Queensland's history – 1800s

1823

• New South Wales Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane sends explorer John Oxley to find potential new penal sites.

1824

• Explorer John Oxley travels up the Brisbane River and camps at Breakfast Creek, near present day Newstead House.

1825

• The Moreton Bay convict settlement, established in Redcliffe in 1824, is transferred to the banks of the Brisbane River near the northern end of the present Victoria Bridge.

1828

• Botanist Alan Cunningham discovers the Darling Downs and a gap through the Great Dividing Range, which allows access to the Darling Downs from Brisbane.

1828–1830

• The Commissariat Store and the Old Windmill are built in Brisbane, and today are the only remaining convict-built structures in Queensland.

1837

• Explorer Andrew Petrie and his family arrive on the ‘James Watt’, the first steamer to enter Moreton Bay.

1838

• German missionaries establish a Mission for Aborigines at Zion's Hill (now Nundah) in Brisbane.

1842

• The Moreton Bay district is officially opened to free settlement.

1846

• Queensland's first newspaper, the Moreton Bay Courier commences publication.

1847

• The Port Curtis settlement is established. In 1853 it becomes a permanent settlement and is renamed Gladstone.

1851

• The first wool is shipped from Moreton Bay to England.

1854

• The Archer brothers trek through Fitzroy Valley and settle at Gracemere, near Rockhampton.

1859

• On 6 June, Queen Victoria signs the Letters Patent, approving Queensland be established as a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own representative government.
• On 10 December, Queensland's first Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen and his wife Lady Diamantina, arrive in Brisbane. The proclamation establishing the Colony of Queensland is read to wild applause from the balcony of Government House (now the Deanery of St John's Cathedral).

• Municipality of Brisbane is proclaimed and first Brisbane Council election is held – John Petrie becomes the first mayor.
• The first issue of Ipswich Herald is released. Today, known as The Queensland Times, it's the oldest provincial newspaper still being published in Queensland.

1860

• The first Queensland elections are held. Robert George Wyndham Herbert leads the first elected government as Premier.
• The Queensland Parliament sits for the first time.
• The Alienation of Crown Lands Act is passed in order to open lands for selection.
• The first Queensland stamps are issued.

1861

• Warwick and Maryborough officially become municipalities.
• Explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills die near Cooper Creek after successfully crossing the continent from south to north.

1863

• The Kanakas (Melanesian people from South Pacific) arrive in Queensland to work in Queensland's canefields (until 1904).

• Queensland's first Grammar School opens in Ipswich.

1864

• Captain J M Black, a business partner of Sydney merchant Robert Towns, chooses the site of Townsville as a convenient shipping port.
• The first Queensland vs. New South Wales cricket match is played.
• Queensland's first women's hospital is opened, indicating the State's growing prosperity and population.

1865

• Queensland's first railway line opens between Ipswich and Grandchester.

• Cobb & Co opens its first Queensland coach route between Brisbane and Ipswich. The first run commences on 1 January 1866.

1866

• Queensland Treasury banknotes are issued for the first time.

1867

• James Nash discovers gold on the Mary River near Gympie, which sparks a rush.

1868

• The new Parliament House in George Street is used for the first time.

1870

• Free primary education is introduced in Queensland, the first in Australia.

1871

• Missionaries aboard the ‘Surprise’ arrive at Erub (now Darnley Island) in the Torres Strait – an event still known as the ‘Coming of the Light’.
• Mosman, Clarke, and Fraser discover reef gold in the Townsville Hinterland at a place they name ‘Charters Tors’, which later became Charters Towers.

1876

• The Queensland Flag is officially adopted.

• The first Ekka is held in Brisbane.
• Queensland's first Indigenous land rights claim results from a petition by a Scottish Roman Catholic priest.

1877

• Henry Majoribanks Chester arrives on Thursday Island as the first Government Resident.

1878

• The first electric light is switched on at a public demonstration in William Street, Brisbane.

1879

• Local Government is established with the passage of the Divisional Boards Act.

1883

• The Queensland Premier, Sir Thomas McIlwraith, annexes part of New Guinea to Queensland (without permission from Britain) in order to forestall a German takeover.

1887

• Queensland, Victoria and South Australia object to the New South Wales plan to adopt the name ‘Australia’ for the colony.
• Yungaba Immigration Centre opens in Brisbane.

1888

• The Queensland Premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, is elected President of the Federal Council at its meeting in Hobart.
• The first barrel of Bundaberg Rum rolls off the production line. In 1961, the company chooses a polar bear as its corporate mascot, on the basis that their product will 'ward off the coldest chill of winter'.

1889

• Resplendent with Corinthian columns and a dome, Queensland's first permanent Customs House opens in Brisbane.

• Breakfast Creek Hotel is completed.
• Divorces hit double figures for first time – 11!

1890

• Central Queensland organises a petition to separate from Queensland and form its own representative government.

1891

• Queensland Labor Party forms – first May Day procession by workers at Barcaldine.
• Queensland's first major industrial dispute between shearers and wealthy squatters lasts six months. Cairns-Kuranda Railway opens to the public.

1892

• Jackie Howe shears a world record 321 sheep in 7 hours 40 minutes at Isis Downs.

1893

• Queen Victoria grants the Queensland Coat of Arms – first in Australia.

• Three cyclones affect South East Queensland in February, resulting in severe floods.

1895

• The first Edison motion pictures in Queensland are shown in the Brisbane Exhibition Building.
• Waltzing Matilda is performed for the first time in the North Gregory Hotel at Winton.

1897

• The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act is passed authorising the removal of Aboriginal people to reserves.

1898

• A great drought begins and lasts until 1903.

• Sleet and snow is recorded in George Street, Brisbane (23 July).

1899

• The Queensland Parliament passes the Federation Enabling Act, paving the way for Queensland to join the proposed Federation of the Australian colonies.
• Cyclone Mahina destroys a pearling fleet in Princess Charlotte Bay on Cape York and kills about 400 people.
• The first contingent of Queensland soldiers leaves for the Boer War in South Africa.

Last reviewed 28 August 2009

^ to top