1841 Men, women, children and local Aboriginal tribes pressed into witnessing hanging of Merridio and Neugavil at windmill, right, on Wickham Terrace for allegedly murdering two white men; meant to be deterrent to Aborigines; talk was that wrong men were executed.

1849 Clergyman, promoter and journalist Rev Dr J.D. Lang brings his first English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish migrants with unauthorised promise of land grants; government rations issued to prevent starvation; Lang envisages colony of independent, thrifty and hard-working farmers, workers and artisans.

1854 Burnett Aborigine "Davy" hanged at Queen St jail (site of current GPO) for alleged murder at Rawbelle; only one of 300 armed Aborigines who attacked the frontier station in 1852 to be captured; maintains his innocence on gallows.

1859 At 27, Lady Diamantina Bowen, right, wife of first governor, arrives to heat, humidity and dust of summer with baby daughter; in seven years bears three more children and helps raise funds for first "lying-in" hospital (opened 1864) to reduce high maternal and infant mortality rates; later named Lady Bowen Hospital, then Brisbane Women's, now Royal Women's.

1860 Eliza O'Connell becomes permanent resident of Brisbane on husband's appointment to Legislative Council (Qld governor 1868); marks beginning of 40 years of charitable involvement in caring for those less fortunate including training and employment of women as domestic servants, religious education in schools, improved health care for women and children.

1861 Pastoralist and naturalist Charles Coxen, left, enters Qld's first Parliament; first vice-president of Qld Philosophical Society, founds society's museum in 1862 (later Qld Museum); he and wife Elizabeth become generous donors of specimens; Elizabeth remarkable for her time with interest in natural history and meteorology; thought to be first woman employed by any museum in Australia, first woman member of Royal Society of Qld (d.1906).

Sisters of Mercy led by Ellen Whitty arrive from Dublin with bishop James Quinn; quickly set up schools, orphanages and convents; by 1900 Qld known as most Catholic colony.