Timeline: 252 events that have shaped Queensland
The first sitting of State Parliament, the moon landing, the 1974 floods, daylight saving trials... These are the biggest events in Queensland, Australia and the world as reported by The Courier-Mail over 175 years.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The first sitting of State Parliament, the moon landing, the 1974 floods, daylight saving trials... These are the biggest events in Queensland, Australia and the world as reported by The Courier-Mail over 175 years.
1846
Arthur Sidney Lyon starts the Moreton Bay Courier newspaper, a four-page weekly paper with a circulation of 200
1848
Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt and his party disappear after leaving the Darling Downs in an attempt to cross the continent
Explorer Edmund Kennedy is speared to death near the tip of Cape York
1851
The growing Moreton Bay Courier moves from the corner of Queen and Albert streets to larger offices on the corner of George and Charlotte streets
Gold is discovered in NSW sparking and Victoria, sparking a gold rush
1859
Queensland separates from NSW
The municipality of Brisbane is declared, named after the river on which it sits, which in turn was named after NSW governor Thomas Brisbane. The local Indigenous name for the river was Meeannjin, which has since become Maiwar
1860
Queensland Parliament sits for the first time
1861
American Civil War breaks out
1864
The first Queensland v NSW cricket match is played
1865
The Brisbane Bridge (later Victoria Bridge) becomes the river’s first road crossing
1862
Queensland’s western border is established
1861
The Moreton Bay Courier becomes The Courier and begins publishing daily
Burke and Wills disappear after crossing the continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria
1864
The Courier becomes The Brisbane Courier
The Great Fire of Brisbane destroys much of the CBD
Queensland’s first rail line opens between Ipswich and Grandchester
1865
US president Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
1867
James Nash discovers gold in Gympie, sparking a gold rush and reviving Queensland’s economic fortunes
1868
Transportation of British convicts to Australia ends
The new Parliament House opens in George St, Brisbane
1869
The Suez Canal is completed, cutting travel time to Europe
1875
SS Gothenburg sinks off Bowen with the loss of 102 lives
1876
The Ekka is first held in Brisbane
1877
The first cricket Test is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
1880
Bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne
1883
Brisbane’s Boggo Rd jail opens. Over its 109-year history it would become infamous
1885
Trams begin operating in Brisbane
1887
The Brisbane Courier moves to the corner of Queen and Edward streets
1889
The rail network between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide is completed
Sir Henry Parkes calls for the federation of the six Australian colonies at Tenterfield, NSW
Bundaberg Rum is first produced
1891
Economic depression hits Australia
Shearers’ strike erupts between unionised and non-unionised workers. The Queensland Labor Party is founded under the Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine
1893
Brisbane is inundated in a series of floods, with about 35 people killed
1895
Waltzing Matilda is first sung at Winton
Premiers of all the colonies, except Queensland and Western Australia, agree on federation proposals
1896
The ferry Pearl capsizes in the Brisbane River, with more than 40 people drowned
1899
The colony of Queensland offers troops to fight in the Boer War
1901
Australia becomes a federation, with the first parliament sitting in Melbourne and Edmund Barton becoming the first prime minister
The Immigration Restriction Act is introduced, forming the basis of the White Australia Policy
The Australian flag is flown for the first time
Queen Victoria dies
1902
Australian soldier Harry “Breaker” Morant is executed in South Africa, for shooting prisoners
1903
Queenslander Samuel Griffith becomes Australia’s first chief justice
The Wright Brothers make their first flight in the US
1905
Queensland women are granted the right to vote
1910
Magician Harry Houdini makes the first powered flight in Australia
1911
The University of Queensland opens
1912
The Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage with the loss of 1500 lives
1913
The foundation stone for the new national capital of Canberra is placed
1914
Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, leading to the outbreak of World War I
The Australian Imperial Force is raised for service overseas
The first Australian troops are killed in German New Guinea
1915
Australian soldiers land at Gallipoli on April 25, establishing a beachhead but sustaining heavy casualties. They are withdrawn in December
The Brisbane Courier begins publishing on Sunday for the first time to keep up with the WWI casualty lists
1916
Australian soldiers are in action on the Western Front for the first time, suffering appalling losses in the Battle of the Somme
Conscription is narrowly rejected in a referendum
1917
Conscription is again rejected at a referendum
Australian troops continue to be decimated on the Western Front
Light Horsemen capture the town of Beersheba from the Turks in history’s last cavalry charge
1918
AIF troops, under the command of Sir John Monash, involved in heavy and decisive fighting that finally brings WWI to an end. More than 60,000 Australians have died
1919
Australian prime minister Billy Hughes signs the treaty of Versailles. Australia gains control over New Guinea
1920
Qantas is established at Longreach
1922
Queensland beats NSW at rugby league for the first time
1927
Canberra officially becomes the national capital
1928
Bert Hinkler completes the first solo flight from Britain to Australia. Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first flight from the US to Australia
Australia and England play the first cricket Test match in Brisbane, at the Exhibition Ground. Don Bradman makes his debut
The Royal Flying Doctor Service begins in Cloncurry
1929
Wall St crashes and the Great Depression hits Australia
1930
Phar Lap wins the Melbourne Cup
1932
The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens
1933
Sir Keith Murdoch’s Herald and Weekly Times acquires The Brisbane Courier and its rival The Daily Mail and merges them, creating The Courier-Mail
Aviator Bert Hinkler dies in a crash in Italy
1935
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith disappears over the Bay of Bengal
Cane toads are introduced to control pests on sugarcane crops. They become a pest themselves
1937
The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail move into a purpose-built office in Queen street opposite the Post Office
The Dad and Dave radio series, based on the writings of Queensland’s Steele Rudd, begins
1939
Australia enters World War II after the German invasion of Poland. The Second AIF is raised
1940
Brisbane’s Story Bridge opens
1941
Australian troops repulse the Germans in North Africa in the Siege of Tobruk
Japan enters the war with surprise attacks at Pearl Harbour and in South-East Asia
1942
Singapore falls to the Japanese, with 15,000 Australians taken prisoner
US general Douglas MacArthur arrives in Brisbane to command the allied war effort in the Pacific from what would become known as MacArthur Chambers
Japan launches air raids on Darwin, Broome, Townsville and Mossman
The Japanese advance in New Guinea is halted on the Kokoda Trail
Australian troops play a key role in the decisive Battle of El Alamein in North Africa
1943
Australian hospital ship Centaur is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the southeast Queensland coast, with 268 of the 332 on board perishing. The wreck was not located until 2009
1944
Allied forces enter Nazi-occupied Europe at Normandy, France, on D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history
More than 2000 Australian and British prisoners of the Japanese die on the Sandakan Death March, the worst war crime committed against Australians
1945
Germany surrenders after a brutal land war on two fronts and a relentless bombing campaign involving thousands of Australian air crew
The US drops two atomic bombs on Japan, leading to its surrender and the end of WWII
1947
Sixteen people are killed and 38 injured when a train packed with picnickers derails between Ferny Grove and Camp Mountain stations in Brisbane’s northwest
1950
Australia sends troops to fight in the Korean War
1952
Brisbane loses its innocence as Betty Shanks, 22, is beaten to death near her home in Grange. The murder remains unsolved
Queen Elizabeth II assumes the throne at age 25 following the death of her father King George VI. She is coronated the following year
1954
Huge crowds greet the Queen and Prince Philip on the first Australian visit by a reigning monarch. It was the first of 16 visits by the Queen, the most recent in 2011
The Labor Party splits over concerns of Communist influence in the labour movement
1956
Television arrives in Australia just in time for the Olympic Games in Melbourne
1957
Slim Dusty’s Pub With No Beer, about a hotel in Ingham, Queensland, becomes the first Australian song to chart internationally
1962
A fire at Brisbane’s Paddington tram depot destroys a fifth of the fleet and hastens the demise of the city’s network, which is retired in 1969 in favour of buses
The Bruce Highway, linking Brisbane and Cairns, is completed
The Commonwealth Electoral Act gives all Indigenous Australians the right to vote at federal elections, removing restrictions in Queensland, WA and the NT
Rockhampton’s Rod Laver wins the grand slam of tennis for the first time
1963
The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail move to their current location in Campbell St, Bowen Hills.
US president John F. Kennedy is assassinated
1964
The Beatles tour Australia
The first Australian troops are sent to Vietnam
Prime minister Robert Menzies announces the reintroduction of conscription
1965
Indigenous Queenslanders gain the right to vote in Queensland
Two women chain themselves to the men-only public bar of Brisbane‘s Regatta Hotel in protest
1966
Australia adopts decimal currency
1967
The Constitution is changed to allow Indigenous Australians to be included in the census
Prime minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria
1969
Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong is the first human to set foot on the moon
More than 200,000 Australians protest against the Vietnam War
1971
Queensland senator Neville Bonner becomes Australia’s first Indigenous MP
Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen declares a state of emergency after protests surrounding South Africa’s rugby tour of Australia
Daylight saving is introduced in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA
1972
Queensland abandons daylight saving
Gough Whitlam becomes prime minister, ending Labor’s 23 years in the wilderness
Black September terrorists kill two and kidnap nine Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. The Games continues and the remaining hostages die when a rescue attempt goes wrong
1973
Fifteen people die when Brisbane’s Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub is firebombed. James Finch and John Stuart are later convicted of arson and one count of murder, but questions remain. A coronial inquest reopened this month
Ipswich infant Deidre Kennedy is abducted and murdered. Raymond John Carroll is convicted but a judge overturns the verdict
The White Australia Policy is officially dismantled
Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War ends
1974
Brisbane and southeast Queensland are again hit by floods, with 16 people killed and 8000 homes destroyed
Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters disappear from their home in Brisbane’s Highgate Hill. Their bodies are never found and it takes 40 years for their killers Garry Dubois and Vince O’Dempsey to be brought to justice
US president Richard Nixon resigns over the Watergate scandal
1975
Governor-general John Kerr dismisses the Whitlam government and appoints Malcolm Fraser as caretaker prime minister. Fraser is subsequently re-elected
Brisbane’s Riverside Expressway opens
1976
Brisbane band The Saints release their debut album and single (I’m) Stranded, credited with helping ignite the punk movement in the UK
1979
Brisbane’s first suburban electric train service runs between Darra and Ferny Grove
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is proclaimed
1980
Baby Azaria Chamberlain is taken by a dingo at Ayers Rock (now Uluru). Her mother Lindy was convicted of her murder but later pardoned when new evidence emerged
Queensland beats NSW 20-10 at Lang Park in the first State of Origin match
1981
Prince Charles weds Lady Diana Spencer at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral
Maiden flight of NASA’s first space shuttle, Columbia. In 2003 it would tragically burn up on re-entry, with all seven crew perishing
1982
The Queen Street Mall opens as Brisbane’s central pedestrian hub
Brisbane hosts the 12th Commonwealth Games
1983
Seventy-one people are killed in the Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia
Alan Bond’s Australia II wins the America’s Cup
Labor’s Bob Hawke is elected prime minister
Prince Charles and Princess Diana tour Australia
1984
Advance Australia Fair replaces God Save the Queen as the national anthem
Wivenhoe Dam is completed for the dual purpose of supplying water and mitigating flooding for the Brisbane region
A gas leak at a factory in Bhopal, India, kills thousands of nearby residents
Apple launches the Macintosh, the first commercially available personal computer with a graphical user interface
1985
Microsoft launches the first version of Windows, which brings a rudimentary GUI to IBM-compatible PCs
1986
Space shuttle Challenger explodes soon after liftoff, killing all seven on board
Sharron Phillips, 20, disappears when her car runs out of petrol on Ipswich Rd, Wacol, in Brisbane’s southwest. It remains one of the state’s biggest murder mysteries until a taxi driver’s deathbed confession is revealed in 2013
An explosion at the No.4 underground mine at Moura in central Queensland claims 12 lives
The nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the then Soviet Union melts down
Brisbane’s Gateway Bridge opens. A duplicate bridge is added in 2010
1987
Reports by The Courier-Mail and ABC detail high-level political corruption in Queensland, ultimately leading to the Fitzgerald inquiry
Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigns as premier of Queensland after a 19-year reign
The Black Tuesday stockmarket crash, the biggest since the Great Depression, strips over a fifth of the value from Wall Street and a quarter from the Australian Stock Exchange
Noosa schoolgirl Sian Kingi, 12, is abducted, raped and murdered by Barrie Watts and Valmae Beck
1985
Sallyanne Atkinson is elected Brisbane’s first female lord mayor
The Queensland Performing Arts Centre opens in South Brisbane
Southeast Queensland is besieged by rolling blackouts as the Electrical Trades Union takes strike action
1988
Australia celebrates its Bicentenary and Brisbane hosts World Expo 88
The new Parliament House opens in Canberra
The Brisbane Broncos enter the NSWRL competition
Three pedestrians are killed and eight injured when concrete panels fall from a construction site at the bottom of Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall
1989
Queensland commences a three-year trial of daylight saving
Tony Fitzgerald’s report on police corruption is released, leading to the jailing of three former ministers and the police commissioner
Wayne Goss become Queensland’s first Labor premier in 32 years
Brisbane “vampire killer” Tracey Wigginton slays council worker Edward Baldock in a West End park, supposedly to drink his blood
The Berlin Wall comes down, the beginning of the end of the Cold War
Soldiers open fire on student-led protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The official death toll is 300 but it is believed it could be in the thousands
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
1990
Eleven people are killed and 42 injured when a tour bus crashes at Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast hinterland
Iraq invades Kuwait, sparking international condemnation and UN sanctions. Australia joins the US-led Operation Desert Shield in the Persian Gulf
1991
Operation Desert Storm (aka the Gulf War) drives Iraqi forces from Kuwait
Brisbane’s modern river ferry fleet begins operating, with CityCats added in 1996
Ipswich schoolgirl Leanne Holland, 12, is beaten to death. Her sister‘s partner Graham Stafford is convicted but the verdict is overturned after he has served 14 years in prison
Modern-day desperado Harold McSweeney and three other inmates escape Brisbane’s notorious Boggo Rd jail by commandeering a rubbish truck and ramming through the gates. All are eventually recaptured, McSweeney surrendering to a Channel 7 chopper crew
1992
McSweeney is shot dead by police while attempting to hijack a Brisbane bus with a fake gun, after escaping from the nearby Supreme Court
The Brisbane Broncos win the first of six premierships. Others were to follow in 1993, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2006
South Bank Parklands opens on the former Expo 88 site
Queensland votes down daylight saving in a referendum
The High Court’s Mabo decision rules Indigenous native title does exist, destroying the concept of terra nullius
1994
Netscape’s Navigator browser begins to popularise the World Wide Web
1995
Queensland wins cricket’s Sheffield Shield for the first time
The North Queensland Cowboys enter the then Australian Rugby League
Printing of The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail relocates to a state-of-the-art facility at Murarrie on Brisbane’s bayside
1996
Australia suffers its worst massacre as Martin Bryant shoots 35 people dead and injures another 23 at Port Arthur, Tasmania
Two Black Hawk helicopters collide on an exercise near Townsville, killing 18 mainly SAS personnel
1997
Princess Diana is killed in a car crash in Paris, plunging the world into mourning
Expelled Liberal MP Pauline Hanson forms the One Nation party, which would go on to win 11 seats at the 1998 Queensland election
Logan pop duo Savage Garden (Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones) achieve the first of two No.1 singles in the US with Truly, Madly, Deeply. They repeat the success with I Knew I Loved You in 1999
The Sunday Mail Bridge to Brisbane fun run begins as the Bridge to Bay
1999
A referendum on Australia becoming a republic is unsuccessful
The Gold Coast Titans enter the National Rugby League
Australia leads an international peacekeeping operation in East Timor to quell violence by local militia
The Courier-Mail website launches
2000
Fifteen backpackers die in a hostel fire at Childers near Bundaberg. Robert Long is later convicted of several murders
The 27th Summer Olympics are held in Sydney, with Queenslander Cathy Freeman lighting the Olympic flame
2001
Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington kill 3000 people
Australian troops are sent to Afghanistan
2002
More than 200 people, including 88 Australians, are killed in the Bali bombings
2003
Australia join coalition forces in an invasion of Iraq, ousting strongman Saddam Hussein amid fears of weapons of mass destruction
Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, 12, is abducted and murdered. An elaborate police sting finally catches his killer, Brett Peter Cowan, in 2011
American honeymooner Tina Thomas dies on a diving trip off Townsville. Her husband Gabe Watson serves 18 months’ jail in Queensland for manslaughter after a plea deal. A murder trial in the US is dismissed by the judge
2004
Palm Island off Townsville is gripped by rioting after the death in custody of Indigenous man Mulrunji Doomadgee. The state later pays $30 million to settle a class action brought by island residents
A Cairns-bound tilt train derails between Bundaberg and Gladstone with 157 people on board. Remarkably no one is killed
Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby is caught smuggling 4.2kg of cannabis into Bali in a boogie board bag. She is sentenced to 20 years’ jail but is released in 2014. She has since found fame as a reality TV star and social media influencer
A tsunami in the Indian Ocean claims 230,000 mainly Indonesian lives
2005
Fifteen people die when a plane crashes into a mountain at Lockhart River in far north Queensland
Australia’s “Bali Nine”, including two men from Brisbane, are arrested with 8.3kg of heroin. Most are jailed for life, with ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran executed in 2015
The Courier-Mail changes from a broadsheet to a tabloid format
2006
Queensland’s world-famous Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin is killed on the Great Barrier Reef. The Courier-Mail leads the global coverage online and in print
2007
Queensland’s Kevin Rudd becomes prime minister, ending John Howard’s 11-year reign
Apple launches the iPhone, which would be released in Australia a year later
2008
The collapse of Lehmann Brothers amid the subprime lending fiasco accelerates the global financial crisis
A freak storm causes extensive property damage at The Gap in Brisbane’s northwest
2009
Two years after replacing Peter Beattie as Queensland Labor leader, Anna Bligh becomes Australia’s first elected female premier
The Black Saturday bushfires kill 173 people in Victoria
2010
Bundaberg Hospital surgeon Jayant Patel is convicted and jailed for the manslaughter of three patients and grievous bodily harm of a fourth. The charges are later overturned but he is banned from practising in Queensland
The Go Between Bridge opens, named for the popular Brisbane band and linking Milton with South Brisbane across the river
Apple launches the iPad
The Courier-Mail tablet app launches
2011
Flooding in southeast Queensland inundates towns and cities and kills 36 people. The Lockyer Valley is devastated and entire suburbs in Brisbane go under
Cyclone Yasi, the biggest storm in Queensland’s history, causes $100 million worth of damage
A tsunami triggers a meltdown at the Japanese nuclear reactor at Fukushima
The Courier-Mail website is optimised for smartphones
2012
Former Brisbane lord mayor Campbell Newman is elected premier with a massive majority - which he loses three years later after a controversial reign
Allison Baden-Clay goes missing from her home in Brisbane’s west. Her body is later found and her husband Gerard tried and convicted of her murder
2013
Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall is locked down as police negotiate with a gunman. He is eventually subdued with non-lethal rounds
2014
A ring of steel encircles Brisbane as it hosts the G20 summit, with world leaders including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
New Zealand woman Warriena Wright falls to her death from the Gold Coast balcony of Gable Tostee in a Tinder date gone wrong. Tostee is later acquitted of her murder or manslaughter
The Gold Coast light rail begins operation. It now runs from Helensvale to Broadbeach South, with plans to eventually extend it to Coolangatta and Gold Coast Airport
A Cairns woman kills seven of her children and their cousin. She is later found unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds
Lone gunman Man Haron Monis takes 18 hostages at Sydney‘s Lindt Cafe. He executes the cafe manager and another hostage is killed when police storm the premises
The Courier-Mail smartphone app launches
2015
Thanks to a Johnathan Thurston field goal, the North Queensland Cowboys beat the Brisbane Broncos in the first all-Queensland NRL Grand Final
2016
News Corp Australia acquires Australian Regional Media (now News Regional Media), adding dozens more local mastheads to its Queensland operations
2017
Same-sex marriage is legalised after a plebiscite
2018
The 16th Commonwealth Games are held on the Gold Coast
Toyah Cordingley is bashed to death on an isolated beach north of Cairns. The prime suspect, am Innisfail nurse, returns to his home country of India and is still being sought by authorities
Construction begins on Brisbane’s $2 billion Queen’s Wharf development, estimated to be completed in 2022
The Brisbane Broncos win the inaugural NRLW premiership
2019
Major works begin on Brisbane’s $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project. It is estimated to be completed by 2024
Bushfires in every state and territory destroy 2600 homes and kill 34 people
Townsville is devastated by flooding
Australian Brenton Tarrant kills 51 people in a shooting spree at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand
2020
Queensland’s first Covid-19 case is detected, a Chinese national on the Gold Coast
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announces a national lockdown to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer orders a series of lockdowns and border closures to keep the pandemic at bay
2021
Brisbane emerges as frontrunner to host the 2032 Olympics
NRM mastheads begin migrating to the Courier-Mail website
Read related topics:Courier Mail 175 year anniversary