Date: 1898
Queensland has in Brisbane a capita] city of which any young country might be proud ; it has flourishing towns dotted along its 2,000 miles of seaboard ; it has settle ments inland, connected with each other by  QUEENSLAND 67 railways or coach roads ; but for the most part the shriek of the locomotive, the hammer of the miner, the lowing of cattle, the hum of human voices have as yet made few inroads into the stillness of the vast, lone land over which intrepid explorers have trailed their tiny cavalcades, fixing the first white man's gaze on its lakes and forests, its deserts and its mountains.  There are few places on the earth's surface which appeal to the imagina tion with such fascinating charm as does this portion of the British Empire ; not even the African jungle has taken its toll of brave