Queensland is the north-eastern state of Australia and has land borders with three other Australian states and territories: New South Wales (to the south), South Australia (to the south-west) and Northern Territory (to the west). To the north of Queensland is the Torres Strait separating the Australian mainland from Papua New Guinea. To the east of Queensland is the Coral Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean. There are many islands off the Queensland coast which form part of the state of Queensland.
The far western boundary with the Northern Territory is aligned along the 138th meridian east until Poeppel Corner at the intersection of this meridian and the 26th parallel south. It is here that Queensland borders South Australia. The boundary follows this latitude until it reaches the 141st meridian east at Haddon Corner where the border turns south reaching Cameron Corner on the 29th parallel south, the most western part of the border with New South Wales. The border follows this latitude towards the coast at about the 154th meridian east before following the courses of a number of rivers, then across a number of mountain ranges until it reaches Point Danger. From west to east, these rivers are the Barwon River, Macintyre River and Dumaresq River.
Southern border towns include Mungindi, Goondiwindi and Texas.
1838 Royal Geographical Society proposal
By 1838 the coastline of the Australian continent had been well defined by mariners such as James Cook, Matthew Flinders and Phillip Parker King. As for the interior of Australia, little was known by the European settlers except for the area south of a line from Moreton Bay to Victoria as it is now (the south-east of the continent). This knowledge had been obtained from the journeys of explorers such as John Oxley, Charles Sturt, Thomas Mitchell, Allan Cunningham and George Evans.
There were many proposals for the subdivision of the Australian continent dating back to the 1830s. This proposal by Captain James Vetch was published by the Royal Geographical Society in their journal of 1838. Vetch tried to give each colony equal areas, possess a tract of sea coast with possible harbour sites and be as compact as possible.
The boundaries of his proposed colonies were defined using lines of latitude and longitude. This was generally used by colonial administrators when there was either no natural features such as rivers and ranges or due to exploration of the country not being well enough advanced to know if there were any natural features.
1846 colony of North Australia
The loss of the American Colonies due to the American War of Independence (1775–1783) forced the British Government to find another place to send its convicted felons. Its most recent acquisition (1770) New Holland (now Australia) was chosen and the first penal settlement established at Port Jackson in 1788 by Captain Arthur Phillip. Other settlements soon followed, Norfolk Island, Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Port Macquarie and in 1824 Moreton Bay.
In 1840 the transportation of convicts to New South Wales ceased although Van Diemen's Land continued to receive large numbers of convicts. When William Ewart Gladstone became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1845, he was confronted with the problem of the large numbers of pardoned convicts roaming around Van Diemen's Land unable to find work. Rather than revive transportation to New South Wales, which he knew would be very unpopular, he decided to create a new colony in the northern part of New South Wales. To this new colony he proposed to send the pardoned convicts of Van Diemen's Land, and he hoped that in time they could form the backbone of a new vibrant free colony.
In May 1846, Lieutenant Colonel George Barney of the Royal Engineers was chosen as the new colony administrative head. He was soon despatched to Sydney and instructed to find a suitable site to the north of Moreton Bay, but not that far north that the tropical climate would have an adverse effect on the health of the settlers, preventing them from hard work and industry. Port Curtis (now Gladstone in Queensland) was chosen. Also in the same month, the official Letters Patent were issued by Queen Victoria forming a new colony to be called North Australia. The southern boundary of this new colony was to be 26 degrees of south latitude (just south of present day Maryborough, Queensland).
On 8 January 1847, the Lord Auckland sailed from Sydney with the new colonial officials and their families arriving at Port Curtis on 25 January 1847. On entering the port the Lord Auckland grounded on a shoal. The officials quickly headed for shore and a few days later, the official swearing in of Lieutenant Governor Barney and his officials took place.
In July 1846, back in Britain, the Government had changed, and Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey had replaced Gladstone as Secretary of State for the Colonies. The new government had decided to abandon the new colony and advised the Queen to revoke the Letters Patent. This decision took many months to reach the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy, and then to be transmitted to Barney ordering the abandonment of the North Australia colony and the return to Sydney.
The officials in Port Curtis had endured 4 months of indecision, rain, heat, and mosquitoes before they returned to the civilisation of Sydney where they arrived in May 1847. No pardoned convict ever reached the new colony.
1851 John Dunmore Lang colony
In 1823, John Dunmore Lang (1799–1878) a Presbyterian clergyman, politician, immigration organiser, educationist, journalist, patriot and statesman arrived in Sydney to take up his ministry.
Lang soon realised that the poverty he left behind in Britain could be relieved to some extent by emigration to Australia, feeling that a well-off Protestant peasantry would reduce the problems of English industrialism. To this end he was always looking for suitable new areas and country away from the problems of Sydney and Hobart.
In 1845, Lang visited Moreton Bay and was so impressed that in 1848 he persuaded and personally selected approximately 600 immigrants to come to Moreton Bay, who arrived in Moreton Bay in 1849 on the ships , Chaseley, and Lima. Lang's promise of free land in proportion to their passage money was not realised due to colonial bureaucracy and his scheme failed.
In the years 1847–49, while visiting England, Lang wrote a series of letters to Earl Grey (Secretary of State for the Colonies) recommending that a new colony be created out of New South Wales to the northward of 30 degrees of south latitude. The British Government must have been influenced by Lang’s proposals as in 1851 they passed an Imperial Act, the Australian Colonies Government Act, which contained a clause (Section 34) which provided for the establishment of new colonies in the future.
In 1856, the Secretary of State for the Colonies announced that it was their intention to create a new colony whose southern border line would run not far to the south of 30 degrees south latitude (just south of present day Grafton, New South Wales) but would be accommodated to suit the natural features of the country.
During the next few years strong debate ensued, petitions for and against (from both the squatters and merchants in the proposed border area) were sent to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir William Denison, and the Secretary of State for the Colonies in Britain. Lang kept agitating for his colony, which he proposed to call "Cooksland", after Captain James Cook, where he hoped to settle Protestants as small farmers who would grow crops of cotton and sugar.
The considerable influence of the New England and Armidale squatters was to greatly affect the location of the border. They feared that if they were to be located in the new colony, their power base, which was in the Sydney Parliament, would be eroded. As a result, in 1857 Denison proposed a border starting further north along the coastline at Point Danger (about 28 degrees south latitude). He wrote to Henry Lebouchere, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and recommended that the boundaries of the new north-eastern colony be:"Starting from Cape Danger and following the range of hills which now separate the district of Clarence River from that of Moreton Bay, it should continue along the ridge forming the boundary of the basins of the Richmond and the Clarence until it reaches the Parallel of 29º of south latitude, along which it should continue westward till it reaches the meridian of 141º East…"
Boundaries proclaimed at separation
On 6 June 1859, Queen Victoria signed the Letters Patent that proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales was created and to be called Queensland. It also established the first borders of the state based on Denison's proposal as follows:Letters Patent 1859. Queensland Government Gazette, 1859, p. 1."...Now know you, that We have, in pursuance of the powers vested in Us by the said Bill and Act, and of all other powers and authorities in Us in that behalf vested separated from our Colony of New South Wales, and erected in to a separate Colony, so much of the said colony of New South Wales as lies northward of a line commencing on the sea coast at Point Danger, in latitude about 28º 8’ south, and following the range thence which divides the waters of the Tweed, Richmond, and Clarence Rivers from those of the Logan and Brisbane Rivers, westerly, to the great dividing range between the waters falling to the east coast and those of the River Murray; following the great dividing range southerly to the range dividing the waters of Tenterfield Creek from those of the main head of the Dumaresq River; following that range westerly to the Dumaresq River; and following that river (which is locally known as the Severn) downward to its confluence with the Macintyre River; thence following the Macintyre River, which lower down becomes the Barwan, downward to the 29th parallel of south latitude, and following that parallel westerly to the 141st meridian of east longitude, which is the eastern boundary of South Australia, together with all and every the adjacent Islands, their members and appurtenances, in the Pacific Ocean: And do by these presents separate from our said colony of New South Wales and erect the said territory so described into a separate colony to be called the colony of Queensland..."
1862 change to Queensland's western border