Your Tour, Travel & Vacation Guide to Adventures in Australia!

Queensland is a big State -the second-largest in Australia. From Coolangatta, on the New South Wales border, to the tip of Cape York it is 3000 km. From the Northern Territory border in the west to Sandy Cape in the east, the distance is more than 1350 km. Queensland's infrastructure is thus necessarily huge, with a network of over 176,635 km of roads. 

Queensland is associated with several major world heritage sites including the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree National Park. Eastern Queensland has a climate ranging from subtropical to tropical, and it's a popular wintertime tourist attraction. Large areas of western Queensland are very arid. Much of Queensland has a wet and dry season due to its latitude, and this is more notable further north you travel. One of the major tourist areas is the beach-based tourist resort just south of Brisbane, known as the Gold Coast. South East Queensland is one of the fastest-growing areas of Australia.

Tourism is Queensland's leading tertiary industry with millions of interstate and overseas visitors flocking to the Sunshine State each year. Queensland is a state of many contrasts that range from sunny tropical coastal areas, lush rainforests to dry inland areas.

The main tourist destinations of Queensland include: Hervey Bay, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Hervey Bay/Fraser Island, Brisbane, Whitsundays (Airlie Beach, Whitehaven Beach, Hamilton Island, Daydream Island), Far North Queensland (Cairns, Port Douglas,The Daintree), North Queensland (Townsville, Magnetic Island), North Stradbroke Island and South Stradbroke Island, The Great Barrier Reef, Crocodile show at the Australia Zoo

The Gold Coast of Queensland is also sometimes referred to as "Australia's Theme Park Capital", with five major amusement parks including Dreamworld, Movie World, Sea World, Wet 'n' Wild, and WhiteWater World.

There is also 9357 km of rail, ten major airports, including two international ones 'Brisbane and Cairns' and 15 major ports. Geographically, Queensland can be divided into four main regions, all running from north to south. First there is the rich, fertile coastal strip, with reliable rainfall and good weather -this is where 60 per cent of the population lives. In the far north this section is tropical, with high rainfall, and access is difficult, with lush rainforests coming right down to the sea in places. Further south, the rainfall is not as reliable, but there are sections of subtropical rainforest as far south as the New South Wales border and Lamington National Park.

Next there is the Great Dividing Range, a mountain system running right through the State from north to south. To the west of the range is the third main region, the rolling, timbered tablelands typified by the Atherton Tablelands and the Darling Downs. These consist generally of volcanic, black soil that is particularly fertile and highly productive. Finally, in the west are the grasslands that make up more than half the State. This is grazing country; it has a very unreliable rainfall and droughts are not unusual. It is also the country of waving plains of Mitchell grass in Australia's vast natural grasslands. A major part of it is also mulga country, with forests of near impenetrable mulga trees. The mulga is a lifesaver, though, as it sustains stock through droughts.

The Nerang River enters The Broadwater at its southern end, after passing behind the hotels and high-rise apartments

of downtown Surfers Paradise. Although lined for much of its lower length with houses, shops and apartments, and playing host to myriad fast-moving water craft, the Nerang estuary still produces good to excellent catches of whiting, bream and dusky flathead, particularly at night and in the early hours of the morning, just before and after first light.