane, Australia. The band formed in 1997 (see 1997 in music), and its current lineup is Steve Blaik, Danny Procopis, Marty O'Brien, and Jeff Reeves. Small Mercies have released two EPs (Is This Life? and Off The Record), and are soon to release their first studio album, Beautiful Hum. "Innocent", a song from Beautiful Hum, was nominated for the 2007 ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist - Single, the band's first and only award nomination.

Small Mercies was first established when the band members were teenagers since Blaik, Procopis and O'Brien all attended high school together. The band also contained Simon O'Connor (guitar) and Shaun Spooner (bass guitar, vocals). In 2001, they made it to the finals of the Brisbane Rock Award (under the name "Seventh Avenue"), earning them the rights to play at Queen Street Mall Basement. This performance attracted the attention of Shawthing Entertainment, as well as industry veterans including John Woodruff.

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Lawn Hill Gorge at Boodjamulla National Park
Credit: DavidB601

Lawn Hill Gorge, the primary attraction in Boodjamulla National Park, cuts through the sandstone plateau of the Constance Range on the eastern extremity of the Barkly Tableland in North West Queensland.

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Bank of Queensland at Maleny
Bank of Queensland (BOQ), one of the oldest financial institutions in Queensland, Australia, is a retail bank with a network of almost 270 branches, including 152 in Queensland, 52 in New South Wales, 23 in Victoria and 34 in Western Australia. Following the Home Building Society and Pioneer mergers, it now has more than 650,000 customers. In 2007, customer satisfaction with the bank was placed at 88%.

In 1874, the Brisbane Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society was established as the first permanent building society formed in Queensland. The Society incorporated in 1887. The company amalgamated with City and Suburban Building Society in 1921. The company amalgamated with Queensland Deposit Bank a decade later. The company received a licence to operate as a trading bank in 1942. 1971 saw the bank become a publicly traded company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2011, the bank experienced a profit slump due to lending losses from the 2010–2011 Queensland floods.

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Coastal defences on Bribie Island

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