Rare Unseen Historical Photographs of Queensland Australia in 1938 to 1940. Queensland is a state situated in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous of the Australian states.Queensland is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity; it is larger than all but 15 countries. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city.Ten of Australia's thirty largest cities are located in Queensland, with the largest outside Brisbane being the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns, Ipswich, and Toowoomba.