The party continued to hold seats in the Queensland state parliament until 1972, then suffered a collapse in its vote and wound itself up in 1978.
Gair tried to gain Country Party support for his minority government, but talks with Frank Nicklin broke down when federal Country Party leader Arthur Fadden (himself a Queenslander) told Nicklin that he had a chance to become Premier himself.
At that time, Queensland had a unicameral parliament which was elected by first-past-the-post rather than the present preferential voting system.
Since all sitting ALP and QLP members were opposed by a candidate from the other faction, the Labor vote was split in many seats.
[2] However this decision split the state parliamentarians with two, Bunny Adair and Ted Walsh, opposing joining the DLP and instead becoming independent members.
At the time the state Country Party explored a merger with the DLP as part of a strategy of seeking greater unity with groups opposed to the federal Labor government, but this plan was soon abandoned.
The ALP would remain in opposition in Queensland, even after the QLP and its successor the DLP had ceased to exist, returning to government in 1989 with Wayne Goss as leader.