Downs
Topic: World Physical Features and Natural Regions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Primary Activities"
Meaning
The Downs are the temperate grasslands of south-eastern Australia. They lie mainly in the Murray-Darling basin. Temperate grasslands are open, grassy lands in the middle latitudes with few trees, because rain is low and there is frost, fire and grazing. The Downs are used for extensive commercial wheat farming and merino sheep rearing. Farms are big and run by machines. Each hectare gives a low yield, but each worker gives a high yield. Rain is low, so farmers also use artesian wells. These are wells where underground water rises to the surface on its own, pushed up by pressure.
Example
The Darling Downs in south-eastern Queensland, in the Murray-Darling basin, grow wheat and raise merino sheep for wool.
Don't confuse with
- Canterbury Plains: these are grain and sheep lands in New Zealand's South Island, not Australia.
- Northern Australian savanna: this is a tropical grassland with one wet and one dry season, not a temperate one.