The Optimist

The first European exploration of Moreton Bay, where Brisbane lies, was carried out in 1797 by Matthew Flinders, who landed where today Redcliffe is situated. In 1799, Flinders, in the Norfolk, charted the east coast of Queensland. In 1823, John Oxley in the Mermaid named the Brisbane River after the Governor of New South Wales at the time and traveled 100 kilometres up the river.
A convict settlement was established at Redcliffe in 1824 and moved to Brisbane in the following year. At the time, this territory was still part of New South Wales. The first free settlers arrived in 1837 and by 1840 all convicts had been withdrawn from Brisbane.
By 1851, the residents of Queensland had started to think of independence from New South Wales. Queen Victoria was petitioned and agreed, preferring the name Queensland to the alternative suggestion of Cooksland. Queensland was proclaimed on 6th June 1859.
Brisbane, although it has a population of a million and a half, has quite a different atmosphere from the larger capital cities, Sydney and Melbourne. It was founded in July 1825 as a penal settlement, on the orders of the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, and it soon gained a reputation as one of the harshest of such settlements. By 1840, however, with all the convicts withdrawn, Brisbane had become a city for free settlers. When Queensland was separated from New South Wales and became a colony in its own right, Brisbane became its capital.