The Mapoon Mission commenced on 28 November 1891 on the traditional lands of the Tjungundji people. Initially called Batavia River Mission and founded by Moravian missionaries, James Gibson Ward and Reverend John Nicholas Hey, who were said to have brought several South Sea Islander men to Mapoon to assist them. Many children from the Gulf of Carpentaria region where forcibly removed to Mapoon when the mission became an Industrial School under the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Act (1865) (Qld) in 1901. Outstations to the south of Mapoon were established in the early 1900s. The conditions at Mapoon were very poor during the management by the Presbyterian Church. On 1 January 2005 the Mapoon Aboriginal Council became the Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council.

A conference in Adelaide in 1958 resulted in the formation of the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. In 1964, the organisation was renamed to include Torres Strait Islanders in the title. Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) was formed to advance the rights of Aborigines. The Council included Aboriginal Advancement organisations, unions and church organisations. One of their most successful campaigns was the 1967 Referendum campaign. In March 1978 FCAATSI changed its name to the National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement. This organisation never met and it was disbanded after the federal government cut funding in 1978.

Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia Queensland Branch (BWIU) (195?- ). Registered as the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, Joiners, Bricklayers and Plasters of Australasia, Queensland.
Objectives - To uphold the right of combination of labor, and to improve, protect and foster the best interests of the members and to assist them to obtain their rights under industrial and social legislation; to regulate the conditions under which all members may be employed; to join with other organizations with similar objectives, to establish a fund to support trade unionists; to organize the education of the members; to publish a journal and to further any schemes to establish labor research bureaux or union newspapers or radio stations; to establish various benefits for members; to render legal and other assistance to members for the recovery of wages or compensation for injuries, to protect the interests of the trade in all its Branches, and to assist other trades by any legal method.
Publicists - See The Building Worker and the Official Trades Union Directory (Trades and Labor Council of Queensland).
Notes: Carpenters formed a union in Queensland as early as 1861, eventually forming the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners of Australasia, Queensland Branch. Amalgamations led to changes of name in 1974 to Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, Joiners and Bricklayers of Australasia, Queensland Branch and in 1982 to the present name. The union is known not by its registered name but as the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia, Queensland Branch The B.W.I.U. is part of the Queensland Building Trades Group which includes the Operative Painters and Decorators' Union, the Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Laborers' Federation and the Plumbers and Gasfitters Employees' Union.

Established in 1884 by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Mission was situated on the South-West side of Thursday Island. The administration of the Mission was handed over to the State Government of Queensland around 1984. Since 1994 the Torres Strait Council has administered Thursday Island.

On 3 March 1968 the FOCO Club opened on the third floor of the Trades Hall building. Foco Club came about in March 1968 when the "Society for Democratic Action (initially the Students for Democratic Action) founded FOCO at Trades Hall as an independent, radical cultural centre. It involved music, poetry, film, theatre, a bookshop and a newsletter. FOCO was closed by the Trades and Labor Council in May 1969" -- excerpted from Guyatt, Joy and George, Greg. Publications of political organizations in Queensland p 266.

FOCO was once described as Australia's most evil nightspot.

The Trades and Labour Council building was located on Turbot Street looking down Edward Street, adjacent to Jacob's Ladder. In 1984 the property was sold. With the decision to demolish the Trades Hall, a group of people from Brisbane organised "The last Foco" or "Foco lives" event to be held on Saturday 16 February 1985.

FOCO, a Spanish word meaning focus or centre, connected to Che Guevara's Foco theory of revolutionary warfare. After being asked to leave the Trades Hall venue, and unable to find a suitable replacement, the decision to close FOCO was made in September 1969.

The Students for Democratic Action was formed in Brisbane in 1966. Later changed its name to Society for Democratic Action.

Objectives - To work against nuclear war, the Vietnam war, conscription, world poverty and the unwarranted interference of the State. Emphasized participatory democracy and the superiority of morality over material values. Believed that democratic freedom had to be fought for and, once achieved, had to be protected.

Publicists - Mick Bergin, Tony Bowen, Carlene Crowe, David Guthrie, Alan Knight, Matthew Lambourne, Janita Laver, Dave Nadel, Phil Richardson, Dick Shearman (in addition to those in Students for Democratic Action).

Organisers included Jim Prentice, Greg Mallory, Lorraine Dyer, Paddy McCorry, Janine Bell, Dan O'Neill, Mal Price, Merv Partridge.

Notes: Involved in Civil Liberties Co-ordinating Committee (1967). Linked with Students in Dissent and University Conscription Committee. In March 1968 S.D.A. founded FOCO at Trades Hall as an independent, radical cultural centre It involved music, poetry, film, theatre, a bookshop and a newsletter. FOCO was closed by the Trades and Labor Council in May 1969. The dissolution of S.D.A. in April 1969 reflected a desire to find revolutionary forms of action.

The practice of Edwin (Eddie) James Hayes (23/3/1918-4/10/1997) and Campbell (Cam) Royston Scott (4/5/1921-7/1/2007) began in Brisbane in 1946. Initially they traded as E.J. Hayes and C.R. Scott. They rapidly made their mark with early commissions and houses that attracted awards and publicity. In the late 1950's, in an effort to rid themselves of being stereotyped as the Brisbane House Designers, they actively sought non-residential commissions. Hayes, Scott and Henderson operated from 1965 to 1967. Hayes and Scott retired from practice in 1984.

The University of Queensland was established by an act of the Queensland parliament on 10 December 1909. The University's first home was Queensland's original Government House at Gardens Point. Teaching commenced in 1911 with four professors, ten other teaching staff and an enrolment of 83 students, 23 of them women. The St Lucia site for the University of Queensland was purchased in 1927 with funds provided by Dr James O'Neill Mayne and his sister, Miss Mary Emelia Mayne. The title to the land was presented to the Chancellor in 1930, and in 1935 the Queensland Premier, the Hon W. Forgan Smith, announced that the State Government had decided to build a new university on the land at St Lucia. A joint committee of government and university representatives was appointed to investigate the site, draw up plans and report to the government Its members were Dr Melbourne (University representative and chairman), Dr Bradfield (government representative and deputy chairman), J.D. Story (Public Service Commissioner), A.B. Leven (Chief Architect, Department of Public Works) and T.L.Jones (Chairman of the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board). Six plans were presented, by Professor Hawken, Mr Leven, Dr Bradfield and Professor Robinson. All the plans used a topography of the site in a similar manner to A.B. Wilson's original plans of 1926 In 1936 the government appointed the architectural firm of Hennessy Hennessy & Co. Construction of the new campus began in 1937 but war intervened and the site was turned over to the military. The move to St Lucia began in earnest in 1946 and was fully completed by 1972.

The Queensland Branch of the Communist Party of Australia began around 1920, the same time as it's parent party. It was one of the CPA's three largest branches. The party ceased operating in 1991.