The Shire of Duaringa is a Local Government Area in the Capricornia

Capricornia

Capricornia is a term sometimes used for northern Australia, derived from the Tropic of Capricorn. It can apply to any of the items below:* Areas associated with Queensland:...

 region of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Duaringa Shire covers an area of 18,201 square kilometres and boasts a population of approximately 11,000. The Shire incorporates four main towns - Duaringa

Duaringa, Queensland

Duaringa is a small town in central Queensland, Australia. The town lies on the Capricorn Highway, 116 kilometres west of Rockhampton...

, Dingo, Blackwater

Blackwater, Queensland

Blackwater is the major town of a significant coal mining area in Central Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Blackwater had a population of 5,031....

 and Bluff

Bluff, Queensland

Bluff is a town in central Queensland, Australia. The town is located on the Capricorn Highway, in the Central Highlands Local Government Area, north west of the state capital, Brisbane...

 - and the township of Bauhinia. Woorabinda Aboriginal Shire is located in five separate locations inside Duaringa - three of them wholly surrounded by Duaringa, and two on the border with Fitzroy Shire

Shire of Fitzroy

The Shire of Fitzroy was a Local Government Area located in the Capricornia region of Central Queensland, Queensland, Australia, to the immediate west and south of the regional city of Rockhampton...

.

Duaringa is a local centre for the region's farmers, who cultivate sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

 and wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

, and graze beef

Beef

Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...

 cattle. Mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 is another major industry within the Shire, due to the vast coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

deposits around Blackwater.

External links

• University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Duaringa and Duaringa Shire