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Celebrate Your State: Happy Queensland Day

Celebrate Your State: Happy Queensland Day

On this Queensland Day, find out how our department is delivering a bright future for all of Queensland …

Queensland Day is a celebration of the state’s culture, heritage, people and industry, centring around the state’s “birthday” on 6 June - the official date Queensland separated from New South Wales as an independent colony in 1859. There’s a lot of reasons to celebrate Queensland’s proud history and we have an ambitious agenda to ensure there’s more reasons to celebrate Queensland in years to come.

What is Queensland Day

From our enviable climate to laid back lifestyle and picturesque outback to pristine beaches, there’s a lot of things to like about the sunshine state. Each year on June 6, Queensland Day, we have an opportunity to reflect on what makes us proud to be a Queenslander. It is an annual event to celebrate Queensland’s culture and heritage and marks the official separation from New South Wales in 1859 – that makes the state 163 years young this year.

For Denis Keeffe, Executive Director at Cairns-based fashion and gift brand Mainie Australia (and former CEO of the North Queensland Cowboys NRL team), Queensland Day is a chance to celebrate what makes our state unique.

“We love Queensland because it’s our home, but also people come from all around the world to experience what our Queensland has to offer,” he says.

“I once spoke to a tourist who told me that she could sip coffee in Paris or sail down the Seine, but nothing compares to the uniqueness Queensland has to offer!”

Celebrating our history

There’s nothing more maroon than the idea of state development. The history of Queensland’s economic, social and cultural development has been largely shaped by what is known as state development, a state government function whose core purpose has remained essentially unchanged for the past 90 years: a coordinated effort to develop Queensland’s economy through strategic planning, championing innovation, enabling investment and supporting the growth of local industry.

The concept of state development as a planning function began in the wake of the Great Depression, with the election of Premier William Forgan Smith in 1932 and took further steps in 1938 with the introduction of what is now known as the Coordinator-General, a role that had financial and administrative power over all major public works in the state in order to accelerate employment and economic growth. Since this time, the role has been integral to the development of Queensland.

How have our regions shaped the Queensland of today?

Queensland is the most decentralised state in Australia, with 49 per cent of the population living in the capital city, compared to 68% in other states. We have strong regional centres across the state and one of our greatest strengths is the social, economic and natural diversity of our regional areas. With each region’s unique character comes its own distinct advantages.

We’re helping to grow our regional communities make the most of these advantages. In 2021-22, nearly $14.7 billion was allocated to capital expenditure, with more than 60 per cent being spent outside of Brisbane.

Our unique regions work together to deliver the best outcomes for each community, and all of Queensland. A key component of our regional strategy are the regional plans which will soon be backed by seven Regional Infrastructure Plans.

Through initiatives like our Regional Growth Fund and State Development Areas, we’re supporting projects boosting regional economies and creating jobs.

Looking to the future

Queensland is growing and changing and with that comes many opportunities to support liveability in our communities and grow the industries of the future, so the Queensland of tomorrow is better for current and future generations.

We have an ambitious vision to shape the state’s future by driving economic growth and enabling well-planned, inclusive and resilient local communities, connecting industry, businesses, community and government at all levels to create place-based solutions that leverage regional strengths and unlock sustainable growth.

That includes putting the policies, plans and quality assurances in place to make sure our neighbourhoods, towns, cities and regions of the future will have everything they need to thrive – from internet connectivity to water facilities, from walkable streets to environmental resilience.

The major projects that will shape future Queensland

With the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games coming to Brisbane in 2032, a 10-year pipeline of construction jobs, trade and investment opportunities and legacy projects are already underway to ensure that not only will Queensland deliver the best Olympics ever, but that the estimated $8.1 billion in social and economic benefits from of this momentous event will deliver decades of growth for all Queenslanders.

Some transformative infrastructure projects enhancing or delivered though Brisbane 2032 include:

In March 2022, we delivered the $1.8 billion South East Queensland City Deal, a 20-year partnership between all levels of government to facilitate more than 30 projects enhancing transport, strengthening digital connectivity and improving liveability across eleven council regions. This follows the 2016 Townsville City Deal, a 15-year commitment to support a prosperous economic future for Townsville and working with Central Queensland communities to build on the region’s mining and engineering strengths to deliver a clean and prosperous future.

Securing our future

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the severe disruption to everyday life that can occur when elements of a supply chain that depend on interstate and overseas logistics break. This is why we are working with industry to develop our local supply chain to become more resilient, collaborative and locally-networked, including resource, mineral, workforce, production and distribution necessities.

The more we identify and support coordinated, integrated and interconnected opportunities to develop sustainable local supply chains, the more jobs become available for Queenslanders, the more confidence we deliver to local businesses, and stronger our economy becomes.

We have identified a number of priority industries which have the potential to deliver not only the tools our state needs to succeed in the future, but sustainable career pathways for the next generation of Queenslanders:

A renewable economy for future Queensland

As the state grows, one of the most important things we can do is to create better opportunities for every young Queenslander, and ensure they inherit a state with more opportunity than the generations before them.

This will be delivered through a focus on projects and jobs that put us on the road to our targets of

  • 50% renewable energy by 2030
  • Zero net emissions by 2050

Beyond the obviously environmental benefits, investment in a renewable energy supply chain will lead to more jobs, in more industries for Queenslanders. We have made investment in training centres to ensure we have the highly skilled people needed to drive the renewable energy sector in years to come.

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We’re laying the groundwork to capture the full value of new economies. Think of decarbonised mining operations, yielding the minerals such as lithium, copper and nickel needed to make renewable energy batteries, or sustainable high purity alumina produced at Gladstone to make LED lighting, or renewable hydrogen, made with Queensland sunshine, and exported to Japan from our world-class ports.

So here’s to the Queensland of today and the Queensland of the future. Happy Queensland Day.

Last updated: 06 Jun 2023

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