Lockyer Valley
The Lockyer Valley (German: Lockyer Valley ) is a fertile agricultural area west of Brisbane in Queensland , Australia and east of Toowoomba . Mainly fruits and vegetables are grown in this valley.
The valley is named after the British major and explorer Edmund Lockyer .
geography
The valley connects to the Great Dividing Range ; the largest place in the valley is Gatton . Lockyer Creek , a tributary of the Brisbane River that flows into Moreton Bay, flows through the Lockyer Valley . The valley has dams such as Atkinson Dam (built 1970), Bill Gunn Dam, and Lake Clarendon .
In the area around the valley there were German settlements such as Minden , Marburg , Haigslea (formerly Kirchheim) and Prenzlau , which lies in the Lockyer valley, from the 1870s . Other places in the valley are Rosewood , Laidley , Forest Hill , Grandchester , Grantham (almost entirely destroyed in the 2011 flood), Helidon and Withcott .
history
Gatton was founded in 1855 and was one of the earliest places of European settlement in Queensland. The valley was settled by German immigrants who were looked after by the Lutheran pastor Heussler.
The first railway line in the valley was built from Ipswich to Grandchester in 1865 because a timber industry was developing in the area. On November 17, 1960, the valley was shaken by an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.4, which caused considerable damage.
The Lockyer Valley has higher temperatures than the Brisbane area and is colder in winter. In November 2008 there was a flooding of the agricultural area in this valley, which completely destroyed the harvest and in January 2011 the valley was flooded again, with the harvest and buildings destroyed and numerous people killed.
Agriculture
The valley contains fertile black soils, which lead to successful use by fruit and vegetable cultivation with a high-turnover trade. However, the success of agricultural cultivation is jeopardized by rain and flooding. After the recent floods from late 2010 to mid-January 2011 and their catastrophic consequences, fruit and vegetables in Australia became scarce and the prices for them rose.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Terry Ryder: Lockyer food bowl banks on diversification . In: The Australian . News Limited. January 14, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2011. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland): Heritage Trails of the Great South East . State of Queensland, 2000, ISBN 0-7345-1008-X , p. 62.
- ^ Daniel Hurst: Qld earthquake risk real . In: Brisbane Times . Fairfax Digital . April 24, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
- ↑ Lockyer Valley flash floods death toll now at 13, after five more bodies found, dozens still missing . In: The Courier Mail . Queensland Newspapers . January 14, 2011. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
