Eclipse Tower, one of the spectacular limestone bluffs in the Mungana town area. There is a lime quarry below the Queensland bottle tree on the bluff. Photograph by Jan Wegner

Copyright © Jan Wegner

Garden bed or path edging, Woolgar. Collection of Vic Taylor

Copyright © Jan Wegner

Proclaimed gold fields and mining districts, Queensland

8 October 2010
8 October 2010

Proclaimed gold fields and mining districts of Queensland, no date. Map identifes 68 gold fields and 13 proclaimed mining districts. Collection of Jan Wegner

Scattered across the tropical north of Queensland are hundreds of dead towns. Called into being by mining, they were abandoned when the minerals ran out or proved to be unprofitable.

Bird's eye view, Queensland Exhibition, 1876. This bird’s eye view of the first show included inset ‘now’ and ‘future’ images of the Exhibition building. The Week, 26 August 1876.

State Library of Queensland image 4622

Premier Forgan Smith’s show-eve message, 1939. Truth, 13 August 1939, State Library of Queensland

The Royal National Association serves a truly national purpose in presenting to us each year, within the compass of less than 30 acres, a striking record of the progress of the State.

Each year's Show is a glowing tribute to the industry and enterprise of our people, reflecting also the energy and enthusiasm of its organisers.

The year 1938-39 has been a memorable one, in that our great primary industries have reached record productivity, bringing increased wealth to the whole community.

In all other spheres of industrial activity there has been a corresponding upward movement so that financially and economically, Queensland is in very sound position.

Courage and hard work have demonstrated to us all the possibilities that lie within our borders, and I have no doubt that the many thousands who visit the Show, during this week, will gather fresh inspiration from the evidence there of Queensland's remarkable progress.

Hon the Premier W. Forgan Smith, 1939

State Library of Queensland

The fat girl, Royal Show, 1956. Human and animal ‘freaks’ were a feature of sideshow alley until the 1970s. Advertisement, Courier-Mail, 9 August 1956

Show ground, National Exhibition, Brisbane, c1911. Postcard showing crowds around the main ring. Postcard by Coloured Shell Series. Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Copyright © Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland

The Jubilee show of 1909 celebrated fifty years since Queensland’s separation from New South Wales. Organisers declared that ‘We intend to show our own people what is being done within and without the State, and we desire to demonstrate to our Sister States and to New Zealand what wealth lies in our fertile soil, in our ore and coal deposits, and in our forests’. In the main ring, the Children’s Display involved 1200 girls performing callisthenics followed by 1500 boys who provided a display of physical drill.

First held in 1891, the District Exhibits contest is now a show tradition.

Greg Dalton Collection

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