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Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen served as Queensland’s longest reigning Premier from 1968 to 1987. During his time in power, there was considerable social unrest, particularly over issues relating to race, uranium mining and civil liberties.
One of the most controversial protests occurred in 1971 when marchers gathered in the street to dispute a visit by the South African Rugby team, the Springboks. Protestors argued that the Springboks should not be permitted to visit under the context of Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and the apartheid system in South Africa.
In order to suppress protestors, Bjelke-Petersen declared a state of emergency, enabling the police to violently disperse marchers. Interestingly, one of the protestors, a young student called Peter Beattie, later became the Premier of Queensland.
Protests against uranium mining in the southern states provided a pretext for the government to ban street marches in Queensland for the first time in September 1977. Seven Liberal senators crossed the floor of parliament in protest.
The legislation was met with strong opposition from church leaders, trade unionists, civil libertarians, academics and many other members of the general public. The ban on street marches led to the arrest of more than 1800 protestors over the course of 17 Brisbane marches. On 22 October 1977, 418 right-to-march demonstrators were arrested.
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 | | Newspaper article by Peter Applegarth from the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties assesses the ban on street marches one year on, ‘The march ban one year later’, published in The Courier-Mail, 4 September 1978 |
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 | 1977 Elvis Presley died | |
1978 First Walkman released |
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