Queensland Teachers Union - History of The QTU

History of The QTU

The Queensland Teachers' Union was formed in January 1889, when seven regional teachers' organisations gathered at the School of Arts in Brisbane. It is the oldest teachers' union in Australia and one of the oldest trade unions of any type in Queensland. In 1895, the QTU published the first issue of the Queensland Education Journal, later renamed the Queensland Teachers' Journal, which is now the oldest continuous teachers' journal in Australia.

With the Public Service Association, the QTU lead the campaign for the establishment of a state public service superannuation scheme for Queensland, which eventually came into being in 1913.

In May 1917, the QTU was granted registration as an industrial association in Queensland's new Arbitration Court, and in November of that year the Queensland Teachers Award became the first agreed in industrial arbitration processes anywhere in Australasia, and one of the first negotiated in an industrial tribunal anywhere.

In 1967, the Industrial Commission granted the QTU's application for equal pay for women teachers, something for which the union had been campaigning since 1919.

The Remote Area Incentive Scheme, which tackles teacher shortages in the state's rural and remote areas by using incentives to attract and retain teachers, was introduced in 1990, after 16 years of QTU campaigning.