Our Queensland

Peter Charlton is The Courier-Mail's national affairs editor. He is a former Army Reserve lieutenant-colonel who commanded a battalion in an integrated regular-reserve brigade in Brisbane. He is also a published military historian, with works on World War I and II to his credit.

State of war

From the state's earliest days to the latest conflicts, Queenslanders have been in the front line. Peter Charlton marches you through a century and a half of war.

ABOVE: Young guns . . . members of a school cadet corps in the Charters Towers area in the 1870s.
Picture: John Oxley Library 75448

BELOW: Today . . . Haley Belton, 16, and Brendan Hughes, 17, of the 16 Regional Cadet Unit at Clontarf. Picture: Suzanna Clarke
school cadets 2002

SINCE Queensland detached itself from the colony of New South Wales in 1859, the fear of war has been prominent in the thoughts of its people.

From the Victorian fort that guarded the Brisbane River mouth, to the darkest days of World War II and the so-called Brisbane Line, to the fears of the Cold War and expansion of communism southwards (the "Domino Theory"), Queenslanders have felt more exposed, vulnerable and frightened than people in southern states.

Even in the late 1980s when the Cold War was nearly won, then defence minister Kim Beazley was fond of saying security issues rated more highly in Queensland and Western Australia than elsewhere in the country.

Perhaps because of their isolation, Queenslanders and West Australians supply proportionately more recruits than the more populous states of NSW and Victoria. The Army Reserve is much stronger in Queensland than any other state.

The military tradition began early. After the colony was proclaimed on December 10, 1859, new governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen found he had no military force to command. But in those Victorian times, the tradition of volunteering was strong and citizen militia forces, usually clad in resplendent uniforms of Empire, were the rule rather than the exception.

In 1860 volunteer units started to appear and by 1867, a unit of the Brisbane Volunteer Rifle Corps — the Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley Rifle Corps (No. 3 Company, often referred to as "The Frog's Hollow Rangers") — was created. Other Queensland regiments were drawn from Wide Bay and Burnett (the 2nd), the Kennedy Regiment (the 3rd), the Darling Downs (4th) and Port Curtis (the 5th).

As well, volunteers were drawn for the Irish, Scots and even the Queensland Teachers volunteer corps, formed from young teachers from the state's schools.

Brisbane, Bowen, Cairns and Townsville supported garrison batteries of artillery; mounted infantry regiments were drawn from Brisbane, the Darling Downs, Warrego, Wide Bay, Rockhampton and Charters Towers.

The land forces also included medical units, or ambulance corps as they were known, while the navy ran to gunboats, auxiliary gunboats, torpedo boats, a minelayer and a survey vessel.

The colony bristled with arms, although the popular press occasionally derided these high-minded volunteers as "Sunday afternoon" or chocolate soldiers. This was unfair; often the non-commissioned officers were experienced British soldiers who insisted on high standards of drill and musketry.

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