Bowland

Bowland, officially known as the Bowland Federal Republic, is a sovereign state located on the Australian continent and islands in the Torres Strait. It is the world's eighth-largestst country by total area, however, it also has remarkable sparsity due to the large arid regions of the nation's south and south-west, thereby being one of the least densely populated countries in the world.

For 40,000 prior to the first European landing, Bowland was inhabited primarily by Australian Aboriginals who spoke languages grouped into rought 250 language groups. After the discovery of the continent by Dutch exploeres in 1606, the continent was colonised Great Britain, who claimed the eastern portion of Australia in 1770 and first settled convicts in 1788.

Bowland was first settled in 1824 by John Oxley who founded the first settlement on the banks of the Brisbane River. After steady population growth throughout the mid-19th century, Bowland (then named Queensland), seperated from New South Wales in 1859 to become a seperate colony. In 1901, Queensland federated alongside the other Australian colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia.

During the Australian Civil War, Queensland remained fiercly partisan in favour of the Commonwealth government, and the state capital of Brisbane was the last major city to fall to the Communist league. In 1943, Queensland was amalgamated into the Northern Territory and adopted the name Bowland, named after the first govenor of Queensland, George Bowen. The state continued to exist in this form until the collapse of the Australian People's Republic in 1989 when it became the first new Australian state to declare independence.