Thank you, Dame Sybil

This month, Queensland’s LGBTQIA+ community will celebrate the 65th Queens Ball, widely recognised as the world’s longest continuously-running LGBTQIA+ event. This year’s Ball carries special significance following the passing of co-founder and long-time organiser Dame Sybil Von Thorndyke, also known as Laurie Deane.

Before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Queensland, much “camp” social life existed behind closed doors. Private parties and discreet gatherings provided rare opportunities for people to express themselves away from the judgement and policing of a state that criminalised their identities.

It was in this environment that Dame Sybil and her mentor Ron Sheard (AKA Norma) hosted the first Queen’s Birthday Ball during the June long weekend in 1962.

Inspired by a private drag ball at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, the event was held at a house in Mount Tamborine, which Ron considered to be Queensland’s equivalent. The first Ball attracted a few dozen guests dressed in drag, dancing to Broadway records and competing for gold-painted kewpie doll prizes.

As the annual celebration grew, so did its venues – initially the Mount Tamborine Memorial Hall, and on to Mudgeeraba, where guests reportedly drank Wallaby Bob’s pub dry. By the early 1970s, the Ball had outgrown its rural origins and moved to Brisbane.

Throughout the following decades, the Queen’s Birthday Ball became a defining fixture of Brisbane’s queer social scene. At the Nundah RSL Hall in the mid-1970s, during what Laurie later described as the event’s “halcyon days”, Dame Sybil introduced drag floor shows through her “Poverty Productions”, performed on a tiny stage with a mosquito-net curtain. Protection and clean-up assistance was provided by members of the local Warlords and Norsemen bikie gangs, whose members had connections in the “camp” community.

As gay venues emerged in inner-Brisbane during the late 70s and 80s, the Ball evolved, moving to venues including the Hacienda Hotel, The Roxy and Whispers. The event increasingly embraced spectacle, with elaborate costumes, theatrical performances and a growing awards program.

The fall of the Bjelke-Petersen era and decriminalisation of homosexuality in Queensland helped usher in a new chapter. In 1992, a landmark Queens Birthday Ball – co-hosted with the AIDS Trust of Australia at the RNA Showgrounds – featured entertainment by Marcia Hines, and presenters including Lord Mayor Sallyanne Atkinson – and even a brief evacuation prompted by a bomb threat.

Dame Sybil’s extraordinary creativity and determination kept the Ball alive and evolving. Her ability to gather people, and to create safe spaces imbued with defiance, celebration, and glamour, helped sustain generations through periods of discrimination, fear and social change.

After stepping away from organising the Ball following four decades at its helm, Dame Sybil remained deeply connected to the event. Brisbane Pride assumed responsibility in 2009, and honoured Dame Sybil as the inaugural recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. Dame Sybil continued attending the Ball, held since the mid-2010s at Brisbane City Hall, and presenting the coveted Drag Performer of the Year Award — always naming all previous winners.

From discrete origins on Mount Tamborine, to the heart of civic life in Brisbane City Hall, Queens Ball continues today because of the spaces Dame Sybil created: spaces where LGBTQIA+ people could feel safe, celebrated and visible. They remain as important now as ever.

The 65th Queens Ball, to be held at Brisbane City Hall on 20 June 2026, will honour the life and legacy of Dame Sybil Von Thorndyke.

Chris Vernon is a member of the Brisbane Pride board.