Midlands Tasmania | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Map of the Midlands region of Tasmania, shaded in yellow. | |||||||||||||||
LGA(s) | |||||||||||||||
State electorate(s) | Lyons | ||||||||||||||
Federal Division(s) | Lyons | ||||||||||||||
|
The Midlands is a region of Tasmania between Launceston and Hobart. It also refers to the relatively flat, dry agricultural area, so named because it covers the region between the two cities. Its name is probably[ citation needed ] also influenced from the Midlands in the United Kingdom. It lends its name to the Southern Midlands Council, Northern Midlands Council, and the Midland Highway. [1] The region is sometimes conflated or confused with the adjacent region of the Central Highlands—with the added term Tasmania's heartland. [2]
Most of the Midlands is a region of relatively low plains drained mostly by tributaries of the Tamar River in the north and Jordan River in the south. The natural vegetation was predominantly grassland, but all of it is either grazed by cattle and sheep or cleared for growing better pasture species. On the eastern side it rises into low, unglaciated dolerite hills and mountains, largely covered with dry sclerophyllous forests, but on the west lies the high doleritic Lake Country, which was extensively glaciated during Quaternary glacial periods and is covered with large numbers of lakes consequently carved into the very hard and erosion-resistant rock.
The climate of the Midlands is the driest in Tasmania, with annual rainfalls ranging from 450 to 600 millimetres (18 to 24 in). Rainfall is evenly distributed throughout the year and the region is less prone to very heavy rainfalls than the eastern coast of Tasmania. Because it is not surrounded by sea, the Midlands has both the warmest summers and some of the coldest winters in Tasmania. In summer, maximum temperatures average 24 °C (75 °F), whilst in winter most days have frosts, sometimes severe. The lowest temperature in the region is around −12 °C (10 °F) in 1902, when snow fell in Hobart city.
Owing to the relatively low rainfall and the presence of recently eroded fertile dolerite rocks, the soils are the most fertile in all of Tasmania. Most of them are quite close to the chernozems of Asia and North America, and consequently the Midlands is rich grazing land supporting intensive rearing of sheep. Some grain crops are also grown, though the summers are rather cool for them.
Nigeria is a country in West Africa. Nigeria shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. It also shares a border with the self-declared, but internationally unrecognized state of Ambazonia in the southeast. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the south and it borders Lake Chad to the northeast. In the southeast, it also shares a border with the breakaway state of Ambazonia. Noted geographical features in Nigeria include the Adamawa highlands, Mambilla Plateau, Jos Plateau, Obudu Plateau, the Niger River, River Benue and Niger Delta.
The Sudan is located in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The Sudan is the third largest country in Africa, after Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It had been the largest country on the continent until the 2011 independence of South Sudan.
Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 km (150 mi) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of about 540,600 people as of June 2020. The state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40 percent of the population living in the Greater Hobart area.
Yemen is located in Southwest Asia, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, between Oman and Saudi Arabia. It is situated at the entrance to the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and is one of the most active and strategic shipping lanes in the world. Yemen has an area of 527,970 square kilometres (203,850 sq mi), including the islands of Perim at the southern end of the Red Sea and Socotra at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden. Yemen's land boundaries total 1,746 kilometres (1,085 mi). Yemen borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast. Through the Socotra island, Yemen also shares borders with the Guardafui Channel and the Somali Sea.
Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa which officially consists of six federal member states, namely Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubaland, South West, Puntland, Somaliland and the municipality of Benadir. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Somali Sea and Guardafui Channel to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. With a land area of 637,657 square kilometers, Somalia's terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Its coastline is more than 3,333 kilometers in length, the longest of mainland Africa. It has been described as being roughly shaped "like a tilted number seven".
South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than 2,850 kilometres from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although most of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography. The total land area is 1,220,813 km2 (471,359 sq mi). It has the 23rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,535,538 km2 (592,875 sq mi).
An oceanic climate, also known as a maritime climate, marine climate is the Köppen classification of climate typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, and generally features mild summers and cool but not cold winters, with a relatively narrow annual temperature range and few extremes of temperature. Oceanic climate is found both in the temperate and subtropical areas, In Western Europe, parts of central and Southern Africa, Latin America as well as part of Australia and New Zealand.
The Great Western Tiers are a collection of mountain bluffs that form the northern edge of the Central Highlands plateau in Tasmania, Australia. The bluffs are contained within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.
Orford is a village on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia 73 kilometres north-east of Hobart. The village is centred on the mouth of the Prosser River, on the southern margin of a substantial coastal inlet called Prosser Bay. Beyond this bay are the waters of the Mercury Passage. At the 2006 census, Orford had a population of 553.
The Central Highlands is a region in Tasmania, Australia where geographical and administrative boundaries closely coincide. It is also known as The Lake Country of Tasmania.
Waterhouse Island, part of the Waterhouse Island Group, is a 287-hectare (710-acre) granite island situated in Banks Strait, part of Bass Strait, lying close to the north-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia.
The puna grassland ecoregion, of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru, but extends south, across Bolivia, as far as northern Argentina and Chile. The term puna encompasses diverse ecosystems of the high Central Andes above 3200–3400 m.
Kempton is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Southern Midlands in the Central LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about 36 kilometres (22 mi) south-west of the town of Oatlands. The 2016 census has a population of 386 for the state suburb of Kempton. In a low rainfall region of plains and low hills, it is mostly used for grazing sheep.
Australia's climate is governed mostly by its size and by the hot, sinking air of the subtropical high pressure belt. This moves north-west and north-east with the seasons. The climate is variable, with frequent droughts lasting several seasons, thought to be caused in part by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Australia has a wide variety of climates due to its large geographical size. The largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil. The northern part of the country has a tropical climate, varying between grasslands and desert. Australia holds many heat-related records: the continent has the hottest extended region year-round, the areas with the hottest summer climate, and the highest sunshine duration.
The Central Tablelands in New South Wales is a geographic area that lies between the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Central Western Slopes and Plains. The Great Dividing Range passes in a north–south direction through the Central Tablelands and includes the Blue Mountains. The region shares borders with the Hunter, Central West Slopes and Plains, Southern Tablelands, North Western Slopes and Plains, the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Illawarra.
Between 1979 and 1983 almost all of eastern Australia was affected by a major drought.
Tasmania has a cool temperate climate with four distinct seasons. The highest recorded maximum temperature in Tasmania is 42.2 °C (108.0 °F) at Scamander on 30 January 2009, during the 2009 southeastern Australia heat wave. Tasmania's lowest recorded minimum temperature is −14.2 °C (6.4 °F) on 7 August 2020, at Central Plateau.
The geography of Australia encompasses a wide variety of biogeographic regions being the world's smallest continent, while comprising the territory of the sixth-largest country in the world. The population of Australia is concentrated along the eastern and south-eastern coasts. The geography of the continent is extremely diverse, ranging from the snow-capped mountains of the Australian Alps and Tasmania to large deserts, tropical and temperate forests, grasslands, heathlands and woodlands.
Dry sclerophyll forests occur throughout northern and eastern Tasmania. Characterised by the population of hard-leafed (sclerophyll) and often spiky, drought-adapted plants, dry sclerophyll forests are found in regions of where annual rainfall is below 1000m.
Tasmania can be broadly divided into two distinct regions, eastern and western, that exhibit major differences in climate, geology and vegetation. This divide, termed Tyler’s Corridor, runs from just south of the northwestern corner, and continues south, cutting roughly down the center of the island. The vegetation changes occur principally due to variations in soil types, which are a result of the geological composition, and the vast difference in climate across the state. Generally, the west has a higher mean rainfall but poor acidic soil while the east has a lower mean rainfall but slightly more fertile soil. This results in a larger proportion of rainforest, moorland and wet sclerophyll vegetation dominating in the west and predominantly dry sclerophyll in the east.