Darling Downs, Queensland
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Darling Downs Queensland |
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| Population | 241,537 (2010) | ||||||||||||||
| • Density | 3.121089/km2 (8.083583/sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1840 | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 77,388.7 km2 (29,879.9 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Goondiwindi, Southern Downs, Toowoomba, Western Downs | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Condamine, Nanango, Southern Downs, Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South, Warrego | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Groom, Maranoa | ||||||||||||||
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The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generally applied to an area approximating to that of the Condamine River catchment upstream of Condamine township but is now applied to a wider region comprising the Southern Downs, Western Downs, Toowoomba and Goondiwindi local authority areas. The name Darling Downs was given in 1827 by Allan Cunningham, the first European explorer to reach the area and recognises the then Governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling.
The region has developed a strong and diverse agricultural industry largely due to the extensive areas of vertosols (cracking clay soils), particularly black vertosols, of moderate to high fertility and available water capacity. Manufacturing and mining, particularly coal mining are also important, and coal seam gas extraction experienced significant growth in the decade to 2016.
The landscape is dominated by rolling hills covered by pastures of many different species, vegetables, legumes such as soy beans and chick peas, and other crops including cotton, wheat, barley and sorghum. Between the farmlands there are long stretches of crisscrossing roads, bushy ridges, winding creeks and herds of cattle. There are farms with beef and dairy cattle, pigs, sheep and lamb stock. Other typical sights include irrigation systems, windmills serving as water well pumps to get water from the Great Artesian Basin, light planes crop-dusting, rusty old woolsheds and other scattered remnants from a bygone era of early exploration and settlement.
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