Research examines Queensland's loss and foundation
University of Queensland research in the lead-up to the centenary of Federation in 2001 has uncovered a startling fact - Queensland has lost its birth certificate.
According to the History Department's Associate Professor Clive Moore, the Letters Patent or authority from Queen Victoria for Moreton Bay to be transformed into the Colony of Queensland have disappeared. "Copies exist but the original has vanished," he said.
The Letters Patent are one of eight founding documents selected by a team of four University of Queensland researchers for a special Centenary of Federation web site operational by the end of 1999.
Significant documents relating to the founding of the Australian colonies and the Commonwealth are being released from protective storage around Australia, digitally photographed and mounted on to the site. The project is part of the Federal Government's $10 million Centenary of Foundation History and Education Program.
"The University of Queensland has been at the forefront of Federation-related studies with our research integral to raising awareness of the importance of founding documents and other historical developments to the Queensland we live in today," Dr Moore said.
Dr Moore, Associate Professors Raymond Evans and Kay Saunders and research assistant Bryan Jamison have already published 1901: Our Future's Past (Pan MacMillan), expected to become the official historical reference for centennial celebrations. This project was funded by a $12,000 National Australia Day Council (1996-97) grant.
"The centenary of Federation is the celebration of several colonies uniting as one nation. Just because it wasn't achieved by revolution or civil war doesn't mean it was an easy process. Australians shouldn't be any less proud of Federation because no blood was spilled. Someone described the final agreement as being produced by a ?series of miracles' and many of the rivalries present at the many Federation Conferences are still evident today at the annual Premiers' Conferences. The documents we selected concern Queensland's legal and constitutional development, its boundaries and how these boundaries expanded and the civil processes which created the modern State," Dr Moore said.
The documents include: the Queensland Coast Islands Act of 1879 extending Queensland's territorial waters from a three-mile limit off the coast to include all the islands of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait; the Constitution Act Amendment Act of 1922 removing Queensland's legislative council; and the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897.
For more information, contact Associate Professor Clive Moore (telephone 07 3365 6337 or 0419 676 123).
