Developing northern Australia became an object of national political interest during the 1940s. Some observers imagined the north contained untapped economic potential while others believed it was a magnet to hostile foreign forces. In the following two decades the north was positioned within evolving debates about national security and the economy and as the discourse around northern development reflected national rather than local concerns, the existence of distinctive northern regions was generally overlooked.

Municipal governments in North Queensland sought to engage with these debates. They formed the North Queensland Local Government Association in 1944 and lobbied state and federal governments and private interests. Their combined aspirations came to closely align with national politics and culminated in a public relations campaign focused on stimulating population growth and development across all of northern Australia.

This paper will examine North Queensland municipal activism and explore its contribution to post-war northern development discourse. This history operates at local, regional and national scales and embodies the expanding and contracting agendas of both the Commonwealth Government and North Queensland’s local governments. Official documents and newspaper articles reveal the common and distinctive themes between these interests and their concepts of the north and objectives for northern development.