History
Moves towards statehood began with a public meeting in 1851 to consider separation from New South Wales. As the push for separation gained momentum, Queen Victoria was approached to consider establishing a separate colony based at Moreton Bay. The Queen gave her approval and signed the Letters Patent on 6 June 1859. On the same day an Order-in-Council gave Queensland its own Constitution. Queensland became a self-governing colony with its own Governor, a nominated Legislative Council and an elected Legislative Assembly.
Now 6 June is celebrated by Queenslanders as the day when the new colony of Queensland was established.
With the word ‘Separation’ painted on its hull, the ship Clarence sailed into Brisbane on 10 July to be greeted by a jubilant crowd eagerly awaiting the news of separation. Clarence was welcomed with a 14-gun salute, a 'blue light' display and fireworks.
On July 20, Queensland was informed that Sir George Ferguson Bowen would be the State's first Governor. Celebrations resumed with fireworks, cannon fires, flag raisings and the sound of gun shots.
On 10 December 1859, Governor Bowen arrived in Brisbane to a civic reception in the Botanic Gardens. He officially marked the historic occasion of Statehood by reading a proclamation from the verandah of the Deanery of St. John's Cathedral.
Read more about this topic: Queensland Day
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“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
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“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)