Department of Health and Home Affairs float, May Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Police Watch On Labour Day March

Brisbane, May 1.- Uniformed police and detectives will stand by at the Trades Hall on Monday morning to guard against any counter-demonstration to the official Labour Day march being staged.

A police official said tonight that only one procession had been licensed and no other would be allowed through the city streets.

The police march permit has been granted to the Australian Labour Day Celebrations Committee, controlled by moderate unions. The committee has asked all unions to assemble at 9.30 a.m., ready for the march to move off at 10 a.m.

But the Communist-dominated Queensland Trades and Labour Council has asked all affiliated unions to assemble at the Trades Hall at 9 a.m.

The Celebrations Committee Secretary (Mr. J. Bukowski) warned tonight that all unions would have to abide by the committee’s decision. The Trades and Labour Council request was an attempt at disruption,

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Queensland Forest Service float, Australia Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Record Aust. Day Procession Tipped

A most spectacular and educational procession will mark Australia Day holiday in the city to-morrow morning.

Organisers of the display reported last night that the procession will be well up to previous years’ standards and will be representative of all aspects of industry and national life.

Attractive floats and trade displays will be a feature of the procession which will move from George-street through Queen, Wickham and Brunswick streets, to the Exhibition Grounds where an all-day sports program, featuring the finals of the Australian athletic championships, will be held.

The most typical Australian girl in the procession will be awarded a prize, while pennants will be given to the best display in each group of the procession.

The official ceremony of the Unfurling of the Australian Flag will be performed by the Governor, Sir John Lavarack, at 12.45 p.m.

Children will be admitted to the Exhibition

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Float with the theme of "Advance Australia", Australia Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Aust. Day Procession “Biggest Yet”

The postponed Australia Day procession and sports to be held on Saturday had not suffered because of the postponement, the secretary of the Australia Day Celebrations Committee (Mr. W. Murphy) said today.

The committee was still confident that it would be Brisbane’s biggest procession, he said. There have been a few alterations to the original programme, which was cancelled on January 29 because of rain.

The procession will have the same features, and no floats have been taken out. It will leave George Street, City, at 2 p.m. for the Exhibition oval.

The chief marshal (Mr. Arthur Laurie) will assemble the procession in George Street and streets off it at 1.1.5 p.m. The mile-long parade will travel through trafficless Queen, Wickham and Brunswick Streets and Gregory Terrace to the Exhibition Grounds.

Admission to the oval will be free for a sports carnival to begin at

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Australia Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Australia Day Procession Marred By Rain

Brisbane, February 1.- Although heavy rain marred Australia Day celebrations today, the mile-long procession through Brisbane streets was watched by a crowd of 30,000.

The procession began at 10.30 a.m. with a motor cycle police escort and a motor cycle club’s display of more than 50 riders. A nine-man mounted police escort led the major part of the procession.

Police officials said that the procession was a real try-out for the mounted escort, which will perform Royal duties when the Queen arrives. Ten pipe and brass bands, 30 floats and army displays made up the procession.

Among the floats were a four-horse Cobb and Co coach entered by the Royal Geographical Society and the Native Affairs Department’s float of aborigines in war-paint wielding boomerangs and spears.

The aquatic carnival on the Brisbane River was watched by 20,000 people, who stood in the rain to

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Irrigation & Water Supply Commission float, May Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Brawl in Brisbane Procession

Brisbane, May 4.- Only a few Communist “Peace” and “Stop the Korean War” slogans found their way into the Labour Day procession today – and after it had started.

Police, who guarded against offensive slogans, and Australian Labour Party officials, keenly censored all placards before the march began at 10 a.m. Some Communist slogans and one religious “Free Advertisement” were banned.

Brawling broke out in Ann Street during the procession, when two men marching with the Electrical Trades Union displayed “Peace” slogans.

In a 50 yards’ fight near City Hall, while the procession continued, the union’s Secretary (Mr. A. H. Dawson) and others ripped the slogans away from their bearers. The two men, who waved the slogans first in Ann Street, carried the crushed remnants of them into Queen Street, but they were illegible.

Unions from Government departments, the City Council, and private organisations displayed more

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1953 Labour Day float, May Day Procession, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Labour Day commemorates the achievements of the Australian labour movement. The celebration of Labour Day has its origins in the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.

On 21 April 1856 Stonemasons and building worker on building sites around Melbourne, Australia, stopped work and marched from the University of Melbourne to Parliament House to achieve an eight-hour day.

Their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as the first organised workers in the world to achieve an eight-hour day with no loss of pay, which subsequently inspired the celebration of Labour Day and May Day.

In Tasmania, the public holiday is called Eight Hours Day and in the Northern Territory it is called May Day. The Labour Day public holiday varies considerably between the various states and territories.

It is the

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Procession in Queen Street – Royal Visit of Queen Elizabeth II, Brisbane

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Brisbane’s Progress Impresses Queen

“We wish our visit could be a longer one,” the Queen said in thanking Brisbane’s Lord Mayor “for your expressions of loyalty and for the generous welcome you have given my husband and myself.”

The progress achieved since Brisbane was proclaimed a municipality in 1859 testified to the energy and pride of the citizens, Her Majesty added.

“Brisbane has grown from small and humble beginnings to the proud position of third metropolis of Australia and capital of a great and ever growing State,” she continued.

“We must salute the spirit and enterprise which have brought this to pass.

“The past 10 years have been a great period in the history of the British peoples. Citizens of Brisbane have shared in the triumphs and miseries of war and of its aftermath, but they have gone forward with steady confidence in their city and their State.

“Many unsettled problems

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Crowd and procession at the Bribie Bridge opening, Moreton Bay Region

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland. It hugs the coastline and tapers to a long spit at its most northern part near Caloundra, and is separated from the mainland by Pumicestone Passage.

The existing bridge was the longest, pre-stressed, pre-cast concrete bridge in Australia at the time of its construction. With a length of 831.4 metres, the bridge cost $716,321 and was officially opened on Saturday 19 October 1963 by the then premier of Queensland Frank Nicklin.

An additional bridge onto Bribie Island has been proposed, and an official ‘Bribie Island Bridge Corridor Study’ was conducted in 2015 by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads that supports this proposal. The study recommends the new bridge be built 15 metres north of the existing bridge, however the anticipated

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Schoolchildren marching at the Bribie Bridge opening, Moreton Bay Region

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

In 1962 the resident population of Bribie Island was less than 600 people, with many more coming for weekends and holidays, but Bribie Island was still a quiet and peaceful holiday destination.

There had been much speculation about building a bridge to Bribie Island for over 30 years. In those days, even with a small population, there were two Councillors representing Bribie on Caboolture Shire Council and the community worked hard creating what they needed with their own volunteer efforts.

Steamship excursions from Brisbane to Bribie had carried thousands of people for weekends and holidays since 1912, but this had stopped in 1953. A car ferry service had become popular since 1947, after the military built a road from Caboolture in WW2, and motor car ownership increased.

Politicians talked about a bridge to Bribie during election campaigns in the late 1950s, and had considered having it paid for

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