As in many other places, tourism has become a seductive industry for government and business in Queensland over the past decade. As one of the sunbelt states, Queensland has become an attractive destination for international, interstate and intrastate visitors. Tourism has become a major industry in Queensland contributing 5% to GSP (Goss 87). In 1993, the state attracted 1.4 million international visitors or 51% of the inbound market (Trends, issue 1, July 1994:4). This represents a 16% average annual increase since 1991. Although domestic tourism has experienced a slowdown, the state attracted 2.4 million intrastate and 8.5 million interstate trips in 1993. The staging of Expo 88 in Brisbane is credited with stimulating a significant increase in interstate visits to Queensland (cf. Collins 1994b).

The idea of ‘Queensland Literature’ has a history, but a rather discontinuous one. During the present century, it has emerged sporadically at particular historical moments, rather than as a constant preoccupation, which is how the idea of an Australian literature has figured during this period. An explanation of the different profiles of national and state literary histories in the post-Federation era might begin by asking what is at stake in each case? The cultural beneficiaries of one ‘construction’ of Australian literature are different from those of other, competing constructions of Australian literature. Nationally, there are social and political identities at stake. But at the state level, for most of this century, literature seems to have been much less involved in identity politics of that kind, considerably less than one might have expected, given the ferocity of interstate rivalry in sporting and other areas.

With the winnowing of time and the emphasis given to particular artists in our constructed histories of art (be it international, national or regional) it is often difficult to determine why artists were considered to be innovatory in their time. The works so judged survive but not the context which enabled them to achieve this prominence. So it is with Vida Lahey. It may seem a desperate measure to consider a flower painter as a vehicle for modernist ideas, but the art environment in Brisbane was particularly conservative and Vida Lahey's vibrant flower paintings were a significant presence.

In 1993, Queensland's Local Government Act was revised for the first time since 1936. This paper is born of a realisation, based on research sponsored by the Local Government Association of Queensland, that much less is known and understood about the development of local government in Queensland than we have previously believed. The consequences of this are particularly serious at present, because important changes are currently being made to local government features on the basis of a very imperfect understanding of the role, operation and significance of those features. In this paper, I deal with an important aspect of the territorial dimension of local government, and point to the contemporary significance of a deeper appreciation of the development of local government from the territorial perspective.

‘Beyond the Brisbane Line’ was the theme of the second Public Address of an annual series organised by the Queensland Studies Centre. Held in conjunction with the Centre's annual conference, the Public Address was presented in Toowoomba on 25 November 1994.