Queensland State Archives has produced an explanatory note to remind residents why we celebrate Queensland Day on 6 June each year.
“It was on that day, in 1859, when Queen Victoria signed the Letters Patent to create the new colony of Queensland, separating us from the NSW,” the Archives said.
“However, it wasn’t until a proclamation of the separation was made that Queensland was born, and that proclamation was made on 10 December 1859.”
The proclamation (pictured) is held at the Archives.
The Archives said the proclamation was read to a crowd of 4,000 people — almost the entire population of Brisbane at the time — by Governor Bowen’s Acting Private Secretary, Abram Moriarty at The Deanery of St Johns in Ann Street.
“The Proclamation of Queensland’s separation from NSW and the formation of the former ‘Northern Districts’ into a new and independent colony is significant for several reasons,” the Archives said.
“It meant economic independence for this new colony; that the needs of the Northern Districts were no longer the responsibility of politicians in Sydney, and represented the final phase of settler-colony expansion in Queen Victoria’s empire.”
It makes the point that Queensland State Archives was established 100 years after Queensland was born and is the custodian of more than 200 years of Queensland history.
The Proclamation of Queensland can be viewed on the Archives website at this PS News link.
