The Royal Historical Society of Queensland Queensland’s Separation Day Celebrations 2024

Royal Historical Society of Queensland President, Dr Rebecca Ling; Vice-President, Mr Stephen Sheaffe AM; Immediate Past President, Dr Denver Beanland AM and Councillors; Manager, Ms Hannah Watson; members and volunteers; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here this evening.

Graeme and I are delighted to be with you this evening to mark the 165^th anniversary of Queensland’s first Separation Day on the 10^th of December, 1859.

As the members of this Society will be well aware, the choice of the 10^th of December as Separation Day had less to do with Queensland’s legal separation from New South Wales than with the arrival of the colony’s very first Governor, Sir George Bowen, and the celebrations and ceremonies planned for that event.

Some colonists contended that the actual date of separation had been 10 days earlier on 1 December when the formal proclamation of separation was made in Sydney; others argued that it should be celebrated on the 6^th of June, the date on which Queen Victoria had signed the Letters Patent establishing the new colony.

Even that date was not embraced enthusiastically by everyone because news of the proclamation had not reached the colony until almost a month later, on the 10^th of July, when the Clarence sailed into Brisbane with the word ‘Separation’ painted on its hull.

In addition, the Order-in-Council establishing the boundary between New South Wales and the new colony was not to be proclaimed until Christmas Eve, two weeks after Governor Bowen’s expected arrival.

Ultimately, such inconvenient facts were ignored in favour of the pragmatic decision to link Separation Day to the celebrations already organised for the arrival of Governor Bowen.

It would arguably have been futile to compete when four public holidays had been sanctioned for the week before the anticipated arrival of H.M.S Cordelia, with firework displays every night and excited visitors pouring in from the country to welcome the new Governor. In addition, a 21-gun salute, a triumphal arch, and a grand procession to Adelaide House in the Vice-Regal carriage had all been planned for when the Bowens would finally step ashore at the Botanic Gardens.

However, despite a public holiday and a plethora of sporting activities every year, there were citizens who were not prepared to give up the battle for historical accuracy.

A year after the first Separation Day, one unhappy correspondent to the Moreton Bay Courier even appealed to Governor Bowen to intervene and settle the argument once and for all, but it would not be until 1981 that the decision was made that Queensland’s separation from New South Wales would be celebrated on the 6^th of June, the anniversary of the date in 1859 on which Queen Victoria had signed the Letters Patent.

Today, we celebrate the 6^th of June as Queensland Day, but it is a great source of pride to me, as both Governor and Patron, that the Royal Historical Society of Queensland has honoured and preserved the traditions of Separation Day and Vice-Regal patronage ever since August 1913 when our 11^th Governor, Sir William MacGregor, chaired the inaugural meeting of the Society.

Thank you for your continued dedication to the vision of making Queensland history matter.

Happy Separation Day!