The Queensland Parliament passes the Federation Enabling Act, paving the way for Queensland to join the proposed Federation of the Australian colonies.
A great drought begins and lasts until 1903 (five years).
Sleet and snow is recorded in George Street, Brisbane (23 July).
1897
The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act is passed. The legislation includes extensive clauses that restrict the rights of Aboriginal people, including controlling their finances. Other sections of the Act permit the Queensland Government to deport Aboriginal people to missions and reserves where they could be forcibly incarcerated. The Act also gave the government the right to exercise guardianship over all Indigenous children in the colony.
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.
1893
Queen Victoria grants the Queensland Coat of Arms, the oldest State Arms in Australia, to the Colony of Queensland.
South East Queensland is affected by three cyclones in February resulting in severe floods.
1892
Jackie Howe shears a world record 321 sheep in 7 hours 40 minutes at Isis Downs.
1891
Queensland Labor Party forms—first May Day procession by workers at Barcaldine.
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, to represent that their product will 'ward off the coldest chill of winter'.
1887
Queensland, Victoria and South Australia object to New South Wales’ plan to adopt the name ‘Australia’ for the colony.
Queensland’s first permanent bridge is built. Designed by Robinson and L’Anson, the bridge was constructed from wrought-iron lattice girders on cast-iron cylinders,
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.
1870
Free primary education is introduced in Queensland, the first in Australia.
1868
The new Parliament House in George Street is used for the first time.
The turning of the first railway sod in Queensland is performed on 25 February by Lady Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of the colony. The decision was made to run the line from Ipswich to Bigge’s Camp, now known as Grandchester.
1863
The Kanakas (Melanesian people from South Pacific) arrive in Queensland to work in Queensland's cane fields (until 1904).
The Alienation of Crown Lands Act 1860 is passed in order to open lands for selection.
The first Queensland stamps are issued.
1859
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).
On 6 June, Queen Victoria signs the Letters Patent, approving Queensland becoming a separate colony to New South Wales, with its own representative government.
The first issue of Ipswich Herald is released. One of the main aims of the Ipswich Herald was to promote Ipswich’s claims to be capital city of the Moreton Bay colony as separation from New South Wales loomed. Today, known as The Queensland Times, it is the oldest provincial newspaper still published in Queensland.
1854
The Archer brothers trek through the Fitzroy Valley and settle at Gracemere, near Rockhampton.
1851
The first wool is shipped from Moreton Bay to England.
1847
The Port Curtis settlement is established. In 1853 it becomes a permanent settlement and is renamed Gladstone.
1846
Queensland's first newspaper, the Moreton Bay Courier is published. This later became The Courier, then the Brisbane Courier, and since 1933 The Courier-Mail.
1842
The Moreton Bay district is officially opened to free settlement.
1838
German missionaries establish the Zion Hill Mission (now Nundah) to bring Christianity to the Aborigines in Brisbane.
1837
Explorer Andrew Petrie and his family arrive on the ‘James Watt’, the first steamer to enter Moreton Bay.
1828–1830
The Commissariat Store and the Old Windmill are built in Brisbane, and today are the only remaining convict-built structures in Queensland.
1827
Botanist Allan Cunningham discovers the Darling Downs and a gap through the Great Dividing Range, which allows access to the Darling Downs from Brisbane.
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 Victoria Bridge.
1824
Explorer John Oxley travels up the Brisbane River and camps at Breakfast Creek, near present-day Newstead House.
1823
New South Wales Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane sends explorer John Oxley to find potential new penal sites.
Additional information
The State Library of Queensland’s John Oxley Library has a wide range of content chronicling events, people, places and ideas that continue to shape Queensland.