Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g5fl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-02T01:49:09.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Queensland, the State of Development: the State and Economic Development in Early Twentieth Century Queensland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Get access

Extract

The general consensus of historians is that Queensland was economically dependent on primary production, and that, compared to the southern states, its manufacturing sector was relatively underdeveloped and unsophisticated. Generally speaking, however, the discipline of economic history has not paid sufficient attention to Queensland history, nor has economic analysis in the general body of Queensland historiography been as rigorous and encompassing as it could be. Some of the main themes on economic development considered in Queensland historiography are the patterns of expansion and dominance of the pastoral industry, the growth in agricultural activity associated with closer settlement schemes, and from after the First World War, the institutionalised responses intended to give primary producers control over marketing their own commodities. This reflects the obvious rural bias that infused the political economy of the period. However, close empirical analysis of the economic processes and sectoral composition of Queensland's industrial base demonstrates that the economic significance of the secondary industry sector has been somewhat understated historiographically. Furthermore, the impact of internal and external political, financial and ideological forces that effectively marginalised early Labor government plans to encourage the development of secondary industries have not been adequately researched. To illustrate the context of this, an examination of the dominant patterns of government sponsored developmental policy needs first to be undertaken.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Australian Financial Review, 11 October 1996.Google Scholar
Bolton, G.C., 1990, ‘Robert Philp: Capitalist as Politician’, in The Premiers of Queensland, eds. Murphy, D., Joyce, R., & Cribb, M., University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Butlin, N.G., ‘Some Perspectives of Australian Economic Development, 1890–1965’, in Australian Economic Development in the Twentieth Century, ed. Foster, C., George Allen & Unwin, Sydney.Google Scholar
Cameron, I., 1989, 125 Years of State Public Works in Queensland: 1859–1984, Boolarong Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Cochrane, T., 1989, Blockade: The Queensland Loans Affair 1920 to 1924, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Duhs, T. & Duhs, A., ‘Queensland's Exports of Tertiary Education Services: Growth in the Services Sector of the Queensland Economy’, paper presented to the Queensland Studies Conference, Brisbane, December 1996.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, R., 1994, “Red Ted”: The Life of E.G. Theodore, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, R., 1984, A History of Queensland: From 1915 to the Early 1980s, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, R. & Thornton, H., 1989, Labor in Queensland: From the 1880s to 1988, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Gough, M., Hughes, H., McFarlane, B.J., & Palmer, G.R., 1964, Queensland: Industrial Enigma, Manufacturing in the Economic Development of Queensland, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Hughes, C., 1980, The Government of Queensland, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Inter-State Commission 1918, Inter-State Commission Farm Products Group, Report No. 3, Australian Archives (ACT) A2, 1918/871.Google Scholar
Laverty, J., 1970, ‘The Queensland Economy 1860–1915’, in Prelude to Power: The Rise of the Labour Party in Queensland 1885–1915, eds. Murphy, D.J., Joyce, R.B., & Hughes, C.A., Jacaranda Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Lewis, G., 1973, A History of the Ports of Queensland: A Study in Economic Nationalism, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia.Google Scholar
Murphy, D. J., 1990, T.J. Ryan: A Political Biography, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Murphy, D.J., 1965, The Establishment of State Enterprises in Queensland, 1915–1918, M.A. Qual. thesis., University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Powell, J.M., 1991, Plains of Promise, Rivers of Destiny: Water Management and the Development of Queensland, 1824–1990, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane.Google Scholar
Queensland, Department of the Premier & Cabinet, Establishment of Iron & Steel Works in Queensland (1918-1923), Batch 291 - Part 1, folios 1–265.Google Scholar
Queensland Government, 1900-1930, Queensland Parliamentary Papers; Queensland Parliamentary Debates; Queensland State Statistics; Queensland Industrial Gazette (1916–1930).Google Scholar
Queensland State Archives, Premier's Department Correspondence, 1906 PRE/A239, 6617; 1911 PRE/A386, 10038, 10255; 1921 PRE/A699, 6138; 1923 PRE/A776, 8477; 1929 PRE/A970, 4762, 4376; 1930 PRE/A998, 3539, PRE/A999, 3684.Google Scholar
Queensland State Archives, Mines Department Correspondence, Report on the Qld State Iron & Steel Works, 1918, MIN/A, Bundle A/8714.Google Scholar
Rich, D.C., 1986, The Industrial Geography of Australia, Methuen, Sydney.Google Scholar
Young, I., 1971, Theodore: His Life and Times, Alpha Books, Sydney.Google Scholar