"What It Is to Be a Queenslander": The Australian State Parliamentary Motion of Condolence on Natural Disasters as Epideictic and Regional Rhetoric

Abstract

The Australian Government describes Australians as a people who are resilient because of their experience of natural disaster (Wells). In late 2010 and early 2011, the Australian capacity for resilience was tested over what former Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the nation's "summer of sorrow" (Gillard). Bushfire, cyclone, and flood wreaked havoc across several of the states and territories into which the country is divided. Among the most devastated was the state of Queensland, which occupies the northeast of the continent and has some five million inhabitants. It suffered extensive and prolonged flooding, and by early February 2011, thirty-five people had died from floodwaters and nine remained missing.