The Queenslander

Queenslander! This is a greeting that will meet you with each post. Why? My generation is called many things. Some say it is generation X, Y, Me, You, I or Poo. I am Generation Q. I am a Queenslander and proud of it. John Harms (the spy in the south) once wrote on that spontaneous yet profound moment when Billy Moore yelled “Queenslander” in the tunnel before running out to battle, “It’s enough in Queensland to encapsulate the essence of the way of life in that single word.” What is or who is a “Queenslander”. What does it mean?

I grew up in both rural and city Queensland. Warwick, Toowoomba, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and for the last 8 years Brisbane. All these places I have called home. Or at least a home away from home. From dusty paddocks to dusty concrete. A Queenslander need not be born to any of these places. They need not even have been there.

To many, Queensland may be holidays at the coast, beautiful scenery, tropical hinterlands, cattle herding on remote outback stations, huntin', shootin' and …tootin’. Yes, a lot of tootin’ goes on in pubs and parties here. Just ask a Queenslander. You could wrangle a steer or be sat on your rear but being a Queenslander, you’ll just go to the hotel and pull a beer. The former is an example of native prose. However, that is not all there is to Queensland or being a Queenslander. To me being a Queenslander has much to do with being true. True to home, to other Queenslanders (even the temporary one), to loved ones and to one’s self.

I tend to agree with Harms. “When I think of Queensland I still smile. That means, in my mind, that a romanticised view prevails, a view that has been conditioned to ignore the racism and bigotry, the materialism and hollowness. The tug is there. The tug is Queensland’s liberating fatalism, its acceptance of things beyond its control, its mood of freedom, its call to ratbaggery. But I wonder if the tug is strong enough. Queensland is too confident for me, too sure of itself. I am preoccupied with my own thoughts; Queenslanders just get out there and live. They are not lost in the cosmos. They know exactly where they are. They are in Queensland.”

Harms continues, “In Queensland you are born true. You start true, because you are a Queenslander. It’s as if growing up in Queensland confers on babies a purity. Queenslanders don’t have to look forward to a life of searching for truth. They have the truth. They live in a state of Queensland grace. But that elevated status – being a Queenslander – can be corrupted. It is under constant threat of corruption by excessive thinking and theorising, and by time away from Queensland. It will definitely be corrupted by time spent among the infidels of the south. And the whole Queensland way is in jeopardy if too many southerners are allowed in. Queensland leaders only become real leaders when they can demonstrate they have taken on the southerners – the tricky journalists, the academics, the complicators – and remained true. In the Queensland odyssey these are the tests. Indeed, once a leader can do that, only then are they fit and free to lead. They can only continue to lead as long as they keep Queenslanders enjoying the life they cherish.”

You see dear Queenslanders, this is where we must come in. We must keep the status of the Queenslander alive. It is at risk of having one too many, passing out and being kicked to death by those who do not value it. It matters not, whether you are here for a week’s holiday, a year off or you are slogging it out daily. We must not let it be eroded. We should keep the truth. The truth is us. Go Queenslander!