Voices of Queensland records 500 words of significance to Queensland, with their origins, meanings, and illustrative quotations. The words come from different aspects of Queensland life: politics and society, tourism, the outback, lifestyle, work, relations with the south. There are words for local activities, occupations, and institutions, and words that are connected with Queensland's history. Some of the words in his book have become familiar throughout Australia, but many will be known only to Queenslanders. The book opens with the fifty-three words that have been borrowed from local Aboriginal languages into Australian English. One of the these words, kangaroo, was the first Aboriginal word borrowed into English. The book ends with one of the latest Queensland voices to be recorded, that of the Kaiadilt people of the South Wellesley Islands in the Golf of Carpentaria.

Voices of Queensland shows us that, behind the banana curtain, Queenslanders are an inventive mob, whose words reflect the distinctive history, geography, and cultural and social life of the Sunshine State.