Lockyer Valley

The Lockyer Valley ( German: Lockyer Valley ) is a fertile agricultural area west of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia and east of Toowoomba. In this valley, especially fruits and vegetables are grown.

The valley is named after the British explorer Major and Edmund Lockyer.

Geography

The valley connects the Great Dividing Range to; the largest town in the valley is Gatton. Through the Lockyer Valley of the Lockyer Creek, a tributary of the Brisbane River, which flows into the Moreton Bay flows. The valley has dams, the Atkinson Dam (built in 1970) as the Bill Gunn Dam and Lake Clarendon.

In the area around the valley there were in the 1870s German settlements as Minden, Marburg, Haigslea (formerly Kirchheim ) and Prenzlau, located in the Lockyer Valley. Other cities in the valley are Rosewood, Laidley, Forest Hill, Grandchester, Grantham ( was destroyed in the flood of 2011 almost in its entirety ), Helidon and Withcott.

History

Gatton was founded in 1855 and was one of the earliest sites of European settlement in Queensland. The valley was settled by German immigrants who were cared for by the Lutheran pastor Heussler.

The first railway line in the valley was from 1865 of Ipswich built to Grandchester, because a timber industry in this area arose. On November 17, 1960, the valley was rocked by an earthquake measuring 4.4, which led to considerable destruction.

In the Lockyer Valley prevail higher temperatures than in the area of Brisbane and in the winter it is colder there. In November 2008, in this valley flooding of the agricultural area, which completely destroyed the harvest, and in January 2011 the valley was flooded again occurred, with the harvest and buildings destroyed and many people died.

Agriculture

The valley contains fertile black soils that lead to successful use by the fruits and vegetables with a high-volume trading. However, the success of the agricultural cultivation is threatened by rain and floods. After the recent floods of late 2010 to mid-January 2011 and its disastrous consequences, fruit and vegetables were scarce in Australia and the prices for them to rise.