Old Qld Poetry Timeline

This is a broad guide to the major political and social events in the 100 years in Queensland following separation from NSW, and some of the events in Queensland poetry that accompanied them.

1859

1859

Qld (white pop 23,500) separates from NSW
Chubb, Ode to Governor Bowen

1859

1860

1860

Robert Herbert 1st premier

1861

1861

Brisbane Courier founded (formerly Moreton Bay Courier)

1861

1863

1863

First Kanaka labour

1865

1865

AG Stephens (Bulletin Red Page) born

1865

1866

1866

The Queenslander published (1866-1939)

James Brunton Stephens arrives in Qld

1867

1867

Gold rush at Gympie

1867

1869

1869

TB Christie, Poems and Songs, Forbes, Voices from the Bush

1870

1870

Free education introduced

Vowles, Sunbeams in Queensland

1870

1871

1871

Brunton Stephens, Convict Once

1872

1872

Adult white male suffrage, Brisbane Telegraph

Mabel Forrest born

1872

1873

1873

Palmer River Gold Rush

Midgley, Helen Young

1875

1875

Compulsory education, leaving age 12

Alice Guerin Crist born

1875

1877

1877

Brunton Stephens, Dominion of Australia, O'Doherty, Poems

1880

1880

Sugar Cane introduced to Innisfail

1880

1881

1881

Chubb, Fugitive Pieces

1882

1882

1882

1883

1883

Population 250,000, Sir Samuel Griffith Premier(1883-88)

G. Essex Evans arrives in Australia, William Baylebridge born

1885

1885

NSW sends troops to the Sudan

Foott, Where the Pelican Builds

1885

1886

1886

Electricity connected, Parliament House

1887

1887

1888

1888

Dunn, Autumn Leaves

1890

1890

First Federation Conference

Zora Cross, James Devaney born

1890

1891

1891

Great Shearer's strike, Labour Party founded

Essex Evans, Repentance of Magdalene Despar

1892

1892

Preferential voting introduced in Qld

1892

1893

1893

Major flooding in Brisbane

Maurice Little born

1894

1894

Knight, One People, One Destiny, Paul Grano born

1894

1895

1895

Kenna, Songs of a Season

1896

1896

AG Stephens founds Bulletin Red Page, Brisbane’s 1st cinema opens

Paula Fitzgerald born

1896

1897

1897

Aboriginal Protection Act

Bayldon, Poems

1898

1898

Samuel Griffith Two Stories from Dante, Colin Bingham born

1898

1899

1899

Dawson Premier, 1st Labour Government (6 days)

E.M. England born

1900

1900

Bubonic Plague at Townsville

1900

1901

1901

Federation, Qld pop 500,000, White Australia Policy

Moynihan The Feast of the Bunya

1902

1902

Brisbane proclaimed a city

Brunton Stephens dies, Mathew, Australian Echoes

1902

1903

1903

Samuel Griffith, First Chief Justice, High Court

1904

1904

Cherbourg Aboriginal community established

Edgar Holt born

1904

1905

1905

Female suffrage

Favenc, Voices of the Desert, Martin Haley born

1907

1907

Kanakas cease to be imported

1907

1908

1908

Blocksidge (Baylebridge), Songs o' the South

1909

1909

Valleys win 1st Brisbane Rugby league premiership

Forrest, Alpha Centauri, Essex Evans dies

1909

1910

1910

Frank C. Francis moves to Queensland

1911

1911

University of Queensland established

CB Christesen (Meanjin) born

1911

1912

1912

School leaving age raised to 14

JJ Stable appointed to University of Queensland

1913

1913

John Blight born

1913

1914

1914

World War 1 (1914-1918)

Coungeau, Stella Australis

1915

1915

Gallipoli, State Labor Gov't (1915-29)

Mona Brand born

1915

1916

1916

Conscription Referenda (1916 and 1917)

Cross, A Song of Mother Love, June Saunders born

1917

1917

Electric lighting to Brisbane Streets

Gore Jones Troop Trains

1917

1918

1918

Armistice

Garry Lyle born

1919

1919

Spanish influenza outbreak

Austen, The Young Gods

Rabbets, Whimplin Whimsies

1919

1920

1920

Qantas est'd, first flights Charleville-Cloncurry

Gwen Harwood born

1921

1921

Queensland Authors and Artists Ass'n founded, Peter Miles born

1921

1922

1922

Qld abolishes upper house and capital punishment!

James Devaney arrives in Queensland

1923

1923

Silver and lead discovered at Mt Isa

Bulcock, Jacaranda Blooms

Little, Poems and Sonnet

1923

1924

1924

Stable and Kirwood, A Book of Queensland Verse, O'Neil, Dinkum Aussie

1925

1925

Brisbane City C'cil est'd, 1st Qld Radio Station

Bingham, Marcinelle

1925

1926

1926

Queensland enters Sheffield Shield

1927

1927

Crist, When Rody came to Ironbark, England, The Happy Monarch

1927

1928

1928

First cricket test in Brisbane, Bert Hinkler solo flight

1929

1929

Great depression, Moore (C'try Party) Premier (-32)

Peter Porter born

1929

1930

1930

Devaney, Earth Kindred

Kellow, Queensland Poets

1932

1932

Labor in power (1932-57)

Holt, Lilacs out of the Dead Land

1932

1933

1933

Courier Mail established

1934

1934

Experimental TV broadcast, Brisbane/Ipswich

David Malouf born

1934

1935

1935

Cane Toad introduced

Sweeney, Original Verse

1936

1936

Catholic Poetry Society, Lack, Fields of Amaranth

1936

1938

1938

Queensland population 1,000,000

1939

1939

World War II (1939-1945)

O'Dwyer Poems, Saunders, June

1939

1940

1940

Story Bridge opens, Brisbane

Meanjin Papers founded (CB Christesen)

1941

1941

Fitzgerald, The Singing Tree

1941

1942

1942

US forces arrive in Brisbane, Battle of Brisbane

1943

1943

Truebridge (Vrepont), Beyond the Claw, Barjai, (1943-7)

1943

1944

1944

Fred Patterson (Communist) elected to Parliament 1944

Judith Wright moves to Queensland

1945

1945

Peace with Germany, Japan

Blight, The Old Pianist
Grano, Poems Old and New

1945

1946

1946

Wright, The Moving Image

1947

1947

Joh Bjelke Peterson elected to Parliament

Vallis, Songs of the East Coast

1947

1948

1948

Violent railway strikes

Manifold, Selected Verse

1949

1949

Kennedy, Cyclone

1949

1950

1950

Australian Troops to Korea (1950-1953)

1953

1953

Picot, With a Hawk's Quill, Hornibrook, Bibliography

1953

1954

1954

Petrov affair

Rowbotham, Ploughman and Poet

1955

1955

Bauxite discovered at Weipa

1955

1957

1957

Labor party split, Coalition Government (1957-1989)

Collinson, The Moods of Love

1959

1959

Wally Lewis born, Television begins in Brisbane

Byrnes and Vallis, Qld Centenary Anthology

1959

1960

1960

Queensland population 1,500,000

[1] Images marked with * courtesy State Library of Queensland, all others from author’s collection.

Moreton Bay Settlement, 1835 [1]
Kanaka Labourers, Herbert River*
Kanaka Labourers, Herbert River*
James Nash found Gympie gold*
Alice Guerin Crist*
Eva O’Doherty
Sir Samuel Griffith: Premier, Judge, Poet*
John Knight
Francis Kenna
Federation Day, Townsville, 1901*
Mabel Forrest
Geo. Essex Evans
Recruitment Parade, Rockhampton, First World War*
Bert Hinkler arrives at Bundaberg*
Emily Bulcock*
Experimental TV broadcast, Brisbane*
Clem Lack*
June Saunders
Building an air raid shelter, Brisbane 1942*
Police confront striking rail workers, 1948*
Victor Kennedy*
Peter Miles*

Poems by Theme