QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator the Hon. Bob Carr

On 28 January 2012 Australia and Germany marked 60 years of formal diplomatic relations. It is fitting that we reflect upon and celebrate what we have achieved in that short period, even as we focus on the exciting potential yet to be tapped in fields as diverse as hypersonics, bio-fuels, ‘green building’, renewable energy and raw materials. It is well known that the foundations of our strong and mutually beneficial relationship lie in the earliest days of European settlement of the Australian continent, when the son of a language teacher from Frankfurt, Arthur Philip, brought the First Fleet to Port Jackson and became the first governor of the colony of New South Wales. But few will be aware that official relations between Germany and Queensland actually pre-date the formal statehood of both. In 1855, less than 20 years after a small band of German missionaries established a settlement in the penal colony of Moreton Bay, the Hanseatic Free City-State of Hamburg appointed Georg Appel as its Vice-Consul in Brisbane. His son later became a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Queensland after that colony separated from New South Wales in 1859 – more than a decade before the German nation was founded, and over 40 years before federation created the Commonwealth of Australia. Unlike the more concentrated communities of South Australia’s Barossa region, in Queensland the German immigrants spread out across a landmass more than five times the size of today’s Germany, with a north-south distance equivalent to that from Oslo to Rome. Among the Germans who helped write Australia’s national story was the early 19th Century Prussian naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt, who explored vast areas of what later became Queensland and whose bicentenary we will commemorate in 2013. We may be lands apart but the intrinsic importance of each country to the other is increasingly clear. Australia welcomes Germany’s role in promoting prosperity and stability in Europe and beyond, and its significant investment footprint in Australia – including in Queensland where, for example, Germany is again investing in tungsten mines in the state’s north that were first worked in the 19th Century. For Germany, Australia is an important G20 partner with a robust and diverse economy — the fourth-largest in Asia — and a leader in promoting rules-based cooperation and sustainable development, particularly in the Asia-Pacific. Australia and Germany are well placed to prosper from our research and technological links as the world’s economic focus turns to Asia. As knowledge-based societies with strong economies we stand ready to tap into business opportunities that demand leadership in innovation and the services sector. In a rapidly changing world, with all its uncertainties, challenges and opportunities, we need close partners and friends. I am delighted that, in this anniversary year, this impressive account of Queensland’s German connections has appeared. It illuminates many lesser known facets of our long- standing friendship and bears eloquent testimony to the vibrancy and diversity of our modern partnership.

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