Did you know that the site of Brisbane’s proposed new Supreme and District Court complex was the location of our city’s first water supply?  The site, bounded by George, Roma and Turbot streets, was the location of the Roma Street Reservoir which was constructed by convicts in 1838 to create a water source for the new colony.  Convicts, under the direction of Captain Logan, built an earth dam across the creek between Roma and Little Roma Streets.  A pipline made of hollow hardwood logs carried the water down the hill to the soldiers’ barracks near Queen and George Streets, and from there to the commandant’s house in Queens Gardens.  The engravings below from 1865 show the reservoir in the bottom image in the right foreground.

  View of Brisbane, 1865.  Image No: 19422

In 1842 Brisbane was opened to free settlement and as the population grew added pressure was put on the reservoir.  Many complaints about the putrid quality of the water appeared in the pages of the Moreton Bay Courier including the following:

“We need only point to the neglected condition of the public reservoir at North Brisbane, upon which that section of the town is chiefly dependant for its supply, to prove the utter indifference hitherto displayed in this respect.  Constructed for the purpose of collecting and preserving the waters that drain from the hills in the vicinity; reserved from sale as a public property for the purpose, the reservoir is still abondoned to the destructive ravages of wanton neglect.  Its embankments are gradually being washed away, and the water that should be saved for a time of need is allowed to drain off whithersoever chance may guide it.  The basin is open alike to the uses of herds of cattle, of stray pigs, dogs and horses.”  (Moreton Bay Courier, 23/3/1850, p.2)

“Sir - I must crave space in the columns of your journal to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the present state of the Reservoir, and quality of the water we are compelled to drink.  It does not need any scientific knowledge to see at once the impurity of the water - full of animal and vegetable life, and thickened by the visits of cattle, horses, ducks, &c., stirring up the mud and giving it a body.”  (Moreton Bay Courier, 24/10/1857, p.2)

The Roma Street Reservoir remained the main source of water until 1866 when thankfully the Enoggera Reservoir was constructed.

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While this year holds a number of significant anniversaries in Queensland history, one of the more poignant is that 2009 also marks 50 years since the closing of the Peel Island lazaret.

Situated in Moreton Bay off Cleveland Point, and now named Teerk Roo Ra (Peel Island) National Park, the island has a unique history.  Once a feasting and ceremonial site for the Indigenous people of the area, Peel was also used as a quarantine station in the late 1800’s, and a home for inebriates in the early 1900’s.  From 1907 to 1959, the island functioned as a lazaret, where sufferers of Hansen’s disease (or leprosy) were separated from society and isolated under the Leprosy Act 1892.

  Huts for leper patients on Peel Island, 1907.  Image No: 36682

 Caretaker’s cottage, ca. 1913.  Image No: APE-045-001-0028

Now heritage listed, the island’s historic remains are being preserved and the park is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.  The John Oxley Library continues to contribute to the preservation of the documentary history of the island.

Researchers wishing to delve into this past can find numerous resources available through our reading room including published items and original materials such as photographs.

A recent addition to the preservation of the island’s history is the Friends of Peel Island Association website - captured by State Library and archived in PANDORA - a national digital archive where copies of Australian websites of significance are held and available online.  Additional versions of this website will be captured over time, and these will remain as another resource available to future generations of researchers interested in Peel Island’s history.

To view the preserved versions of the Friends of Peel Island Association website, see http://nla.gov.au/nla.arc-84386

For more information about the PANDORA archive go to  http://pandora.nla.gov.au/

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The Manifesto of the Queensland Labour Party, dated 9 September 1892 (the Manifesto), held in the collections of the John Oxley Library, already registered by UNESCO for its national cultural significance has now been recorded as being of international cultural significance.

The Manifesto, one of the formative documents of the present Australian Labor Party, was written at a time of political and social upheaval in Queensland, with the labour movement seeking alternatives to industrial action to progress its aims. It provides a detailed coverage of the party’s grievances, with a focus upon the ruling class of the time, including squatters, employers, the government and others, which it saw as opposing what it aspired to in terms of working benefits. Electoral and land reform as well as social equity are specific themes.

According to labour folklore, early versions or excerpts of the Manifesto were read out or discussed under the so called Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine following the Great Shearer’s Strike, Barcaldine being at the centre of the industrial strife that took place in the early 1890s.  The town was the centre point for contact and communication for the strikers, who were later to form the vanguard of the labour movement. Whether or not this event actually took place, the Manifesto stands as one of the planks upon which the labour movement based its aims of the attainment of political power and parliamentary representation.

Subsequently, Barcaldine has become known as the birthplace of the Labor Party in Queensland with the Tree of Knowledge surviving until recently as a physical reminder of the events of the time. The Manifesto was an important link in the chain of actions and events in Queensland that culminated in the formation of the first Labor government in the world. This was the short-lived Anderson Dawson Labor Government that came to power in 1899.

The Manifesto was written by Charles Seymour, who was heavily involved in the formative years of the labour movement in Queensland. It was signed by the party’s president, Thomas Glassey, who was also the first person to be popularly elected on a labour platform in Queensland.

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The Internet provides the world with a wonderous though inherently transient publishing environment with websites here today but often gone into the ether tomorrow.

PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive is a growing collection of copies of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with other cultural collecting organisations and nine other Australian libraries including the State Library of Queensland.

In a recent posting on the Aus-Archivists listserv Annabel Lloyd, coordinator of the Brisbane City Council Archive, shared the following story:

Just thought I would share a good news story on the value of PANDORA - the National Library’s web archive.
For close to 10 years we managed a small but popular local history website BRISbites which contain a short introductory history to each of the over 300 suburbs of Brisbane mainly aimed at school students but enjoyed by the wider community. It was hosted by a series of external providers - over the years the small providers were taken over by larger companies but the access to the site remained. Earlier this year the latest provider suddenly went bankrupt - our site disappeared overnight and we became creditors and were referred to the receivers, who were not helpful - In trying to recover the data we knew we still had much of the original text but what we faced losing was the numerous updates and corrections that had been made to site over the years. Fortunately, we were archived by Pandora who, in less than 24 hours were able to provide us with a complete version of the site less than 10 months old!
We are now working with our corporate website area to make the information contained on the site accessible through Council’s corporate website - the look and feel of the original site will still be preserved by PANDORA.

The BRISbites website was captured and preserved by the State Library of Queensland’s Gina Tom who works together in the John Oxley Library with colleague Maxine Fisher on the PANDORA Archive .

This was one of several hundred online Queensland publications added to PANDORA by The State Library over the course of the last year.

PANDORA contributor Gina Tom

For more information on the PANDORA Archive visit the National Library of Australia’s website at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/

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Our Heritage Collections reference service throws up many interesting stories from our history.  Here is one that we researched recently.

In 1893 it was Henry Plantagenet Somerset of Caboonbah Homestead who observed a fifty foot wall of flood water strike the 120 foot cliff at Caboonbah. As many as five cyclones that had crossed the coast near Noosa and had brought drenching rain to the Brisbane and Stanley River watersheds. It was when the waters broke over Sapphire Gully that Somerset decided to dispatch two men, one to Esk, the other to Petrie. Harry Winwood was dispatched to Esk with a telegram for the Post Master General - this telegram was never sent, its contents warning of the highest flood on record. H. P. Somerset rowed stockman Billy Mateer with two horses swimming behind the boat to high land adjoining the stock route at Reedy Creek, from here he made his way to North Petrie. Billy was able to get through to the telegraph and relay the telegram message to Brisbane.

“Prepare at once for flood. River here within 10ft of 1890 flood, and rising fast, still raining”. Subsequently Caboonbah was made an official flood warning station with a telegraph line from Cressbrook.

One wonders how many lives were saved as a result.

  Flood waters on Albion St., Warwick, 1893.  Image No: 199833

Engraving of Vernor Family rescued near Fernvale, 1893.  No: 121166

Eagle Street, Brisbane, 1893.  Image No: API-033-01-0005

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As in past years, the State Library of Queensland is again calling for nominations for its three prestigious awards - the John Oxley Library Award, the Library Board of Queensland Award and the John Oxley Library Fellowship valued at $20,000.

Full details of these important awards, including information about past recipients can be found by following this link:

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/ppp/lb-award

Nominations opened Monday 26 January 2009 and close at 5pm, Friday 20 March 2009.
More information
• Telephone: +61 7 3842 9847
• Fax: +61 7 3846 1535
• Email: kate.hall@slq.qld.gov.au

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Just before Christmas we said good bye to our Manager, Original Materials, Jo Ritale who has taken up a position at the State Library of Victoria.

The equally popular Serena Coates has now been appointed to the position and will continue Jo’s good work looking after the John Oxley Library’s extensive collections of manuscripts, archival material, photographs and art works.

 New Manager, Original Materials, Serena Coates

Serena brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position, in particular her in depth knowledge of the collections.  She previously held the position of Heritage Collecting Coordinator within the Heritage Collections Unit.

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Visitors to this blog may have noticed some changes in the sidebar area.

You can now subscribe to a comments feed, which augments the existing feeds for blog posts and the State Library of Queensland website news. (Help with RSS feeds is available.)

Also available now is a monthly archive, listing links to posts published each month. This should provide more direct access to earlier posts.

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