In recent times, Queensland has developed a reputation as ‘an engine of national growth and innovation’. This reputation was boosted by the 2007 election of Queenslander Kevin Rudd as prime minister. In this edition of Griffith Review, subtitled ‘Hidden Queensland’, a range of contributors explore the evolution of the Australian state once best known ‘for its extremes of weather and politics’.

Much emphasis is given to Queensland’s history of radical political activism. Various contributors discuss the campaigns against the Vietnam War and (some time later) Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s conservative government. However, there are also descriptions of this state’s artistic and cultural achievements, an account of an adolescent girl’s ill-fated sexual dalliances with an older married couple, and a photographic essay on the lives of mentally ill Queensland residents.