Australian Rules Football in Queensland

On May 21 and 22, 1866, notices were placed in the Brisbane Courier newspaper inviting "gentlemen desirous of forming a football club" to a meeting at Braysher's Metropolitan Hotel.

The meeting was a successful one, with the formation of the new club reported in the following day's paper, "...It was decided that a club should be started, and to this end a committee...was appointed to prepare a code of rules to be submitted to a meeting to be held on the 31st instant. The prospects of the club must be certainly very encouraging to the promoters, as already more than twenty gentlemen have joined, and a large number of others have signified their wish to do so".

At a second meeting held on June 1, a uniform (consisting of a scarlet shirt) was selected, as well as a resolution that the new club would adopt the same rules as used by clubs in Melbourne.

The formation of the Brisbane Football Club  is recognised by the Australian Football League Queensland as the official beginning of Australian Rules Football in Queensland.

Here's a few highlights from our collection.

Australian Football League Queensland Photographs 1906-1998

This collection contains a random selection of team photographs. Only a few images from this collection are available online through One Search catalogue, the rest can be viewed onsite.

Song sheet : Richmond Tigers tour of Queensland, 1920’s

This rare printed leaflet song sheet was produced by Melbourne club Richmond Tigers for their tour of Queensland, believed to be sometime in the 1920's. The sheet features nine ditties, with most obviously written for the tour with references to Queensland. Some of these ditties having more to do with partying than football prowess as evidenced in a few lines of "What, What, What"

"We're Tigers from Richmond, we're out on a spree,
We've knocked off the soup and we've knocked off the tea.
We're not going to train, we won't go to bed.
We'll jolly well drink till we're jolly well dead."

Australian rules news-record : Queensland v New South Wales, Brisbane Exhibition Grounds June 21st 1947 (souvenir booklet)

This souvenir booklet was published in the leadup to the game and contains profiles and photos of the Queensland and New South Wales players as well as umpires and administrators. The booklet is also littered with local advertisements for Brisbane businesses. Interestingly Australian cricketer Keith Miller took to the field for NSW, a fact which played heavily in the marketing of the game. According to the Sunday Mail, the match was a dramatic one with New South Wales levelling the score five minutes before full-time and then going on to win the game by five point. The final scores were - New South Wales 19-12-126, Queensland 16-25-121.

Other resources

• AFL in Queensland - a showcase of images from our collection on Flickr. (Compiled by SLQ's Jacinta Sutton)
• Athenians and red invincibles : the origins of Queensland football (2015 book) by Murray Bird
• Queensland Australian Football Forensics (An external website focusing on the history of AFL in Queensland, operated by football researcher Greg Parker and Murray Bird)