Toowoomba began as a transport hub at Drayton for bullock wagons carrying wool and supplies. It grew due to its location at the base of the range, which provided access to the fertile Darling Downs lands and a watering hole. The railway line further increased Toowoomba's importance as a transport and commercial center, serving the agricultural industries of the region. Today, Toowoomba has developed into a major regional center providing educational, cultural, commercial and other services to the Darling Downs.

1. Characteristics and distribution of
settlements

2. An ‘urban’ planet
 First Cities – 5500 years ago
 TODAY: 50% of population lives in a city.
 Most urban development occurred in the last 150
years because of:
ACTIVITY 1 – complete before continuing
CHECK:
 Population increase and the need for more living space
 Industrial growth and the expansion and concentration of
the workforce
 Economic growth and consumer demands for goods and
services
 Government requirements to make living space more cost-
efficient

3. Communities and settlements
 A community is a system of interacting and
interdependent social groups occupying a particular
area.
 A community is characterised by patterns of
demography, ethnicity, income, family structure,
religion and culture.
 Community groups reside in settlements that vary in
size from small hamlets to giant megacities.
 Their location, size and structure depend on the
geographical features of an area and its historical,
economic and political development
SETTLEMENT IS THE RESIDENTIAL
INFRASTRUCTURE where people live and work
together to carry out a range of activities.

4. Types of communities
 Mono-functional ( single purpose e.g. mining
town)
 Multifunctional
 Multicultural
 Indigenous
 Ecologically sustainable
Activity 2 Check:
Mono-functional: rely on a single function: Mt Isa ( mining) Thredbo(
Tourism) Port Kemble ( heavy industry) Richmond (airforce base).
Multi-functional: mix or range of productive functions such as
manufacturing, administration, govern, special purpose. ( Brisbane)
Multicultural: a community has specifically moved to welcome and
include people with a range of backgrounds ( Toowoomba)
Indigenous: preservation of cultural heritage an identity ( Arakun,
Cherbourg) sustainable: adopt ‘green’ practices to improve
Ecologically
environmental sustainability

5. Features of Settlements -
FUNCTIONS
Settlements provide a variety of
 Commercial functions and services to
 Residential residents. Therefore their design
and future planning feature a
 Industrial broad range of land uses.
 Administrative Some of these land uses,
however are not always
 Utilities compatible while some need the
 Transport advantage of agglomeration.
 Education For example: Heavy industry is
 Cultural not compatible with residential
areas, while light industry might
 Special purposes be. Commercial and financial
 open spaces/future development
institutions tend to agglomerate in
city centres where they can have
ACTIVITY 3 mutual access and locational
benefits. They can also the afford
CHEC the higher rent bids of the inner
K city. Today, advantages of

6. Hierarchy of Settlements
 Their location, size and structure depend on the
geographical features of an area and its historical,
economic and political development .
 Hierarchy – a ranking according to size and
‘importance’
 Low-order functions: dominate small settlements
 High-order functions: dominate large cities
 Categories: High order
 Conurbation functions
 Metropolis Number of functions
 City Duplication of functions
 Large town Diversity of functions
 Small town Number of residents
 Village
Low order
 hamlet
functions
ACTIVITY 4 ACTIVITY 5

7. Megacity - agglomerations
 Global cities
 Response to global markets and communication
advances
 Largest; Tokyo ( Yokahama and Kawasaki) – 34
million people)
 Most rapid growth of megacities – South America,
Africa and Asia
 Lack infrastructural development
ACTIVITY 6

8. Where are most people living?
Influencing factors:
The distribution of population and settlements is
uneven. People tend to live in certain areas due
to:
 Climate
 Fertile soils
 Availability of water
 Forests or grasslands
 Terrain that does not inhibit transport
 Cultural and religious backgrounds
 Level of technology and industry
 Political history
 Key global distribution points ( e.g. Hong Kong)
 Global trade intersections ( e.g. Singapore)
ACTIVITY 7

9. Population density - global

10. Global population clusters
 Eastern Asia
 Southern Asia
 Western Europe
 NE North America
 Sub-tropical E coast South America

11. Activity 1
 While human settlements are not a new
phenomenon, their size, complexity and rate of
growth are.
 What factors have contributed to the rapid growth
in the size, complexity and population of human
settlements since the Industrial Revolution?
 List these and be able to explain how they have
contributed.
 Where possible provide specific examples to
Back
support or highlight them.

12. Activity 2
 Communities come in all shapes and sizes, and
may be found in a variety of settings depending
on their geographical, socio-economic, political
and environmental situations
 For each of the community types listed, provide
an explanatory sentence.
 Provide at least one example to demonstrate that
you understand the differences between them.
Back

13. Activity 3
What FUNCTIONS are evident in this photo? What ones are missing?
Why would they be missing from this photo? Where might you find

14. ACTIVITY 4
1
2
Order and name the type of Back
settlement
4
4

15. .Do you understand the terminology?
Complete the table to show that you understand the relationship between
range, threshold of a good and service and the size of the settlement
Goods of Range Threshold Settlement size How many of these function
Service LOW/MED LOW/MED Large city/ would you find in a settlement
/HIGH /HIGH town/ village like Toowoomba
MANY/FEW/NOT MANY
Milk and
paper
furniture
GP
Oncology
specialist
Car dealer
Business
bank
Upmarket ,
designer
fashions

16. ACTIVITY 5
Settlements of different sizes have different types and
numbers of functions.
The settlement provided goods and services to its residents.
What goods and services are provided depends on:
The RANGE of the good or service
Range (of a good or service) Usually used in the context
of the "outer range" of a good. This range refers to the
maximum distance over which a product can be sold
at a given price.
And
The THRESHOLD of the good or service
Threshold: Minimum demand necessary to support the
production and sale of a product, the delivery of a
Back
service or the pursuit of a business NEX
T

17. Transform the data from the map into a
detailed table. Convert the table into a
ACTIVITY 6 bar graph showing the number of
settlements in each of the three map
categories.
Back
Comment on the patterns of distribution using the 3 data
presentations you now have? Are there any anomalies?

18. ACTIVITY 7
Toowoomba lies at the gateway to the Darling Downs. The settlement began at Drayton., after
the Leslie Brothers established pastoral runs in the late 1820s
Read the abridged test of Toowoomba’s history taken from the Toowoomba Regional Council
website.
Identify the factors which determined the location and future growth of this regional centre. List
these. CHECK:
1. Drayton: Transport node for early bullock wagons
2. Toowoomba swamp: point of entry up the Range, watering hole.
3. Railway line (1849) – transport of produce from Darling Downs. Toowoomba become
main transport hub.
4. 1960 –designated as municipality
5. Town was incorporated in 1904 – recognised as regional centre for Downs.
6. Agricultural based industries develop because of rail access to Brisbane.
7. Car transport – spread of Toowoomba.
8. Today: regional educational, cultural, commercial, and service centre of the Darling
Downs region.
Key reasons for establishment and early growth: Site and situation.
•Climate
•Soils and productive agricultural area
•Water – available fresh water from springs
•Transport – Old Toll Bar Range entrance, Rail link to Brisbane and into Darling
Downs
•Development of industries
•Political History ( break up of squatter runs into agricultural lots for onto Social
Move farming
Environments

19. Short history of Toowoomba - the
settlement
 Bullock wagons, the early means of transport to Toowoomba and the Darling Downs,
carried wool from the great pioneering stations to the port at Moreton Bay, and brought
supplies from the coast to the stations.
 The earliest township in this area was Drayton, a small trading and service settlement,
at a gully where the tracks of the early bullock teamsters met.
 Land at a nearby swamp was surveyed in 1849 as the Drayton Agricultural Reserve.
Town blocks between the east and west swamps were surveyed in 1853 and became
Toowoomba. Early urban development of Toowoomba was in James Street which
carried the traffic from the Toll Bar on the range en route to Drayton and beyond.
 The opening of the railway line from Ipswich to Toowoomba in 1867 and extension of
the line to the south and west moved the focus of the town from James Street to
Russell Street, near the railway station. Industries such as flour milling and foundries
and later dairy processing developed near the railway.
 Toowoomba became a municipality in 1860 and was incorporated as a city in 1904.
Drayton became a suburb of Toowoomba in 1949. Development of the city business
centre grew within the triangle between the two swamps with Ruthven Street taking
over from James and Russell Street as the main business and shopping centre up to
the 1960-70s. The development of "drive in shopping centres" from that time has led to
fragmentation of the central shopping centre to suburban areas of this rapidly growing
city.
 From an estimated population of 1,000 in 1860, Toowoomba now has an estimated
Back to Activity 7
population of more than 90,000. With the University of Southern Queensland, the TAFE
and numerous boarding and day schools, Toowoomba is the regional educational,