Queensland is different from other states and territories - but so is Canberra. In our different ways, we both get sneered at. We can live with it.
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We outsiders have our differences and our similarities.
Both of us get patronized by snooty Sydneysiders, though in different ways: bogan Queensland but Canberra "bubble".
But there are differences between the outcasts.
Canberra doesn't have cane toads but it does have platypuses. Where Queensland is home to the repulsive reptile, the lovable mammal can occasionally be seen in rivers around the ACT.
Oh, and Queensland has crocodiles. Crocodiles! Though it has to be said that Canberra has brown snakes, even near the Canberra Centre.
Queensland is the Texas of Australia. Big hats and big mouths, is the usual accusation. Snooty it ain't. And Canberra? The hats are smaller.
Queensland has some tourist attractions.
There's the Big Apple at Stanthorpe, a four metre high monument consisting of a big red apple on a pole. It stands opposite the Big Apple café. Nearby, apple pie and apple cider tastings are available.
Queensland also has another must-see; the Big Crocodile at Normanton, an 8.63 metre replica of the biggest saltwater crocodile ever shot. Anywhere.
And there's the Big Bull statue in Rockhampton, complete with appendages (apart from when pranksters - bogans - steal them on the big night out).
On the other hand, Canberra only has the National Library, the two national galleries, the National Museum, two universities and the Australian War Memorial.
![Queensland tourism highlight. The Big Apple in Stanthorpe. Picture: Granite Belt Wine Country tourism Queensland tourism highlight. The Big Apple in Stanthorpe. Picture: Granite Belt Wine Country tourism](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/steve.evans/fc2bde1c-53cc-4367-a5eb-3e431058652f.jpg/r719_0_2485_1708_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Queensland has Bob Katter.
And Pauline Hanson. And Clive Palmer. And Joh Bjelke-Petersen. And now Steve "Giggles" Miles. (Where does Queenslander Kevin Rudd figure?)
Talking of Mr Katter, the North West Star newspaper based in Mount Isa once did a piece under the headline: "Bob Katter calls for N Qld crocodiles to move to Lake Burley Griffin". It was presumably a spoof (published on April 1) but you never know.
In 2019, Queensland bucked the national trend and kept the Coalition in power. Laborish people talked of enforced "Quexit". "How good's Queensland?" Scott Morrison shouted.
Canberra politics couldn't be more different. No Nationals but a seemingly eternal Labor government, propped up by the Greens.
Can there be a place more woke on the planet? Net-zero, cold-brew oatmeal latte, vegan, Teslas.
And not every Queenslander leans to the right. "There might be one in five who voted for One Nation, but there are four in five who didn't," Queenslander Ben Groundwater wrote in the The Brisbane Times.
Don't stereotype was the message. "There are plenty of good people who don't actually think their curtains will fade and the cows will get up at the wrong time if you introduce daylight saving."
In truth, it's easy to sneer (as the Giggler premier found) but the ACT and Queensland have much to celebrate together.
"There's a lot more nuance to the 'Sunshine State' and its residents than you might expect; it deserves better than being slapped with stereotypes and a desire for it to float away," Ben Groundwater wrote.
There is, he pointed out, culture, good food, and "a great live music and arts scene in Brisbane".