Darling Downs
- 27.55151.98333333333Koordinaten: 27 ° 33 ' S, 151 ° 59 ' E
The Darling Downs is an agricultural region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The area lies to the west of South East Queensland region and is one of the eleven regions of Queensland.
The area has been named by an early explorer of Australia Allan Cunningham after Governor Ralph Darling.
Geography
On the hill country of the Darling Downs different types of vegetables, beans, cotton, wheat, barley, millet and sorghum are grown. Between the farmland to long -term roads, bushes, meandering rivers and herds extend. In this landscape there are farms with herds of beef cattle and dairy cows, pigs, sheep and lambs. Other typical landscape images will power of irrigation systems, windmills, pumps and water from the Great Artesian Basin pumps, light aircraft, the fields spraying, embossed old shearers' huts and more scattered relics of the bygone era of the early days of European discovery and colonization.
The largest city and the commercial center of the Darling Downs is Toowoomba, about 132 kilometers west of Brisbane.
Other cities are Downs Dalby, Warwick, Roma, Oakey, Mitchell, Pittsworth, Allora, Clifton, Cecil Plains, Drayton, Millmerran, Nobby, and Chinchilla in the West.
The Darling Downs are the drainage system of Condamine River and Maranoa River as well as its tributaries. Are located on the northern boundary of the Downs the Bunya Mountains and the Bunya Mountains National Park. The region, which lies in the north, South Burnett and Maranoa in the West. An area of the Western Downs is located in Suratbecken, an area of the Australian coal mining industry. Continue towards the coast, the mountains of the Scenic Rim, in which the sources of the westward flowing Condamine River are raised.
Southern Downs
Parts of the Darling Downs, where the cities of Allora, Clifton, Warwick, Killarney and the rocky area in the south, the Granite Belt are are referred to as Southern Downs. The Southern Downs are classified as a region as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia. The term is also used to define the political boundaries and tourist advertising. The Dumaresq River and the MacIntyre River are located in the region.
History
Originally Darling Downs was covered with native grasses that are eight months an ideal food source for livestock. The Aborigines of Darling Downs were burning the grass once a year from when it was seeds and dry. The annual burning was the local Aborigines the NamenGoonneeburra or Fire Blacks - goonnee is the name for fire and burra an original name of the local Aboriginal tribes. The indigenous tribes, who were also known as Coast Blacks lived in the area of Moreton Bay. Murri is a word that refers to the tribes of the Kamabroi. The Downs tribes spoke a common dialect Waccah was called and that is why they were known to all the tribes than the Wacca - burra surrounding them. The Goonnee - burra were once located there, where Warwick is today.
Cunningham's Gap and Darling Downs were first discovered by Allan Cunningham and Charles Fraser in 1827. Cunningham came in 1828 to further investigation in the area in order to find a way to the coast, which had not yet succeeded as Australia was a penal colony. Cunningham climbed the top of Mount Dumareque, close to Maryvale today, and then wrote in his diary that the lush grassy area to be ideal for a settlement. For the original Darling Downs Allan Cunningham chose the name of the Governor Darling. The former area extended out 100 miles, as far as the eye can see from Mount Dumaresque looked. Ludwig Leichhardt in 1844 saw the remains of the camp with traces of white men on the ridge and steel axes.
The news over the fertile landscape spread quickly. The immigration developed and the Government of the remote colony of New South Wales found no way to curb this. Patrick Leslie was the first European who settled in 1840 in the Darling Downs and in 1846 received property for the sheep at Canning Downs at the Condamine River. Glengallan Homestead, Talgai Homestead, Pringle Cottage and Rosenthal Homestead were further fortified residences that originated in the Southern Downs. 1854 moved Charles Douglas Eastaughffe in this area. The Spicers Gap Road opened up the area in the 1850s for further colonization. Later, Queensland Rail and the transport company Cobb & Co allowed the further development of the region. Gold was discovered there at the time, however, the agricultural activity opened the boom in this area.
The important for the political labor movement shearers ' strike (1891 ) began in the Jondaryan sheep breeding station.
A serious drought in Darling Downs built in the years 1994/1995 dried up as the Condamine River.
Infrastructure
The New England Highway, Gore Highway and Warrego Highway traverse the region. Water is dammed in Leslie Dam, Storm King Dam and Glenlyon Dam. The Lake Broadwater is the only natural lake.
The Queensland gas and oil pipeline and the Roma to Brisbane, Australia's first natural gas pipeline, passing through the region from west to east. He gives several coal mines and several coal power plants in the Downs, the Millmerran Power Station, Oakey Power Station, Darling Downs power station and Kogan Creek power plant.
Before European settlement, there were many areas in Darling Downs sprawling wilderness, for example, the Ma Ma Creek. Rich marshy wetlands harboring many species of animals that no longer live in the Darling Downs today. The Darling Downs Hüpfmaus and the paradise parrot died out after the European livestock industry had begun.
The Dingo Fence begins Jimbour and crosses because the land until the Great Australian Bight.
Tourism
The region is popular with tourists because it contains many natural and historical attractions, including the Goomburra State Forest, Cunningham's Gap, Spicers Gap and the Queen Mary Falls at Killarney in the Main Range National Park.
The city Jandowae gained fame in that they offered land for AUD 1. She wanted to entice residents for their town, which counted 2001 less than 1000 inhabitants.
The Cobb & Co Museum shows horse-drawn carts and material from the history of Darling Downs. There is also a small zoo, the Darling Downs Zoo at Clifton.
The region has significant sites of megafauna fossils that have not been recorded archaeologically. The wealth of discoveries awarded the opinion weight, that people were not the cause of the extinction of the megafauna.
Fiction
Steele Rudd ( Arthur Davis) wrote a comic series about rural life. The first book On Our Selection ( 1899) describes the life of Father, Mother and Dave Rudd on the Snake Gully. The Rudd had four ( or six) acres on a shaft Rail in Darling Downs. They came before in film and radio series.