On April 8, 1988, on the eve of World Expo 88, the State Library of Queensland was officially opened at its new premises in inner Brisbane’s South Bank by Premier and Arts Minister Mike Ahern. Ahern described the library as “something of which all Queensland can be extremely proud”, and of “enormous importance to the … Read more
On Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2003, the State Library of Queensland’s building at South Bank closed its doors to the public; and so began almost 3 years of construction and redevelopment. SLQ moved from its former William Street location to South Bank in 1988; into the building designed by noted architect Robin Gibson. In May 2000, … Read more
A recently digitised letter reveals that the Public Library of Queensland (formerly State Library of Queensland), was used as a place of temporary shelter on a day which was later dubbed ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Baton Friday’ at the height of the Brisbane General Strike of 1912. The strike started on January 18, 1912 after members of … Read more
At the turn of the twentieth century, the issue of evening opening hours at State Library of Queensland (formerly Public Library of Queensland) was one that vexed regular patrons. This can be evidenced by letters of complaint sent to local Brisbane newspapers at the time about the inequity of access and discrimination of the working classes. … Read more
In 1919, the Spanish flu arrived in Australia. This flu pandemic resulted in the deaths of over 50 million people worldwide, including the lives of approximately 12,000 Australians. Despite quarantine restrictions the first cases of Spanish Influenza in Queensland were reported on May 3, 1919. The arrival of the pandemic saw the Royal Queensland Show … Read more
There’s nothing more frustrating when leafing through a library book to discover some selfish person has removed pages, rendering part of the work unreadable. For book lovers and librarians alike, this is nothing short of intolerable, anti-social behavior, but surely our grandparents and great grandparents were above this sort of thing….weren’t they? Sadly, this is … Read more
120 years ago this month, a public meeting was held at Centennial Hall in Brisbane on October 21. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and vote on the introduction of a public library in Brisbane, a concept which had been much discussed over the years, but with little action taken. The Brisbane Courier … Read more
