TODAY North West Queensland is hailed as a mining mecca, most of us cheer for the Maroons in State of Origin, and even Bob Katter is so protective he wants to secede from the rest of Queensland to keep it our own.
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But how different things could have been if the events of 150 years ago had changed, says author Peter Saenger.
In his new book Queensland's Western Afterthought - 150 years of ups and downs, he writes that from the time of Queensland's declaration from the rest of Australia in 1859, the battle for the vertical strip of the state we now know as the North West began in earnest.
So treasured was the stretch of land between 138 degrees East and 141 degrees East to the Gulf that we became the centre of a tug-of-land between Queensland, South Australia and Victoria who all bid for our treasures.
The land belonged to the British Government, or what was then the greater New South Wales, and was eventually "won" by Queensland and sanctioned as part of the greater state in 1862.
"We were the afterthought, because we were added on after 1859," said Mr Saenger on a book-signing visit to Mount Isa.
The now-retired Emeritus Professor Saenger led the environmental science program at Southern Cross University from 1985 until his recent retirement, and first came across the fascinating story of Queensland's little known history during work as an environmental consultant in Brisbane while studying law at the University of Queensland.
He said he "loves boundaries. -NSW and Victoria are not straight", and became interested in western Queensland's history of settlement and land-use during his time in the Sunshine State.
He began collecting data for this book in 1975, and comprehensively detailed descriptions, diagrams and references provide the reader with a fulfilling picture of the Queensland Western Afterthought (QWA, as he calls it).
He re-traces the steps of early explorers and reveals the government battle for the land we now know as North West Queensland.
"I have tried to collect the history of this region that I have termed QWA, partly because it holds a certain fascination for me and partly because it often remains an afterthought in the public consciousness."
"It has been my aim to produce something thoughtful and accurate, but not so scholarly it would be uninteresting to the general reader."
In one address to the Letters Patent around 1860, the Surveyor-General Augustus C. Gregory, who was familiar with the Gulf country, wrote "it would be desirable to adopt the 138th meridian as the boundary (now the border with the Northern Territory)" and called the North West "a tract of country known as the 'Plains of Promise'."
Thankfully he got his wish.
Queensland's Western Afterthought - 150 years of ups and downs. (Tankard Books, 2012). www.tankardbooks.com.au