Joh: Last King of Queensland
Luke Mesterovic reviews.
Image Source: Sydney Film Festival, 2025
Who is Joh? That is the question that opens Red Dog director Kriv Stenders’ latest work, Joh: Last King of Queensland. Premier of Queensland for almost 20 consecutive years, Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s name – for those who recognise it – has become synonymous with a brutal police force, flagrant gerrymandering and widespread corruption.
From 1968 to 1987, Joh Bjelke-Petersen ruled Queensland. Initially dismissed as a farmer with little political acumen, over the course of his career, “the Hillbilly Dictator” left his mark on the state and Australia, where in which he (among other things) used the police force to crush those who opposed him, opposed First Nations land rights, supported apartheid South Africa, allowed drilling on the Great Barrier Reef, played a pivotal role in the fall of the Whitlam government, conducted raids on abortion clinics, used his position to amass an enormous personal fortune, before being forced to resign in shame.
It’s a narrative that is perfectly suited for film, often feeling more like a Greek epic than a documentary about Australian history.
Image Source: Sydney Film Festival, 2025
It’s easy to see why Joh’s story is relevant for today’s audience. Joh, in both style and substance, shares a great deal in common with the current President of the United States. The rambling speech, the support for the police, the populist leveraging of racist white and rural grievances to cling onto power – the parallels are unavoidable. But the documentary also looks beyond these obvious comparisons, examining how autocrats can consolidate their power, particularly through complicity of the political media class.
Joh famously quipped that press conferences were where he “fed the chooks,” providing journalists with endless stories which they promptly report on, thereby raising his public profile. One of the film’s most important arguments is that it is only the alternative public radio station 4ZZZ, because it is embedded in the protest culture of the University of Queensland and not run for-profit, that is able to initially blow the whistle on some of the abuses carried out by the Queensland police.
Image Source: Fairfax Media via Getty Images
The documentary is primarily a series of interviews with a wide ensemble of people from Australian public life: politicians, artists, journalists and more. These interviews are interspersed with a rich collection of archival footage and a filmed performance of Richard Roxburgh performing an extended soliloquy as Joh himself. The decision to integrate Roxburgh’s performance into the documentary was a stroke of genius. It is what catapults this otherwise fantastic documentary into a must-watch for anyone with an interest in politics or history.
Roxburgh deftly captures Joh’s limp and signature meandering cadence, but it never feels like a gimmicky impersonation – he embodies Joh – the pride, the anger, the resentment, he brings all to life and always left me wanting more. It’s reminiscent of Philip Baker Hall’s performance as Richard Nixon in the 1984 film Secret Honor, which Stenders cited as an influence.
Image Source: Joh: Last King of Queensland, Stan
Thanks to the work of Karryn de Cinque, the documentary is exceptionally well-edited. The 98 minute runtime follows Joh from the cradle to his (political) grave, with a fast, steady pace that doesn’t get bogged down in the minutiae, as can be the risk of documentaries of this kind. It goes into enough depth for those who lived through or have read about the Joh years, whilst also providing an entry point for those who have never heard of him.
Image Source: The Australian, 2025
If I had to level one criticism, it would be that Joh’s ensuing criminal trial is relegated to a few sentences on screen at the end, stating that the jury could not agree on a verdict. While this certainly does drive home one of the film’s central messages – that Joh’s legacy remains contested to this day – not mentioning the fact that the jury foreman was later revealed to be a Young National and member of the “friends of Joh” group was disappointing, and it felt like they were letting Joh off the hook.
Nonetheless, the film is an expertly-crafted and gripping examination of a dark chapter of this country’s history. It’s a reminder of the dangers of what happens when power is left unchecked. Joh’s story remains relevant to this day.
Joh: Last King of Queensland is available to stream on Stan.
