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Period: to
Queensland 1800
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Joph Oxly
New South Wales Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane sends explorer John Oxley to find potential new penal sites.
Additional information John Oxley Library
A new state
Birth of Queensland
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 Au -
Moreton Bay Convict settlement
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. -
German Missionaries
German missionaries establish the Zion Hill Mission (now Nundah) to bring Christianity to the Aborigines in Brisbane. -
Moreton Bay
The Moreton Bay district is officially opened to free settlement. -
Queensland’s first newspaper
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. -
Queensland
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). -
First telegraph line
the first telegraph line in Queensland is established, revolutionising communication in the colony. The first line linked Brisbane to Ipswich and later extended to Sydney. -
Kenakas people
The Kanakas (Melanesian people from South Pacific) arrive in Queensland to work in Queensland's cane fields (until 1904).
Ipswich Grammar School is established as Queensland’s first grammar school following the Grammar Schools Act 1860. -
Queensland’s first railway line
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. -
Free primary education
Free primary education is introduced in Queensland, the first in Australia. -
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria grants the Queensland Coat of Arms, the oldest State Arms in Australia, to the Colony of Queensland. -
Aboriginal rights
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.