Editing Queensland (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Queensland}}

===Pre-European contact ===
{{Main|History of Indigenous Australians}}

Queensland was one of the largest regions of pre-colonial Aboriginal population in Australia.{{Sfnp|Ørsted-Jensen|2011|pp=10–11}} The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000&nbsp;BC, and early migrants are believed to have arrived via boat or land bridge across [[Torres Strait]]. Through time, their descendants developed into more than 90 different language and cultural groups.

During the last [[ice age]], Queensland's landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. The people developed the world's first seed-grinding technology.<ref>{{cite journal|title=65,000-years of continuous grinding stone use at Madjedbebe, Northern Australia {{!}} Abstract|journal=Scientific Reports|publisher=Nature|date=11 July 2022|volume=12 |issue=1 |page=11747 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-15174-x |last1=Hayes |first1=Elspeth H. |last2=Fullagar |first2=Richard |last3=Field |first3=Judith H. |last4=Coster |first4=Adelle C. F. |last5=Matheson |first5=Carney |last6=Nango |first6=May |last7=Djandjomerr |first7=Djaykuk |last8=Marwick |first8=Ben |last9=Wallis |first9=Lynley A. |last10=Smith |first10=Mike A. |last11=Clarkson |first11=Chris |pmid=35817808 |pmc=9273753 }}</ref> The end of the [[glacial period]] brought about a warming climate, making the land more hospitable. It brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the state's tropical rainforests.<ref name="r-evans-hoq">''A History of Queensland'' by Raymond Evans, Cambridge University Press, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-521-87692-6}}.</ref>

The [[Torres Strait Islands]] is home to the [[Torres Strait Islanders|Torres Strait Islander peoples]]. Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples. They have a long history of interaction with both Aboriginal peoples of what is now Australia and the peoples of [[New Guinea]].

===European colonisation===
[[File:Captain Cook at Possession Island.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|Captain [[James Cook]] claims the [[Eastern states of Australia|east coast of Australia]] for the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] at [[Possession Island (Queensland)|Possession Island]] in 1770]]
[[File:SeventeenSeventyNov082024 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The peninsula of [[Seventeen Seventy, Queensland]], where Captain Cook landed in 1770]]
[[File:Bulla Queensland 1861.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Fighting between [[Burke and Wills expedition|Burke and Wills]]'s supply party and Aboriginal Australians at Bulla in 1861]]
In February 1606, Dutch navigator [[Willem Janszoon]] landed near the site of what is now [[Weipa, Queensland|Weipa]], on the western shore of [[Cape York Peninsula|Cape York]]. This was the first recorded landing of a European in [[Australia]], and it also marked the first reported contact between Europeans and the [[Aboriginal people of Australia]].<ref name="r-evans-hoq"/> The region was also explored by French and Spanish explorers (commanded by [[Louis Antoine de Bougainville]] and [[Luís Vaez de Torres]], respectively) before the arrival of Lieutenant [[James Cook]] in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from [[King George III]] of the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] on 22 August 1770 at [[Possession Island (Queensland)|Possession Island]], naming eastern Australia, including Queensland, ''New South Wales''.<ref>{{cite web|website=culture.gov.au |url=https://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/ |title=European discovery and the colonisation of Australia |access-date=24 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110216230554/https://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/australianhistory/ |archive-date=16 February 2011}}</ref>

The Aboriginal population declined significantly after a [[History of smallpox#Australasian epidemics|smallpox epidemic]] during the late 18th century and massacres by the European settlers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cumpston|first=JHL|title=The History of Small-Pox in Australia 1788–1908|year=1914|publisher=Australian Government Printer|location=Melbourne}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2024}}

In 1823, [[John Oxley]], a British explorer, sailed north from what is now [[Sydney]] to scout possible penal colony sites in [[Gladstone, Queensland|Gladstone]] (then [[Port Curtis]]) and [[Moreton Bay]]. At Moreton Bay, he found the [[Brisbane River]]. He returned in 1824 and established a penal settlement at what is now [[Redcliffe Peninsula|Redcliffe]]. The settlement, initially known as [[Edenglassie]], was then transferred to the current location of the [[Brisbane central business district|Brisbane city centre]]. [[Edmund Lockyer]] discovered outcrops of coal along the banks of the upper Brisbane River in 1825.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newhopegroup.com.au|title=New Hope Group|access-date=25 February 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227032917/https://www.newhopegroup.com.au/|archive-date=27 February 2014}}</ref> In 1839 transportation of convicts was ceased, culminating in the closure of the Brisbane penal settlement. In 1842 free settlement, which had already commenced, was officially permitted. In 1847, the [[Port of Maryborough]] was opened as a wool port. While most early immigrants came from New South Wales, the first free immigrant ship to arrive in Moreton Bay from Europe was the [[Artemisia (ship)|''Artemisia'']], in 1848.

Earlier than this immigrant ship was the arrival of the Irish famine orphan girls to Queensland. Devised by the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, The Earl Grey Scheme established a special emigration scheme which was designed to resettle destitute girls from the workhouses of Ireland during the Great Famine. The first ship, the "Earl Grey", departed Ireland for a 124-day sail to Sydney. After controversy developed upon their arrival in Australia, a small group of 37 young orphans, sometimes referred to as The Belfast Girls or the Feisty Colleens, never set foot on Sydney soil, and instead sailed up to Brisbane (then Moreton Bay) on 21 October 1848 on board the ''Ann Mary''. This scheme continued until 1852.<ref>{{Citation|author1=Harrison|first=Jennifer|title=The Forty-Niners: Brisbane : schemes and dreams nineteenth century arrivals|date=4 July 2014|pages=47|publication-date=2014|publisher=Brisbane History Group; Salisbury Qld. : Boolarong Press|isbn=978-1-925046-99-1}}</ref>

In 1857, Queensland's first lighthouse was built at [[Cape Moreton]].<ref>{{cite QHR||Cape Moreton Lightstation|600257|access-date=11 January 2024}}</ref>

=== Frontier wars and massacres ===
{{Further|Australian frontier wars#Queensland||List of massacres of Indigenous Australians#Queensland}}
The frontier wars fought between European settlers and Aboriginal tribes in Queensland were the bloodiest and most brutal in colonial Australia.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Loos |first1=Noel |title=Frontier conflict in the Bowen district 1861–1874 |date=1970 |publisher=[[James Cook University]] of North Queensland |doi=10.25903/mmrc-5e46 |url=https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/1136/ |access-date=11 September 2019 |type=other |archive-date=26 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126071541/https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/1136/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of these conflicts are now seen as acts of genocide.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baldry |first1=Hannah |last2=McKeon |first2=Alisa |last3=McDougal |first3=Scott |title=Queensland's Frontier Killing Times{{Snd}} Facing Up to Genocide |url=https://lr.law.qut.edu.au/article/view/583/564 |journal=[[QUT Law Review]] |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=92–113 |issn=2201-7275 |access-date=27 August 2023 |archive-date=28 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228031650/https://lr.law.qut.edu.au/article/view/583/564 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Alison |year=1998 |title=Colonial and modern genocide: explanations and categories |journal=[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=89–115 |doi=10.1080/014198798330115}}</ref><ref name="queteen">{{cite journal |last=Tatz |first=Colin |date=2006 |title=Confronting Australian Genocide |url=https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p72971/pdf/ch0251.pdf |journal=The Indigenous Experience: Global Perspectives |publisher=Canadian Scholars Press |volume=25 |pages=16–36 |isbn=978-1551303000 |pmid=19514155 |editor-first1=Roger |editor-last1=Maaka |editor-first2=Chris |editor-last2=Andersen |access-date=9 February 2024 |archive-date=14 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231114055722/https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p72971/pdf/ch0251.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rogers |first1=Thomas James |last2=Bain |first2=Stephen |date=3 February 2016 |title=Genocide and frontier violence in Australia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623528.2016.1120466 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=83–100 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2016.1120466 |s2cid=147512803 |access-date=8 March 2022 |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331143722/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623528.2016.1120466 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The wars featured the most frequent massacres of First Nations people, the three deadliest massacres on white settlers, the most disreputable frontier police force, and the highest number of white victims to frontier violence on record in any Australian colony.{{Sfnp|Ørsted-Jensen|2011}} Across at least 644 collisions at least 66,680 were killed — with Aboriginal fatalities alone comprising no less than 65,180.<ref name="ReferenceA">Evans, Raymond & Ørsted–Jensen, Robert: 'I Cannot Say the Numbers that Were Killed': Assessing Violent Mortality on the Queensland Frontier" (paper at AHA 9 July 2014 at University of Queensland) publisher Social Science Research Network</ref> Of these deaths, around 24,000 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by the Native Police between 1859 and 1897.<ref>R Evans, quoted in T Bottoms (2013) ''Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland's Frontier Killing Times'', Allen & Unwin, p.181</ref>

The military force of the Queensland Government in this war was the [[Australian native police|Native Police]], who operated from 1849 to the 1920s. The Native Police was a body of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander troopers that operated under the command of white officers. The Native Police were often recruited forcefully from far-away communities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/frontier/stories/ep3.htm |title=Episode Three |work=Frontier |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=4 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718191740/https://www.abc.net.au/frontier/stories/ep3.htm |archive-date=18 July 2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=29 May 2023 |title=Frontier wars |url=https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/collection/war/frontier-wars |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=Queensland Government |language=en |archive-date=27 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827144736/https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/collection/war/frontier-wars |url-status=live }}</ref> 
[[File:Wills_Tragedy_1861.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of the 1861 [[Cullin-La-Ringo massacre]] in which 19 settlers were killed by Aboriginal people, the deadliest attack on settlers in the frontier wars]]
Conflict spread quickly with free settlement in 1838, with settlement rapidly expanding in a great rush to take up the surrounding land in the [[Darling Downs]], Logan and Brisbane Valley and South Burnett onwards from 1840, in many cases leading to widespread fighting and heavy loss of life. The conflict later spread north to the [[Wide Bay–Burnett|Wide Bay]] and [[Burnett River]] and [[Hervey Bay]] region, and at one stage the settlement of [[Maryborough, Queensland|Maryborough]] was virtually under siege.{{Sfnp|Broome|1988|p=102}}

The largest reasonably well-documented massacres in southeast Queensland were the [[Kilcoy, Queensland|Kilcoy]] and [[Whiteside, Queensland|Whiteside]] poisonings, each of which was said to have taken up to 70 Aboriginal lives by use of a gift of flour laced with [[strychnine]]. At the [[Battle of One Tree Hill]] in September 1843, [[Multuggerah]] and his group of warriors ambushed one group of settlers, routing them and subsequently others in the skirmishes which followed, starting in retaliation for the Kilcoy poisoning.<ref name="kerkhove">{{cite web |last=Kerkhove |first=Ray |date=19 August 2017 |title=Battle of One Tree Hill and Its Aftermath |url=https://frontierbattle.wordpress.com/battle-of-one-tree-hill-and-its-aftermath/ |access-date=5 August 2020 |archive-date=29 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029130225/https://frontierbattle.wordpress.com/battle-of-one-tree-hill-and-its-aftermath/ |url-status=live }} Ray Kerkhove, owner of this site, is a reputable historian. See [https://uniqld.academia.edu/raykerkhove here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824020134/https://uniqld.academia.edu/raykerkhove |date=24 August 2020 }} and [https://www.boolarongpress.com.au/our-authors/authors-k/ray-kerkhove/ here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020113350/https://www.boolarongpress.com.au/our-authors/authors-k/ray-kerkhove/ |date=20 October 2020 }}.</ref><ref name="marr">{{cite news |last=Marr |first=David |date=14 September 2019 |title=Battle of One Tree Hill: remembering an Indigenous victory and a warrior who routed the whites |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/15/battle-of-one-tree-hill-cutting-through-silence-to-remember-a-warrior-who-routed-the-whites |access-date=5 August 2020 |archive-date=5 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805060402/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/15/battle-of-one-tree-hill-cutting-through-silence-to-remember-a-warrior-who-routed-the-whites |url-status=live }}</ref>

Central Queensland was particularly hard hit during the 1860s and 1870s, several contemporary writers mention the Skull Hole, Bladensburg, or Mistake Creek massacre{{efn|Not to be confused with the 1915 [[Mistake Creek massacre]] in [[Western Australia]].}} on [[Bladensburg Station]] near [[Winton, Queensland|Winton]], which in 1901 was said to have taken up to 200 Aboriginal lives.<ref>Queenslander 20 April 1901, page 757d-758c and [[Carl Lumholtz]] Among Cannibals (London 1889) page 58–59; See also {{harvnb|Bottoms|2013|pp=172–174}}.</ref> First Nations warriors killed 19 settlers during the [[Cullin-La-Ringo massacre]] on 17 October 1861.{{Sfnp|Connor|2008|p=220}} In the weeks afterwards, police, native police and civilians killed up to 370 members of the [[Gayiri]] Aboriginal people in response.<ref name="Jackson">{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=Russell |date=18 September 2021 |title=Research discovery suggests AFL pioneer Tom Wills participated in massacres of Indigenous people |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-18/suggests-afl-pioneer-tom-wills-participated-indigenous-massacres/100463708 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210917193518/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-18/suggests-afl-pioneer-tom-wills-participated-indigenous-massacres/100463708 |archive-date=17 September 2021 |access-date=17 September 2021 |website=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref>

Frontier violence peaked on the northern mining frontier during the 1870s, most notably in Cook district and on the [[Palmer River (Queensland)|Palmer]] and Hodgkinson River goldfields, with heavy loss of Aboriginal lives and several well-known massacres.<ref>''Queenslander'', 8 March 1879, page 313d</ref> Raids conducted by the [[Kalkatungu|Kalkadoon]] held settlers out of Western Queensland for ten years until September 1884 when they attacked a force of settlers and native police at Battle Mountain near modern [[Cloncurry, Queensland|Cloncurry]]. The subsequent battle of Battle Mountain ended in disaster for the Kalkadoon, who suffered heavy losses.{{Sfnp|Coulthard-Clark|2001|pp=51–52}} Fighting continued in [[North Queensland]], however, with First Nations raiders attacking sheep and cattle while Native Police mounted heavy retaliatory massacres.{{Sfnp|Connor|2008|p=221}}<ref>Queensland State Archives A/49714 no 6449 of 1884 (report); QPG re 13 July 1884, Vol 21:213; 21 July 1884 – COL/A395/84/5070; Q 16 August 1884, p253; 20 August 1884 Inquest JUS/N108/84/415; POL/?/84/6449; 15 Queensland Figaro November 1884 and Queensland State Archives A/49714, letter 9436 of 1889.</ref>

=== Blackbirding ===
{{Further information|Blackbirding#Queensland}}
Tens of thousands of [[South Sea Islanders]] were forced, deceived or coerced into [[indentured servitude]] and slavery on Australia's agricultural plantations. This process was known as blackbirding.<ref name="Mortensen 2000">Mortensen, Reid, 2000. "Slaving in Australian courts: Blackbirding cases, 1869-1871." ''Journal of South Pacific Law'', 4, pp.7-37: "Between 1863 and 1904, over 62,000 people from the Melanesian archipelagos provided the colony of Queensland with indentured labour for its emerging agricultural industries. [...] Although by the latter nineteenth century, abolitionism had ended both the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in European colonies, indentured labourers (or ''libres engagés'') were sought as an alternative: working under limited term contracts and wages but otherwise, on occasion, similar conditions to the slaves."</ref><ref name="McDonald 2023">McDonald, Willa, 2023. "Blackbirding, Subjectivity and the Unseeing 'I'." ''Literary Journalism in Colonial Australia'', pp. 189-216. Cham: Springer International Publishing: "Whether or not the Pacific Island labour trade was a form of slavery is still being debated in Australia. On the one hand, unlike slavery, the indenture contracts were of limited duration, the Islanders were paid, and the rights of the plantation owners over the labourers were extensive 
but not absolute. [...] As Brooke Kroeger says, the blackbirding trade, if not slavery itself, was at least slavery's 'just-as-evil twin'."</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22275598 |title=General news |newspaper=[[The Queenslander]] |date=9 November 1907 |access-date=5 July 2019 |page=32 |via=Trove |archive-date=24 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201224003143/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22275598 |url-status=live }}</ref> This trade in what were then known as [[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanakas]] was in operation from 1863 to 1908, a period of 45 years. Some 55,000 to 62,500 were brought to Australia,  most being recruited or blackbirded from islands in [[Melanesia]], such as the [[New Hebrides]] (now [[Vanuatu]]), the [[Solomon Islands]] and the islands around [[New Guinea]].<ref name="AHRC">Tracey Flanagan, Meredith Wilkie, and Susanna Iuliano. [http://www.hreoc.gov.au/racial_discrimination/forum/Erace/south_sea.html "Australian South Sea Islanders: A Century of Race Discrimination under Australian Law"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314080249/http://www.hreoc.gov.au/racial_discrimination/forum/Erace/south_sea.html|date=14 March 2011}}, Australian Human Rights Commission.</ref>
[[File:Australian South Sea Islander cane cutters on a sugar cane plantation in Queensland (9205204184).jpg|alt=South Sea Islander men standing in front of a row of sugarcane.|thumb|Blackbirded South Sea Islanders on a [[Sugarcane]] plantation in Queensland.]]
The majority of those taken were male and around one quarter were under the age of sixteen.<ref>{{Citation |author1=Corris, Peter |title=Passage, port and plantation: a history of Solomon Islands labour migration, 1870–1914 |date=2013-12-13 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/188267294 |type=Thesis |access-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727000253/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/188267294 |url-status=live |archive-date=27 July 2020}}</ref> In total, approximately 15,000 South Sea Islanders (30%) died while labouring in Queensland – excluding those who died in transit or were killed in the recruitment process – mostly during three-year contracts.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McKinnon |first1=Alex |date=July 2019 |title=Blackbirds, Australia had a slave trade? |page=44 |newspaper=[[The Monthly]]}}</ref> This is similar to the estimated 33% death rate among enslaved Africans in the first three years of arriving in America,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ray |first1=K.M. |title=Life Expectancy and Mortality rates |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/life-expectancy-and-mortality-rates |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705070912/https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/life-expectancy-and-mortality-rates |archive-date=5 July 2019 |access-date=5 July 2019 |website=Encyclopedia.com |publisher=Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America}}</ref> Brazil, and the Caribbean; the conditions were often comparable to those of the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref name="McDonald 2023" /><ref name="Mortensen 2000" />

The trade was legally sanctioned and regulated under Queensland law, and prominent men such as Robert Towns made massive fortunes through blackbirding, helping to establish some of the major cities in Queensland today.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sparrow |first=Jeff |date=2022-08-04 |title=Friday essay: a slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism |url=http://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-slave-state-how-blackbirding-in-colonial-australia-created-a-legacy-of-racism-187782 |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=The Conversation |language=en |archive-date=27 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827144739/http://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-slave-state-how-blackbirding-in-colonial-australia-created-a-legacy-of-racism-187782 |url-status=live }}</ref> Towns' agent claimed that blackbirded labourers were "savages who did not know the use of money" and therefore did not deserve cash wages.<ref>{{cite news |date=20 March 1871 |title=A fair thing for the Polynesians |page=7 |newspaper=[[The Brisbane Courier]] |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1300671 |access-date=1 June 2019 |via=Trove}}</ref>

Following Federation in 1901, the [[White Australia policy]] came into effect, which saw most foreign workers in Australia deported under the ''[[Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901]]'', which saw the Pacific Islander population of the state decrease rapidly.<ref>{{cite web |title=Documenting Democracy |url=https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026225820/https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?sdID=86 |archive-date=26 October 2009 |access-date=4 August 2010 |publisher=Foundingdocs.gov.au}}</ref>

===Independent governance===
[[File:StateLibQld 2 93580 Parade of troops in Queen Street, Brisbane, March, 1900.jpg|thumb|Parade of troops in Brisbane, prior to departure for the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]] in South Africa]]
[[File:Groupe de Kanakas dans une exploitation de canne à sucre du Queensland.jpg|thumb|[[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanaka workers]] in a sugar cane plantation, late 19th century]]
A public meeting was held in 1851 to consider the proposed [[separation of Queensland]] from New South Wales. On 6 June 1859, Queen Victoria signed letters patent<ref>{{cite web|title=Documenting Democracy|url=https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-60.html|access-date=27 November 2021|website=[[Museum of Australian Democracy]]|archive-date=3 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303143343/https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-60.html|url-status=live}}</ref> to form the separate colony of Queensland as a [[self-governing colony|self-governing]] [[Crown colony]] with [[responsible government]]. [[Brisbane]] was selected as the capital city. On 10 December 1859, a proclamation was read by [[George Bowen]], the first [[Governor of Queensland]], formally establishing Queensland as a separate colony from New South Wales.<ref name="q150">{{cite web|url=https://www.osr.qld.gov.au/historical-information/revenue-history-timeline/static-timeline.shtml|title=Q150 Timeline|publisher=Queensland Treasury|access-date=28 October 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903032933/https://www.osr.qld.gov.au/historical-information/revenue-history-timeline/static-timeline.shtml|archive-date=3 September 2011}}</ref> On 22 May 1860 the first Queensland election was held and [[Robert Herbert]], Bowen's private secretary, was appointed as the first [[Premier of Queensland]].

In 1865, the first rail line in the state opened between [[Ipswich, Queensland|Ipswich]] and [[Grandchester]]. Queensland's economy expanded rapidly in 1867 after James Nash discovered gold on the [[Mary River (Queensland)|Mary River]] near the town of [[Gympie]], sparking a gold rush and saving the Colony of Queensland from near economic collapse. While still significant, they were on a much smaller scale than the gold rushes of Victoria and New South Wales.

Immigration to Australia and Queensland, in particular, began in the 1850s to support the state economy. During the period from the 1860s until the early 20th century, many labourers, known at the time as [[Kanakas]], were brought to Queensland from neighbouring Pacific Island nations to work in the state's sugar cane fields. Some of these people had been kidnapped under a process known as [[blackbirding]] or press-ganging, and their employment conditions constituted an allegedly exploitative form of indentured labour. [[Italian Australians|Italian immigrants]] entered the sugar cane industry from the 1890s.<ref>{{cite book|first=John|last=Rickard|title=Australia: A Cultural History|year=2017|pages=173|publisher=Monash University |isbn=978-1-921867-60-6}}</ref>

During the 1890s, the six Australian colonies, including Queensland, held a series of referendums which culminated in the [[Federation of Australia]] on 1 January 1901. During this time, Queensland had a population of half a million people. Since then, Queensland has remained a [[federated state]] within Australia, and its population has significantly grown.

===20th century===
[[File:StateLibQld 1 114168 Returned World War Two soldiers march in Queen Street, Brisbane, 1944.jpg|thumb|Returned World War II soldiers march in Queen Street, Brisbane, 1944]]

In 1905 women voted in state elections for the first time. The state's first university, the [[University of Queensland]], was established in Brisbane in 1909. In 1911, the first alternative treatments for polio were pioneered in Queensland and remain in use across the world today.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Patrick |first1=Ross |title=Kenny, Elizabeth (1880–1952) |chapter=Elizabeth Kenny (1880–1952) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kenny-elizabeth-6934 |encyclopedia=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=1 January 2023 |archive-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220117014457/https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kenny-elizabeth-6934 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[World War I]] had a [[Queensland in World War I|major impact on Queensland]]. Over 58,000 Queenslanders fought in World War I and over 10,000 of them died.<ref>{{cite web|title=Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages World War One commemorative death certificates {{!}} Queensland's World War 1 Centenary |url=https://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/ww1/2015/04/02/queensland-registry-of-births-deaths-and-marriages-world-war-one-commemorative-death-certificates/ |website=blogs.slq.qld.gov.au |access-date=20 January 2016|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203144252/https://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/ww1/2015/04/02/queensland-registry-of-births-deaths-and-marriages-world-war-one-commemorative-death-certificates/ |archive-date=3 February 2016 }}</ref>

Australia's first major airline, [[Qantas]] (originally standing for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services"), was founded in [[Winton, Queensland|Winton]] in 1920 to serve outback Queensland.

In 1922 Queensland abolished the [[Queensland Legislative Council]], becoming the only Australian state with a [[unicameral legislature|unicameral]] [[Parliaments of the Australian states and territories|parliament]].

In 1935 [[Cane toads in Australia|cane toad]]s were deliberately introduced to Queensland from Hawaii in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the number of French's cane and greyback [[cane beetle]]s that were destroying the roots of sugar cane plants, which are integral to Queensland's economy. The toads have remained an environmental pest since that time. In 1962, the first commercial production of oil in Queensland and Australia began at [[Moonie, Queensland|Moonie]].

During [[World War II]] Brisbane became central to the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] campaign when the AMP Building (now called [[MacArthur Central]]) was used as the [[South West Pacific Area (command)#Command|South West Pacific headquarters]] for [[Douglas MacArthur|General Douglas MacArthur]], chief of the Allied Pacific forces, until his headquarters were moved to [[Jayapura|Hollandia]] in August 1944.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ausarmy/hiringsno1lofc.htm|title=Hirings Section|publisher=Australia @ War|author=Peter Dunn|date=2 March 2005|access-date=7 January 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012165321/https://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ausarmy/hiringsno1lofc.htm|archive-date=12 October 2007}}</ref> In 1942, during the war, Brisbane was the site of a violent clash between visiting US military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians, which resulted in one death and hundreds of injuries. This incident became known colloquially as the [[Battle of Brisbane]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/bob.htm|title=The Battle of Brisbane&nbsp;— 26 & 27 November 1942 |publisher=Australia @ War |access-date=7 January 2008 |first=Peter |last=Dunn |date=27 August 2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080110092844/https://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/bob.htm |archive-date=10 January 2008}}</ref>

The end of World War II saw a [[Post-war immigration to Australia|wave of immigration]] from across Europe, with many more immigrants coming from [[Southern Europe|southern]] and [[Eastern Europe|eastern]] Europe than in previous decades.

In the later decades of the 20th century, the [[subtropical climate|humid subtropical climate]]—regulated by the availability of air conditioning—saw Queensland become a popular destination for migrants from interstate.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bigger Or Better?: Australia's Population Debate|last=Lowe|first=Ian|year=2012|publisher=[[University of Queensland]] Press|isbn= 9780702248078}}</ref> Since that time, Queensland has continuously seen high levels of migration from the other states and territories of Australia.

In 1966, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] became the first U.S. president to visit Queensland. During his visit, he met with Australia prime minister [[Harold Holt]].{{CN|date=July 2024}}

The end of the [[White Australia policy]] in 1973 saw the beginning of a wave of immigration from around the world, and most prominently from Asia, which continues to the present.

In 1981 the [[Great Barrier Reef]] off Queensland's northeast coast, one of the world's largest coral reef systems, was declared a [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]].

===21st century===
In 2003 Queensland adopted [[maroon]] as the state's official colour. The announcement was made as a result of an informal tradition to use maroon to represent the state in association with sporting events.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.qld.gov.au/about/how-government-works/flags-emblems-icons/state-colour | title=State colour &#124; State flags, emblems, and icons | access-date=7 December 2022 | archive-date=7 December 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207015933/https://www.qld.gov.au/about/how-government-works/flags-emblems-icons/state-colour | url-status=live }}</ref>

After three decades of record population growth, Queensland was impacted by major [[2010–2011 Queensland floods|floods between late 2010 and early 2011]], causing extensive damage and disruption across the state.<ref name="Berry">{{cite news|last=Berry|first=Petrina|title=Brisbane braces for flood peak as Queensland's flood crisis continues|url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/brisbane-braces-for-flood-peak-as-queenslands-flood/story-fn7ik8u2-1225986784487|access-date=14 January 2011|newspaper=The Courier-Mail|date=13 January 2011|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816145500/https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/brisbane-braces-for-flood-peak-as-queenslands-flood/story-fn7ik8u2-1225986784487|archive-date=16 August 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter2.htm/ |title=Brisbane floods: Up close |date=Jan 18, 2011 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=4 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712045536/https://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter2.htm |archive-date=12 July 2011}}</ref>

In 2020 Queensland was impacted by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]. Despite a [[COVID-19 pandemic in Australia|low number and abrupt decline in cases]] from April 2020 onward, [[social distancing]] requirements were implemented from March 2020 including the closure of the state borders.