In this blog, prominent LGBTQIA+ Rights Activist Bill Rutkin (OAM) and Contributing Editor Michael Stockwell explore how Queensland’s gay community flouted convention and defied the odds to hold the world’s longest running LGBTQIA+ event, the Queens Ball.
DRAG HISTORY IN QUEENSLAND
“In Queensland, drag was a way for transexuals to legitimise their cross-dressing.”
“The threshold for being prosecuted in those days was if you were caught in drag wearing women’s underwear. If by chance, you were wearing your normal men’s underwear while in drag, you could successfully claim that you were just horsing around and thus were not engaging in ‘true’ homosexual conduct.”
Bill Rutkin (OAM)
Since the nineteenth century, “drag” has been used to reference one who performs in clothes or a persona different than their own biological sex. By the 1920’s, the term “drag” was knowingly being used by gay people throughout the English-speaking world. It is theorised that it entered from Polari, a secret language born out of the criminalisation of the homosexual community in England.
Drag’s long history with LGBTQIA+ culture, particularly with homosexual men, evolved from social gatherings and theatrical performances to becoming a symbol of resistance and self-expression within the community. While not exclusively tied to homosexuality, drag has become strongly associated with queer cultures due to its use as a form of social commentary, a marker of gay cultural identity, and a way to challenge societal norms around gender and sexuality.
In 1961, homosexuality was illegal throughout Australia, with Queensland being renowned as the most conservative of all Australia’s states. Prior to Queensland’s decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1990, criminal and social consequences meant that LGBTQIA+ people remained, for the most part, invisible. So successful was their proscription of homosexuality that even in the 1980s, Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson, nick-named the “Hillbilly Dictator“, could assert with a straight face that, “there are only 7 homosexuals in all of Queensland“.
Anything outside of heteronormative values was deemed an abomination, and concerted effort was taken to keep any deviation from the norm absent from the public eye. In an attempt to wipe Queensland’s gay community from the pages of history, newspapers declined to print the details of gay related crimes and judges frequently cleared courtrooms.
In novel juxtaposition there was relatively widespread social, and institutional acceptance of female impersonators, also known as professional drag queens. While Queensland’s constabulary and the public at large were actively vilifying the gay community, remarkably little curiosity was displayed when drag was presented as “art” or comedy.
During the 1920s, Lea Sonia (191?-1941), a female impersonator and professional entertainer received glowing reviews from Queensland’s otherwise conservative newspaper, the Courier Mail for her headline performance at the prestigious Theatre Royal in Queen Street (demolished in 1983):
“Graceful, petite, and trailing yards of silk, or tulle, or something, Lea floated onto the stage at the Theatre Royal”.
“A brilliant impersonation.” The reviewer concluded, “artistic in conception and presentation”.
Similar words would be used in years to come to praise other men in drag. Peter and Johnny Moselle, two English music hall pantomime-dame style female impersonators, toured regional Queensland with drag shows for years. Additionally, actor and comedian Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage and English drag superstar Danny La Rue had sold-out performances every time they visited the state.
THE QUEENS BALL
Where did this leave Queensland’s homegrown drag community and their queer brethren? They needed a safe space where their community could express themselves freely.
In the early 1960s, Queens Ball founding members Dame Sybil von Thorndyke [Laurie Dean] and Toye de Wilde had a moment of clarity that would go on to become the world’s longest running LGBTQIA+ event.
Tired of leaping back fences in high heels to escape police raids on private parties in the early 1960s, Dame Thorndyke and De Wilde deemed it high time that Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ community had a safe event to call their own. So, along with a small number of members from the Brisbane ‘camp’ community, they decided to hold a ball. Dame Sybil recalls:
“Social gatherings of more than a handful of people needed to be covert. In a society where even the suspicion of homosexuality could result in ostracism, liberty, we needed to be circumspect.”
From the beginning, it was an inclusive and diverse event welcoming all members of the queer communities and their allies. Originally called the Queens’s Birthday Ball named after Queen’s Birthday public holiday, at the time held on the second weekend of June throughout Australia. When, in 2012, Queensland changed the date to October, the Ball lost the word ‘Birthday’ and the apostrophe to be henceforth known as the Queens Ball.
In 1961 the first gathering was organised by Dame Sybil in Bread House located in Gregory Terrace in Brisbane. It was later was raided by the Queensland Police Force although no charges were laid, it became obvious to the participants that the venue needed to change to a more remote location.
Due to the need for discretion, the first Ball was held in 1962 at a doctor’s holiday home in Mt Tambourine. The first Balls consisted of 20 to 30 people who collaboratively enjoyed an unstructured evening with gold painted kewpie dolls awarded to the best dressed drag queen. It retained that format for the first three years, and each year more people made the trek up the mountain to join the festivities.
Dame Sybil recalls the nonchalant acceptance of the local populace: “The locals became accustomed to blokes in crinolines popping into the shop for groceries and the St Bernard’s Hotel for supplies.” By 1971, the event had outgrown the hall and Toye suggested it be moved to Muddgeeraba.
With great fondness Dame Sybil remembers:
“We could never go back to Mudgerabah even if we wanted to – we drank Wallaby Bob’s pub there dry and left nothing for the thirsty locals.”
After Mudgeeraba, the ball moved to the Nundah RSL Hall where they introduced their first stage shows, aptly called “Poverty Productions” because it was all “put together on the smell of an oily rag”.
These balls were not without disruption. When the Ball moved to Nundah, the local chapters of the Warlords and Norseman bikie gangs offered to stand guard outside the venue to provide protection against any who may have taken offence at the event. Additionally, in 1967 the Queens Ball was raided by the Queensland Police. Despite not finding a single criminal action they could prosecute, the police put the fear of God into many attendees.
The balls grew in patronage, thus requiring increasingly bigger venues. Finally, following the unfortunate death of an attendee after being washed off the road enroute to a ball, Dame Sybil decided to move the Ball to Brisbane to increase accessibility. Due to the ever-present hostility towards the queer community, she determined to stay out of the inner city.
The Ball was held in numerous venues throughout non-central Brisbane including Wanganui Gardens and the Homestead Hotel but ultimately these proved too far from the city. Ultimately, in 1981, it relocated, and continues to get held in a central Brisbane location.
In the following years, as the Ball grew substantially in size, it relocated as needed but remained within a five-kilometer radius of inner-city Brisbane. Dame Sybil affectionately recalls:
“In the 1960s and 1970s everybody knew everybody. Then during the Roxy years, perhaps 1988, I finished cleaning up backstage after the show and came out into the main room down the spiral staircase. I looked out over the room and could not believe my eyes. All I could see were young people! It was the year the younger generations discovered the Balls. It was very exciting.”
Van Thornedyke reveals:
“The format of the Ball has changed over the years. From a house party where we dressed-up and gave out awards, to a public event with bands, shows and DJs in addition to the awards. In the 90s, dance parties took off and that aspect of the Ball became all important.”
The event has seen highs and lows, and the occasional premature obituary for its imminent demise. However, it survives the changing times by adapting to the needs of the day.
From its humble beginnings outwitting the Bjelke-Petersen administration, the Queens Ball is now presented by Brisbane Pride who, in a novel turn of events, have partnered with the Queensland State government to supply funding grants aimed to provide a:
“Safe space to share localised approaches that strengthen the equality, and wellbeing of [Queensland’s] LGBTQIA+ people, families and communities.“
The Ball is now perpetually held at the Brisbane City Hall where the attendee list consistently includes a strong contingent of politicians of all political hues.
Bill Rutkin (OAM) is a prominent Queensland LGBTQIA+ activist. Some of his many social justice and activist associations include: Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), Queensland AIDS Council (QuAC), Queensland Intravenous AIDS Association Inc (QuIVAA), Queensland Injector’s Health Network (QuIHN), Just-Equal and many other Australian and International LGBTQIA+ support groups where he continues to fight for LGBTQIA+ legal equality and social justice. Bill is also part owner of Queensland’s foremost LBGTQIA+ publication Q News.
Michael Stockwell is a PhD candidate with the Centre for Heritage and Culture, and the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland. He has a background in hospitality, classical music, education and law and works in the law and IAS departments at the University of Southern Queensland. His doctoral research investigates the prosecution, persecution and vilification of homosexual men in Queensland during the Bjelke-Petersen era and how the experiences in their formative years affect their willingness to engage with legal and administrative systems later in life. After initially beginning his tenure at the Australian Women’s History Network as an intern in 2024, he has since become a Commissioning Editor working under Managing Editors Dr Paige Donaghy and Dr Ana Stevenson.
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