Monthly Archives: August 2012 Back

New Acquisition: Garland Family Personal Papers

Posted on 31 Aug 2012| by Lynn Meyers |

Three generations of the Garland family

A recent acquisition to the John Oxley Library is the personal papers and photographs of three generations of the Garland Family of Tarragindi who were a prominent Brisbane family. The treasures were unearthed when the last surviving member of the family relocated to a nursing home. Fortunately those clearing out the house recognized the significance of the material being uncovered and contacted State Library.

The collection includes the correspondence, papers and photographs of Canon David Garland (1864-1939). Canon Garland was born in Ireland in 1864 before migrating with his family to New South Wales. In 1889 he joined the Church of England ministry serving in Grafton and Perth. In 1902 he became rector of Charters Towers before becoming rector of Ithaca in Brisbane. He served in 1918-19 as a chaplain in the Middle East where he founded eight clubs for Australian troops. He has also been described as the architect of Anzac Day, initiating many important aspects of the ceremony including the Anzac Day march, wreath- laying and the two minutes silence.

Canon David John Garland

Canon Garland and his wife Mary had one child, a son named David James Garland, born in Perth in 1896. David James was educated at Wellington College, New Zealand, and graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Engineering in 1922. In that same year he married Beatrice Florence Monteath and built the family home “Ripponlea” at 50 Tarragindi Road, Tarragindi. The collection includes the original plans and specifications for the house as well as a real estate map of the original subdivision of the land. During World War I David James Garland served with the Australian Wireless squadron in Mesopotamia and during WWII served with the Royal Australian Engineers at Australian Headquarters in Melbourne.

David James Garland during WWI

Photograph album kept by David James Garland in WWI

Beatrice Garland, wife of David James Garland

After World War I he joined the Main Roads Department of Queensland as an engineer rising steadily through the ranks until he reached the position of Chief Engineer in 1953 until his retirement in 1961. From 1945-49 he was Foundation and Sub-Structure Engineer for the Burdekin River Bridge, visiting India in 1946 to investigate the problems associated with the erection of bridges over wide sandy river beds. The collection includes his reports and correspondence from this time as well as photographs of bridge projects with which he was involved. In 1962 he was awarded the M.B.E. for outstanding service to the State. David James Garland died in 1970 after many years of ill health.

Logan River Bridge, ca. 1930s

David James Garland and his wife Beatrice had one child, David Kelvin Garland, who was born in Brisbane in 1927. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland in 1951 and worked for the Queensland Electricity Commission until his retirement in 1987. David Kelvin never married, a fact lamented by his parents in several letters in the collection.

All of the family were great correspondents and their letters provide a rich picture of the social and political life of the times. The Garland collection also includes photographs, certificates, reports, house plans and medals spanning the period 1893 to 1980 and vividly depicting the life of a Brisbane family over three generations.

Lynn Meyers – Original Materials Librarian, State Library of Queensland

ICA brings home Queensland Architecture

Posted on 31 Aug 2012| by Myles Sinnamon |

Last week John Oxley Library staff attended the International Council of Archives Congress in Brisbane. Held every four years, this was the first time the event had taken place in the Southern Hemisphere.

University of Queensland’s Professor Jane Hunter gave an interesting talk about utilisation of a Web 3.0 approach to build an online digital archive of architectural practice in post-war Queensland. Working with the State Library, UQ is putting together oral histories aligned with transcripts, GIS mapping and data driven visualisations to paint a vivid picture of Queensland’s architectural landscape from 1945 to 1975.

Professor Hunter’s paper from the ICA Congress is available to read online.

Discover some of the John Oxley Library’s architectural resources with our One Search catalogue

Centenary Pool, Spring Hill, Brisbane, 1960. State Library of Queensland. Image number: lbp00211

A well-known example of post-war Queensland architecture: Centenary Pool, Spring Hilll, Brisbane, 1960

Catherine Cottle – Digital Collections Curator, State Library of Queensland

The business of tourism: Queensland’s 1880s theme park

Posted on 29 Aug 2012| by Myles Sinnamon |

Tourism is a very significant sector of the Queensland economy. As have their counterparts in all kinds of Queensland businesses, Queensland’s tourism entrepreneurs have shown initiative, imagination, commitment to their goals and the willingness to take calculated risks to achieve their aims. Queensland’s climate has nurtured business enterprises ranging from the cultivation of sugar to cattle grazing to the celebration of unique natural attractions. The climate can also wound businesses: droughts, floods, cyclones can all be ruinous.

Tourism is particularly vulnerable to the vagaries of weather and climate. Queensland’s first theme park, the Queensport Aquarium, was constructed near Hemmant in the lower reaches of the Brisbane River. The Aquarium was opened with great celebration in August 1889. There was far more to be seen than sea creatures ranging from seals to sharks. There were the ‘finest collection of tigers in captivity’, a black Java panther, a cheetah, bears, monkeys, an extraordinary collection of brids – parrots, cockatoos, pigeons, doves, English finches and black swans – and, of course, plenty of reptiles.

Admiring the animals was only part of the entertainment at Queensland’s first theme park. The huge concert hall was equipped with an organ which entered guests at concerts on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. There was also an Aquarium Band to serenade the ‘best singers’ who could be found in Brisbane. The Aquarium boosted the popularity of the area; land near the Aquarium was subdivided and sold as ‘The Queensport Aquarium Estate’.

Queensport Aquarium Estate Map at Hemmant, Brisbane, Queensland, 1889

The crowds who visited the Aquarium arrived by steamer from the Aquarium Company’s own wharf in the city centre. This was a package deal. The return fare on the Natone, the Woolwich or the Alice cost two shillings for adults and one shilling for a child. Moonlit excursions to dances in the concert hall became well patronised activities. The Aquarium and its hall were equipped with every modern convenience including electric light which was connected in September 1889.

Daytime activities included sports days to celebrate the new year, picnics on Foundation Day, as the 26 January was then known and, in May 1891, the amazing sight of a hot air balloon delighted the crowd. The Brisbane Courier reported, ‘Professor Fernandez, an aeronaut who has performed many remarkable feats in the Southern colonies, appeared at the Queensport Aquarium and made his first balloon ascent in this colony’, a feat which nearly ended in disaster when the balloon began to deflate and appeared likely to sink into the river. Fortunately, the balloon rose again and landed safely.

The Aquarium was not greatly troubled by the large flood in 1890, even though the wharf in the city was inundated. Worse was to come in the flood on 5 and 6 February 1893 which tore down the fences, liberating many of the animals, and ruined the carefully landscaped gardens. Before long, J D Campbell and the Aquarium Company advertised the sale of the steamers and, although picnic parties from the city continued to travel to dances and picnics, the grand theme park’s bright presence in the tourism spotlight had dimmed by the end of the century.

Helen Gregory – Historian in residence, State Library of Queensland

Queensland Place Histories – Eimeo, Mackay

Posted on 28 Aug 2012| by JOL Admin |

Eimeo is an outer suburb of Mackay, located approximately 11 kilometres north of the city. The area covered by the suburb extends from the Mackay-Bucasia Road to the high land at the entrance to Eimeo Creek. Adjacent to the headland is a small sandy beach.

Day out at Eimeo Beach, Mackay. Image courtesy of Mackay Regional Council Libraries

The suburb’s name is said to derive from the birthplace of Eimeo pioneer, Jeremiah Downs Armitage, Eimeo Island in Tahiti. Jeremiah Armitage came to Mackay in the early 1870s and soon took up land, initially operating as a timber merchant but later moving into fruit growing. In addition to the growing of fruit, Armitage developed the area to cater for tourists in the Mackay area. He opened a boarding house on Eimeo Hill, which also intermittedly traded as a hotel.

Armitage’s lasting legacy to the area is the avenue of mango trees he planted, probably in the 1880s, to delineate the track leading from the main Mackay access road, through his property, to his boarding house/hotel. These trees survive to the present day and are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. Palm Avenue is also a significant and well known feature of the suburb.

Palm Avenue, Eimeo, Mackay, Qld. Image courtesy of Mackay Regional Council Libraries

The present day Pacific Hotel, often still referred to as the Eimeo Pub, is the successor to Armitage’s earlier boarding house/hotel. During the Second World War, the Eimeo Hotel was used as a place of rest and recreation by American servicemen, many of whom had fought in various locations in the Pacific campaign. The present Pacific Hotel on the site dates from 1954.

Pacific Hotel, Eimeo, Mackay. Image courtesy of Mackay Regional Libraries

During the 1930s, as an added attraction for visitors and holiday makers, there was a skating ring adjacent to the Eimeo Hotel.

Eimeo skating rink, Queensland, 1939

The area has also been a popular residential and tourist location, with the first allotments specifically being marketed for the purposes of holiday homes, being sold from 1926. Boating and other water sports have always been popular pursuits.

Seven lads in a boat at Eimeo Creek, Mackay region. Courtesy of Mackay Regional Council Libraries

Brian Randall – Queensland Places Coordinator, State Library of Queensland

Loris Williams Annual Memorial Lecture, 21 August 2012

Posted on 27 Aug 2012| by Joan Bruce |

Dr. Jackie Huggins delivered the annual Loris Williams Memorial Lecture at State Library of Queensland last Tuesday night. Nearly 100 people came to remember Loris and to share their own stories.

Loris Williams

One theme that emerged was the extent of government records about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland, “unparalleled anywhere in the world” according to Dr. Huggins. Ironically, the Orwellian surveillance which produced these detailed files has made it easier for aboriginal people in Queensland to trace their families, but they can be very painful for people to read. Getting access has also been a long, painful process for the individuals involved and their families. As the first Aboriginal person from Queensland to gain professional archival qualifications, this was a fight in which Loris was actively involved and it is an important part of her legacy.

The lecture this year was hosted by the Australian Society of Archivists, in conjunction with the International Council on Archives Congress

James Moloney

Posted on 24 Aug 2012| by Joan Bruce |

James Moloney has written nearly 40 books over the last 20 years, most of them for children and young adults.

His first was Crossfire, published in 1992, and other notable books include Angela, Dougy and A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, for which he won the Australian Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award in 1997.

James Moloney, 2009 ed.

A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove was set around FraserIsland and TinCanBay and Moloney’s website has photographs of the actual places in which the story is set.

James Moloney, 2007

Moloney grew up in Brisbane and State Library of Queensland has a large collection of his personal papers covering the period from 1985 to 2007. There are 22 boxes of manuscripts and correspondence, showing the entire creative process from notebooks with initial ideas to successive drafts of manuscripts.

List of books in State Library of Queensland

7819 James Moloney Papers 1985 – 2007

James Moloney’s official website

Jackie French

Posted on 24 Aug 2012| by Joan Bruce |

Jackie French grew up in Brisbane, although she now lives in New South Wales. She is a prolific author and has produced approximately 150 books to date.

Notable titles include Diary of a Wombat, Hitler’s Daughter and Flood which was produced in response to the 2011 Queensland floods.

Jackie French, 2011

State Library of Queensland owns the artwork for the cover image of Flood. Illustrator Bruce Whately says in these teachers’ notes that he wanted the whole book to look wet. To achieve that effect the paintings were done in acrylics, used very thinly so that they would run and drip.

Jackie French, 1999

Jackie French, 2005 ed.

List of books in State Library of Queensland.

Jackie French’s official website

Australian South Sea Islanders National Recognition Day

Posted on 24 Aug 2012| by Myles Sinnamon |

Saturday the 25th August 2012 is the Australian South Sea Islanders National Recognition Day. In 1994, the Commonwealth Government officially recognised the Australian South Sea Islanders (ASSI) as a distinct cultural group. This was followed by a formal Recognition Statement by the Queensland Government in September 2000, which also acknowledged the past injustices suffered by the ASSI, and the significant contributions they had made to the economic, cultural and social development of QLD.

Next year, the ASSI’s commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the first boatload of kanakas to work as labourers on the sugar cane and cotton farms. This dreadful trade, known as blackbirding, was carried out from the 1860’s up until the early 1900’s, when the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 and the Immigration Restriction Act were enacted to deport the ASSI in line with the White Australia Policy.

The Pacific Island Labourers Act and the Immigration Restriction Act can be found in the SLQ’s collection of Commonwealth Acts of Australia. Many government reports, photographs and books on the Australian South Sea Islanders can be found in the John Oxley Library. Some photographs can be perused online through our OneSearch catalogue.

Ruth Gardiner – Distributed Collections Coordinator, State Library of Queensland

‘Celebrating our heritage’ seminar at RHSQ

Posted on 23 Aug 2012| by Myles Sinnamon |

Former Commissariat Stores building in Brisbane, ca. 1928

Posted on behalf of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland

The introduction of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 was heralded by many as a major step forward in the Queensland state government’s attempt to protect Queensland’s built heritage after the ‘nocturnal demolitions’ of the Bjelke-Peterson government. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the Act, a seminar titled ‘Celebrating our heritage’ will be held in the Commissariat Store, Brisbane’s only convict-built structure still in use, on Saturday 25 August 2012.

BACKGROUND HISTORY:
In 1989, newly-elected Premier Wayne Goss ordered that a Consultative Committee be created, to be chaired by conservation architect Richard Allom. This committee was given the responsibility of drafting a Green Paper for the future Act and creating a Heritage Committee to handle specific heritage cases . Despite the creation of this body, there were still no active government policies protecting heritage buildings. In response Pat Comben, Minister for Environment and Heritage, announced that from 11 March 1990 no properties listed on the National Trust of Queensland (NTQ) or Australian Heritage Council (AHC) registers could be developed, and in May 1990 the Heritage Buildings Protection Bill was introduced .

The Green Paper for the Heritage Act was also completed in May 1990, and the Act passed through parliament in August 1992.

According to the State government, over 1600 private and public places are now protected under the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 and have subsequently been placed on the Queensland Heritage Register. In order to be added to the register, a building must satisfy a number of criteria which can relate not only to its significance for present and future generations, but to the aesthetic, architectural, historical, scientific, social, or other significance of the place. Buildings currently under protection include:

Commissariat Stores
Cleveland Lighthouse
Great Northern Tin Mine, Herberton
Ipswich Baptist Church
Picnic at Cleveland Lighthouse, ca. 1871

SEMINAR DETAILS:
Presented by the Queensland Heritage Council (QHC) and the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (RHSQ), the seminar will trace the beginnings of the state’s heritage protection as well as highlight different heritage aspects including shipwrecks, lighthouses, national parks, religious, mining and workers’ heritage. Examples of successful adaptive re-use of heritage buildings will also be discussed and presenters include historians, heritage professionals and owners/custodians of heritage buildings and places.

The seminar is part of the RHSQ’s popular ‘At-Home’ series which opens the 1829 building and its associated displays to the public several times per year. Guided tours will be available on the day.

Date: Saturday 25 August 2012
Time: 10 am–3.30 pm, with registration available from 9.30 am
Venue: Commissariat Store, 115 William Street, Brisbane
Entry fee: $10.

Further details including the program of events will be provided on the QHC’s website at www.qldheritage.org.au and the RHSQ’s website at www.queenslandhistory.org.au

Our Top 5 photographs on Flickr

Posted on 23 Aug 2012| by Myles Sinnamon |

State Library has been contributing photographs to Flickr Commons since 26 January 2009. There are around 1500 photos in themed sets – everything from illustrated covers of The Queenslander newspaper to glamour fashion photography of the 1930s.

The photos in Flickr Commons have been viewed over 1.7 million times and we thought we’d show you the top five photographs and ask you to tell us what you think about them -

1. Four boys riding goats, ca. 1918

This quirky and nostalgic photo has been a hit since it first appeared on Flickr in January 2009. The photo of Owen McVey, Walter Grant, James Grant and Carl Vaughan was taken in Isisford in western Queensland and the boys might have been on their way to school or just having fun on the farm.

2. Rescued lifeboats from the Titanic

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in April 2012 inspired us to search our collections to see if there were any photographs in our collection related to the Titanic. This poignant photograph of rescued lifeboats has generated considerable discussion on Flickr Commons around whether the name of the ship on the lifeboat was ‘photo- shopped’ early 20th century style by scratching R.M.S. Titanic on to the negative of the photograph. As one Flickr user commented:
“Could there be something funny about this photo? I always understood that the lifeboats on the Titanic did not say “R. M. S. Titanic” but “White Star Line”. Is it possible that the original photographer scratched the name onto the original plate? I note it only says R. M. S. Titanic on one of the boats and even then the writing is not very straight..”

3. Young women running over a sand dune on an unidentified beach, ca. 1935

This image from our most popular set of photographs, Bathing Beauties, captures the carefree Australian summer beautifully. We don’t know who these young women are but their photograph has been nominated a favourite by hundreds of Flickr members and the photo viewed by thousands.
4. Children riding a horse to school, Glass House Mountains

The Glass House Mountains are just a short drive from Brisbane, but this photograph from 1928 reflects an earlier time where this part of Queensland was much less developed. Bush kids often rode horses to school and this group of children could be a prototype for the car pool!

5. Hulda Lundager with her cat and her doll, Mt. Morgan

The photographer is not identified in many of the photographs in our collection. This compelling image, however was taken by Jens Hansen Lundager, Hulda’s father. This most likely explains the skill demonstrated in photographing two difficult subjects – children and animals. The Lundagers were a prominent family in Mount Morgan. A contemporary newspaper article described him thus:
“Alderman J. H. Lundager. Born in Denmark on May 4, 1858. Arrived in Rockhampton early in the year 1879. At once commenced work there as a photographer; afterwards went to New South Wales, and tried goldmining at Temora. Returned to Rockhampton, and started business there; afterwards removed to Mount Morgan, where he carries on business as a bookseller, and for a number of years was editor and proprietor of the ‘ Argus,’ a Labour newspaper. In Mount Morgan Mr. Lundager has occupied nearly every public position : is at present Mayor for the second time, a Justice of the Peace, and member of the Licensing Branch, treasurer of the School of Arts, and a Trustee of the Technical College. He has been connected with the Labour party since its inception”

These five photographs capture something of the flavour of our collections in Flickr Commons. We invite you to explore our photostream our browse our themed sets of photos and tell us what you think.

Margaret Warren – Coordinator, Discovery Services – State Library of Queensland