European settlement of Queensland began in 1824 when Lieutenant
Henry Miller, commanding a detachment of the
40th Regiment of Foot, founded a convict outpost at
Redcliffe. The settlement was transferred to the north bank of the
Brisbane River the following year and continued to operate as a penal establishment until 1842, when the remaining convicts were withdrawn and the district opened to free settlement. By then squatters had already established themselves on the
Darling Downs, far distant from the seat of the
New South Wales government in
Sydney. Agitation soon commenced for the creation of a separate northern colony which could look after local interests, with the clamour being no less apparent in the fledgling township of
Brisbane. In the vanguard of those seeking representative government was the Reverend
John Dunmore Lang, representative for Moreton Bay in the
New South Wales Legislative Council. Lang's call for the creation of a northern colony in 1844 was defeated in the Council by 26 votes to seven, and matters were held in abeyance until 1850 when the
British Parliament passed the
Australian Colonies Government Act, which enabled the creation of new Australian colonies with a similar form of government to New South Wales. In other words, they would have a bicameral parliament watched over by a vice-regal representative. Importantly, specifically mentioned were
Port Phillip and
Moreton Bay as districts which were likely to become colonies in the foreseeable future. The Act inspired Lang to renewed efforts, and between 1851 and 1854 he held nine meetings to gain further support for separation. He was, in fact, preaching to the converted as the inhabitants of the northern district had been increasingly neglected by the government in Sydney. the border was fixed at
28 degrees south. The following month, unofficial news was received that the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, had appointed Sir
George Bowen to be the colony's first
Governor of Queensland. Bowen had recently served as Britain's
Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands near Greece, and was to have a distinguished career in the Colonial Office. While both the Letters Patent and the Order-in-Council appointing Bowen as Governor were duly published by the New South Wales Government, separation could not be accomplished until the Letters Patent had also been published in Queensland. As Governor Bowen was due to arrive on 6 December 1859 with the Letters Patent formally proclaiming the new colony, a reception committee was organised as early as September to arrange the celebrations. They were then conveyed by carriage to the temporary
Government House, a building which now serves as the deanery of
St John's Cathedral. After ascending to the balcony, the resident Supreme Court Judge, Justice
Alfred Lutwyche administered Governor Bowen's oath, after which the Queen's Commission was read to the assembled throng by the newly appointed Colonial Secretary,
Robert Herbert. The formalities concluded with the proclamation of the Letters Patent being read by Governor Bowen's acting private secretary,
Abram Moriarty, who was to become the new colony's first civil servant after being appointed Under Colonial Secretary on 15 December 1859. In Queensland's first parliament, there was little evidence of the party politics, which would not begin to emerge until the second elections were held in 1863. Instead, they acted with a considerable degree of unanimity to pass legislation that set Queensland on its future course. The agenda largely revolved around land and immigration, primary and secondary education, extension of voting rights, state aid to religion, the census, transport, primary industry and the provision of labour. ==Commemoration==