This time, it was a more sombre occasion, albeit with flashes of levity.

Former Labor premier Wayne Goss was farewelled at GOMA – the facility he, as chairman of the Queensland Art Gallery, was instrumental in developing – in a public memorial service on Friday.

Mr Goss, whose election in 1989 finally draw a line underneath the Bjelke-Petersen conservative era, died on November 10 after a long battle with brain cancer.

He was 63 years old.

Flags flew at half mast on state and federal government buildings across Queensland on Friday in recognition of a premier credited with leading Queensland out of the dark Fitzgerald Inquiry era.

 

Inside, on level three of GOMA, about 800 people crammed into the large space to pay tribute to the former Queensland leader, as the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison and others played over the PA system.

Candid family photographs were projected on the walls, along with images from the media chronicling his significant political career.

Roisin Goss, Mr Goss's widow, said her husband had shown "utter dignity, grace and tenacity" during the final two years of his long illness.

"We are immensely proud of the way Wayne lived his life and of the way he faced his death," she said.

"We will love him always."

Mr Goss's 1989 campaign director Wayne Swan, who went on to become the nation's treasurer and deputy prime minister, said Mr Goss was a "breakthrough" figure in the Labor Party who lifted the state party out of its 32-year malaise.

To illustrate Mr Goss's famed competitive spirit, and his sense of humour, Mr Swan recounted a story from a trade mission the then-premier took to Munich in Germany.

"Of course, as was always the case, room had to be made in the program for Wayne to go for a run," he said.

"Now the German hosts knew this and, being good hosts, they lined up an Olympic champion, a 5000-metre Olympic champion, to go running with Wayne.

"You've heard today about his competitive spirit, so when Wayne gets back he's looking pretty exhausted.

"He was asked how he went and he said 'I let him win — I didn't want to force a diplomatic incident'."

Friend Glyn Davis, the vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne who served as director-general of the Office of Cabinet in the second Goss government, said Mr Goss, who was a "private man", may have felt uneasy about the fuss that had been made in the wake of his death.

"He was a private man, he eluded personal questions and he avoided profile writers," he said.

"He was reluctant to talk about himself and he did not look back.

"But then, Wayne did like to get together with friends on a Friday afternoon, and where better than here, and who better than you."

Mr Davis said Queensland was "ready for change" when Mr Goss's Labor was swept into power in 1989.

"The state suffered from a fundamental failure of governance with inadequate accountability and unfair electoral laws.

"The normal checks and balances of democracy could not work and Wayne Goss promised a very different Queensland."

While there was sadness, but there was also laughter.

Mr Davis recounted a gathering for Mr Goss's former staff.

"As Wayne told a function to mark the 10th anniversary of the election of his government ... 'history records I was a great premier brought down by bad advice, so it's really good to be here with all my advisers'," he said.

Matt Foley, who served in the Goss cabinet and as Mr Goss's best man, said Mr Goss was by nature a shy, sensitive and courageous man who loved music and the arts, much like a "cross between John Curtin and Mick Jagger".

Mr Goss shared a special friendship with his Labor idol, Gough Whitlam, who himself died just last month.

Mr Foley said he imagined that friendship had just been rekindled.

"Word on the celestial cyber blog is that Wayne is giving Gough lessons on fiscal discipline while Gough reads to Wayne Dante's Devine Comedy," he said.

"In mediaeval Italian, of course." *

The service ended with Mr Goss singing along to Frank Sinatra's My Way in a skit he recorded for ABC television, before the Rolling Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want played the mourners out.

The list of attendees read like a who's who of Queensland civic life.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who served as Mr Goss's chief of staff and last week described the former premier as Queensland's greatest in the post-war era.

Former governors-general Quentin Bryce and Bill Hayden and a host of former Labor ministers from the Goss, Beattie and Bligh eras.

Labor premiers Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh. And the man whose inquiry helped open the door to a new Queensland era, Tony Fitzgerald.

From the other side of the aisle, current Premier Campbell Newman and Mr Goss's old sparring partner and successor, former Nationals premier Rob Borbidge.

Mr Goss's family declined an offer for a state funeral.

Instead, a private family funeral service for Mr Goss was held earlier this week.

* CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Mr Foley as saying "In the original Latin, of course".