Professional Historians Association Conference
The Professional Historians Association (Queensland) conference was held at the Marque Hotel in Brisbane on 3-4 September. Several staff members from the John Oxley Library attended this event, which was held to mark the sesquicentenary of Queensland.
 Dr Leanne Day
Both days provided a wonderful forum for a range of papers on the history of Queensland. Dr Leanne Day, from the John Oxley Library, presented an excellent paper on the Johnsonian Club, a gentlemen’s literary club founded in 1878 in colonial Brisbane.  The keynote address was given by the Queensland Governor, Ms Penelope Wensley, and was a highlight of the conference, discussing the importance of teaching Queensland history in our schools and universities and preserving our heritage.
Other papers included A”fantastic adventure’: reading Christison of Lammermoor by Mark Cryle; Conspiracy of silence: the colouring of Australian history and the killing times on the nineteenth-century Queensland frontier by Timothy Bottoms; Rivers and resorts: how rivers and sheltered waters influenced the location of the Sunshine Coast’s resort towns by Peter Osborne; and Remembering the cane: conserving the sugar legacy of far north Queensland by Joanna Wills.
The conference was a huge success and clearly shows that interest and scholarship in Queensland history is booming.
