Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Agriculture - Statistics - Moreton (SD)

Moreton (SD)

Location map for SD: 310

Introduction

Morton Statistical Division surrounds the Brisbane SD and takes in the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Tourism and market gardening are the main industries of the Division.

In the south-east of the Division is the Gold Coast, one of Australia's most famous holiday destinations. The Gold Coast is 32 km of beaches from Coolangatta on the NSW border to Southport. This area boasts more than 300 days of sunshine each year, and an average maximum temperature of 22 degrees in winter, and 28 degrees in summer. The Gold Coast is totally devoted to tourism, with facilities such as Sea World, Movie World, Jupiters Casino, Palm Meadows Golf Course, the Sheraton Mirage Hotel, and many others. Surfers Paradise is the hub of the area. Bond University is also located here.

Moving west from the coastline into the hinterland, the terrain climbs steadily to 1000 metres and the scenery of the Numinbah Valley and Springbrook. The Lamington National Park is nearly 20,000 ha of peaks, cliff and gorges on the Lamington Plateau. There are over 500 waterfalls in the park and it contains the most northerly stands of Antarctic beech, some of which are possibly 3000 years old. Tamborine Mountain National Park is made up of seven areas scattered across the 10 km plateau. Some specimens of cycads in the park are said to be 1000 years old. Market gardening is the main industry outside the park.

In the north-east of the Division is the Sunshine Coast, a string of beaches and headlands. The Glass House Mountains, formed by giant cores of long extinct volcanoes, Kondililla National Park, and Marcus Beach National Park are some of the natural wonders of the area. The area inland from the Sunshine Coast is covered with pineapple, sugarcane, citrus and dairy farms. Buderim has Australia's only ginger factory. The business began in 1941 as a farmers' co-operative when World War II stopped imports from China. It now supplies almost half of the world's processed ginger.

The western part of the Division is the market garden for the city markets. Grain, fruit and a variety of vegetables are the main crops. Beef cattle and dairying are also carried on here. The Queensland Agricultural College is situated at Gatton and Grandchester is the home of the State's first railway station.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data has been analysed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available from the Australian Spatial Data Directory

The figures and text are reproduced with permission of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2000.

Statistics

Area of region (ha): 1,764,902.19

Area

Agroforestry

Berry Fruit

Cattle and Calves

Cereals excluding Rice

Citrus

Grapes

Legumes

Nuts

Oilseeds

Other Livestock

Other Non-Cereal Crops

Other Vegetables

Pastures

Pigs

Plantation Fruit

Potatoes

Poultry

Sales of Livestock

Sheep and Lambs

Stone Fruit

Sugar Cane

Further information

Please Note: Not all the selected data items are available for every year or for every statistical region.

The figures reported here are a subset of the Agricultural Census data from 1982/1983 to 1996/1997 published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, AgStats). The data have been analysed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia to report them using a consistent geographic base. Further information about the data is available through the Australian Spatial Data Directory.

The subset includes 436 data items for plant production and 40 data items for livestock which were commonly available in the AgStats database over the 15 year period and each year for respondents having an Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations (EVAO) above the cut-off of $22,500.

The data have been concorded by bringing data collected using different geographies to a consistent geographic base, being Version 2.6 Statistical Local Area (SLA) boundaries (ABS, 1996) and using the non-agricultural lands mask from the National Land and Water Resources Audit's National Landuse Map (1996/1997).

Before you download

Most publications are downloadable as PDF files. Adobe Acrobat Reader  is required to view PDF files.

If you are unable to access a publication, please contact us to organise a suitable alternative format.

Key

   Links to an another web site
   Opens a pop-up window