Made in Queensland

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Tags: Arts, books, history, UQP, winter-2009

A crowd of maroon-faced fans cheering on their favourite footballers and skimpily clad bodies basking in the Queensland sun are just some of the iconic images captured in the newly-released UQP title Made in Queensland: A New History.

The cover of Made in Queensland

Made In Queensland coincides with the state’s Q150 celebrations and is the work of historians Professor Ross Fitzgerald, Dr Lyndon Megarrity and David Symons.

The book details the state’s separation from New South Wales in 1859, its mining and tourism industries, changes in technology, the evolution of the arts and its shifting political landscape.

It canvasses the impact of the World Wars on the Queensland people, and the importance of the 1982 Commonwealth Games and Expo 88 in showcasing the state to the world.

Professor Fitzgerald said one of the many things that intrigued him about writing the history was how much Queensland had changed culturally, politically and socially since the Commonwealth Games, and especially since Tony Fitzgerald’s pathbreaking report into police and political corruption.

“Queensland is no longer seen as the ‘hillbilly’ state and on the periphery of Australia. It is central to political and economical change,” he said.

As historian David Symons believes, some of the state’s greatest achievements belong to Queenslanders themselves.

“Being able to settle in some inhospitable terrain, and succeed, is testament to the character of Queenslanders,” he said.

The book was published through the support of UQ’s Fryer Library, John Oxley Library, Queensland State Archives and Queensland Art Gallery, as well as the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and picture archivists at The Courier-Mail.

By Eliza Plant

Made in Queensland, University of Queensland Press, RRP $45

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