22 Finding Queensland Legislation

Queensland legislation by the Office of Queensland Parliamentary Counsel provides access to official Acts and subordinate legislation. The website can be searched or browsed to find legislation.

If unsure about the title of the legislation you are after, secondary resources can help you to identify key legislation:

  • textbooks
  • looseleaf services (commentary)
  • legal encyclopaedias
  • journal articles.

Finding current Acts

To find the most current version of an Act, look for In force legislation on the Queensland legislation website.  Browse alphabetically if you know the title of the Act or choose the year it came into force.

Finding point-in-time Acts

The ability to find Acts as they looked at a particular point in time is an important skill to possess. Using the Queensland legislation Acts as passed website, you can generally access reprints or historical versions from 1991 onwards.

For historical point-in-time research prior to 1991, access Queensland Statute Reprints, or look for printed consolidations in a Library collection.

Finding historical Acts

There are a number of historical legislation databases, the chief one being Queensland Law, which  contains:

  • The Public Acts of Queensland 1828-1936
  • Queensland Commencement Legislation
  • Letters Patent Establishing Boundaries for Queensland
  • Queensland Criminal Code 1879-1899.

The Queensland Historical Acts in AustLII is also a valuable database.

Licence

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Legal Research Skills: An Australian Law Guide Copyright © 2023 by The University of Queensland, James Cook University, the University of Southern Queensland, Charles Darwin University, Southern Cross University, Queensland University of Technology, and Deakin University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book