The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan.

On 14 July 1976, it was announced that Brisbane had won the rights to stage the Games[7] after the other candidate cities withdrew bids.

Brisbane was awarded the Games by default after being the only candidate city left at the bid election after Birmingham reversed its decision to submit an application.

[7] Nigeria's boycott of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal made Lagos' bid lobbying impractical.

[8] The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal were plagued with cost overruns, and bidding on a sports festival anywhere in the world was not good politically.

Sports contested during the 1982 Commonwealth Games included athletics, archery, badminton, lawn bowls, boxing, cycling, shooting, swimming, diving, weightlifting and wrestling.

Elizabeth II closed the Games during a colourful ceremony, which included parachute jumpers (who had originally been also intended as part of the Opening Ceremony display) jumping and landing in a special target area within the stadium and red, white and blue balloons.

However, nobody wanted the Games to end and the Australian team formed a 'guard of honour' and ran beside and behind the car in which Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were travelling, as it circled the stadium several times before finally leaving.

The day was marred by both Australia and Canada being disqualified in the 4 × 100 metres relay in swimming, both problems occurring during change-overs.

Sports contested included swimming, diving, cycling, athletics, archery, hammer throwing and shooting.

[21] The protests were all peaceful, but police came out in force and blocked roads, making arrests under Queensland's Traffic Act.

[31][32][33] When the Commonwealth Games returned to Australia in 2018 at the Gold Coast, it drew a series of peaceful protests.