Queensland

“ Queensland, if you go but the smallest distance away from them, is the unconquered wild; the land where the blacks still signal with fires; where the forests smoulder and blaze for days in the burning sun; a land where it is possible still to be an explorer. ”

“ Nature is a tender foster-mother; freedom is in the air. Stalwart in frame, courageous in heart, true scions of the race from which they spring, rejoicing in their manhood, grateful for their heritage, the yeomen of Queensland are the pride of their country. ”

“ Leichhardt’s journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington furnished the first knowledge we had of the capabilities of North Queensland. It was the turning of its first leaf of history, for his journey was for the greater part through the territory now comprised within its boundaries. The record of his trials, hardships, and endurance, will stand unequalled among all histories of explorations in any part of Australia. ”

“ It is well to realise that we have such bountiful land, and to be proud of the men capable of investing its vastness, monotony and prosaic wealth with poetic imagery. Is it not also wise to remember now aagain that Queensland possesses two types of tropical climate, accentuated by boundaries having far great significance than those which divide tropical from temperate Australia, and worlds apart in their distinctions? Is not the land of the banana, the palm and the cedar, entitled to recognition, as well as the land of the gidyea, the boree, and the bottle-tree? ”

“ In Queensland alone, many western landholders—shrewd, hard-headed, business men—have reason to be thankful that they secured the services of a genuine and expert diviner, whose "magic wand" quickly disclosed the whereabouts of sub-artesian water. Thus, it has happened as a result of the diviner's visit that a bore is driven, and presently by means of a wind-mill, or oil pump, a sparkling stream is brought from the vast caverns which have held it prisoner, turning the oft-times dreary waste into a smiling, life-giving oasis. ”

“ Queensland has grown out of nothing (from the point of view of civilisation) to a fair stature of importance. Fifty years is the sum of its existence as a self-governing State, but within that brief period the country has been reclaimed from the wilderness, and made the home of a happy, progressive, and enlightened people. ”

“ Queensland is a good land for the intending fruit-grower. We offer you good soil, a choice of climates, suitable for the growing of practically every kind of commercial fruit, a healthy climate to live in, cheap land, free education for your children, and free advice from competent experts for yourselves. This is a country that has not been advertised or puffed up; that is, in consequence, not by any means well known; but it is a country that, taken all in all, will take a lot of beating when one is looking out for a home. ”

“ Politicians to whose loud and profane voices electors listen, have declared that North Queensland shall become a desolate and silent wilderness, rather than that their views shall be gainsaid. Do such as these reflect that North Queensland is a fruitful country, capable of producing food and immense wealth, and giving employment to millions, and that other nations will not stand idly by and see the worth of so much land wasted because of the vanity of men who do not, and who apparently will not, endeavour to comprehend the magnificence of its extent and the width of its capabilities. ”

“ Queensland measures thirteen hundred miles from north to south, and is about eight hundred miles in width, containing a population at the present time of three hundred and forty thousand. The climate may be compared to that of Madeira, and it is entirely free from the hot winds which sometimes render Sydney and Melbourne so uncomfortable. Leaving out West Australia, which is yet so little developed, the country may be divided thus: Queensland is the best and most extensive grazing section; in this respect New South Wales comes next. ”

“ On 12th April, 1862, the Duke of Newcastle advised Governor Bowen that Letters Patent, of which a copy was enclosed, had been issued annexing to Queensland the following territory—namely, "so much of our colony of New South Wales as lies to the northward of the 21st parallel of south latitude, and between the 141st and 138th meridians of east longitude, together with all and every the adjacent islands, their members and appurtenances in the Gulf of Carpentaria." ”

“ There is this difference between the youngest University in the Empire and the oldest: Oxford was established by a King; the University of Queensland is established by the People. (Hear, hear.) Queensland is democratic not only in her political institutions: she is democratic in heart and sentiment; and the desire of our people for a University is simply the desire that Queensland may be an educated democracy—the safest, the strongest, and the happiest community in which men can live. ”

“ Queensland has an area, which—shall I say?—is three times greater than the German Empire. (Laughter and cheers.) It has a soil which can produce anything. It has vast mineral resources. In a generation its population has increased fifteen-fold. It has already a revenue of three or four millions sterling. It has completed 2500 miles of railway. It has exports valued at ten millions sterling, all of them, except a small fraction, coming to the United Kingdom or to some of the British possessions. ”

“ The large remainder of North Australia, to the eastward, falls in the meantime naturally into Queensland, whose colonists, after the galloping fashion of pastoral settlement in Australia, have already advanced their squatting outposts beyond Port Denison, in latitude 20°, and the mouth of the Burdekin in latitude 19°—places unknown to the world within the last three years. ”

“ I deem it a fortunate circumstance that, a few days after my arrival in Brisbane, I should have the privilege of participating in a ceremonial for the establishment of "The University of Queensland," of taking part in a State function of historical and of great social and economic importance.
We live in an age of more rapid progress than any that has ever preceded our own day: and for my part I am prepared to believe that we owe to education the enormous advances in recent years in health, wealth, and in the amenities and comforts of life. ”

“ In face of the comparatively small amount of good agricultural country known to exist in Australia, the disproportionate size of the great cities shows out more clearly than ever. Even Melbourne, when it comes to be examined, has too much the air of a magnified Hobart, of a city with no country at its back, of a steam-hammer set up to crack nuts. Queensland is at present free from the burden of gigantic cities, but then Queensland is in greater danger of becoming what is in reality a slave republic. ”

“ In the old days ships bound for Australia used to stop for water at the place of Napoleon’s exile and the outgoing colonists provided themselves with willow cuttings to be planted in their new homes.
Queensland’s great need is more people. In this huge state, capable of supporting a population of many millions, there are less than eight hundred thousand, or only about one person to every square mile. ”

“ From this time we were in Western Queensland, as it is called, the great rich pasturage, where millions of sheep wander about, and we were soon aware that we had come within the confines of the squatters. One can scarcely imagine a more characteristic picture of Australian bush-life than the sight of a wool-waggon approaching from the distance. Eighteen or twenty strong oxen in the scorching heat, their tongues far out of their mouths, laboriously drag a heavy waggon loaded with bales of wool. ”

“ Fifty years ago a handful of settlers, not quite 24,000 in number, claimed and obtained the right to manage their own affairs; and the British Government, in granting that right, virtually handed over to those few pioneers the ownership of this vast territory now called Queensland—a territory exceeding in area the combined areas of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. ”

“ I am afraid that there is a very general impression that Queensland has a climate that is only suitable for a coloured race; that it is either in the condition of a burnt-up desert or is being flooded out. That it is a country of droughts and floods, a country of extremes—in fact, a very desirable place to live out of. ”

“ BLEAKLEY.—I am satisfied that the problems of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland are similar, but probably different altogether from those of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. I do not think that members of the Conference have exactly grasped what we have in prospect in Queensland. We have a full-blooded aboriginal population of about 10,000, of which, say, one-third, or, at the most, 4,000 are living a nomadic life. ”

“ The story of North Queensland’s childhood is simply one of gradual discovery and advancing settlement from the Southern districts, where the same severe course of wresting the land from uselessness [Pg 3] and sterility had been gone through. The source of this movement may be traced chiefly to a desire for pastoral extension by squatters, always on the move for new pastures, and to the ever roving prospector in search of fresh mineral discoveries.
First the navigator outlines the coast with its bays and islands and openings for ports; such were Cook, Flinders, Stokes, and others. ”

“ The pioneers of Australian civilisation in the territory known as North Queensland have mostly passed away; they were too busy with other activities and interests and more absorbing local topics to make notes of the days that are gone. ”

“ Although Queensland herself had little or no territory within her own borders left to explore, the energy and enterprise of her pioneers led to many private explorations being organized across the border into the colony of South Australia, or rather into the northern territory of that colony. ”

“ It is needless to dwell on the history of the dark days of bondage and weakly infancy, which has little to do with the early days of settlement in North Queensland, except to show the starting point. The North is free from the stain and drag of convictism. The real life of the colony began with the first days [Pg 6] of free settlers, then immigrants poured in rapidly, and the occupation of the interior advanced. With this strong growth of material progress, came also the desire for self-government, and separation from New South Wales. ”

“ Were it not for the pride of race that everywhere shows itself in the acts of English settlers, there might be a bright side to the political future of Queensland colony. The colored laborers at present introduced, industrious Tongans, and active Hill-coolies from Hindostan, laborious, sober, and free from superstition, should not only be able to advance the commercial fortunes of Queensland as they have those of the Mauritius, but eventually to take an equal share in free government with their white employers. ”

“ With his earnings he paid his rent and improved his land. It was men of this stamp who built up the great agricultural industry of Southern Queensland, and they and their descendants of the second and third generations are the very cream of the farmers of to-day. It is to a similar class of settlers in the sugar districts and their hinterland that we look for the proper settlement and development of our tropical lands. And in our aspirations for a great white agricultural population we are entitled to expect the sympathetic assistance of our kinsmen in the South and of the Empire at large. ”

“ The advantages of settlement in Queensland were so apparent to at least one member of the party that he simply could not understand why thousands were not annually killed in the rush to get to this, "the greatest of all the Australian States." ”

“ The assertion by the Queensland authorities that there are 50,000 aborigines in that state is a crude estimate, and may be far wide of the truth. In South Australia and the Northern Territory a large number are outside the bounds of settlement, and it is probable that they are as numerous there as in Queensland. ”

“ My recent journey extended through those districts of Queensland, which have been longest settled and are mostly thickly inhabited. I was everywhere received with cordial hospitality by the principal settlers, and with loyal enthusiasm by all classes of the community. The numerous cavalcades of hundreds of well-mounted horsemen, which came forth to meet and escort the first representative of their Sovereign, presented spectacles such as can be exhibited in only two countries in the world—in England and in Australia. ”

“ Queensland, with a huge area of 670,500 square miles and a scant population of little more than half a million of people, has a hundred proclaimed gold, mineral, and coal fields, having a combined area of about 50,000,000 acres. ”

“ What more interesting than that the chief figure in the ceremonial should be Sir William MacGregor, himself a great witness to the value of university training, a distinguished servant of the Empire, one of the select band of Empire builders who have united ripe scholarship with tireless energy and firm grasp of national business and the ways of the world? It was a singularly happy circumstance that this was his first important public act as Governor of Queensland. But a few days before he had taken over the reins of government from the hands of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Arthur Morgan. ”