Category Archives: New Acquisitions Back

New Accession: Return of Diary to Australia after One Hundred and Fifty years in England

Posted on 15 Apr 2013| by Patricia Parr |

Tom Bird's Diary

Accession 28997:

This diary is an account of Tom Bird’s experiences, observations and thoughts recorded on board the ship Sultana during a voyage from England to Australia in 1862. The ship sailed from Plymouth and reached Moreton Bay, Queensland 90 days later on the 31st October.

Having arrived at his destination, found lodgings and taken up employment he resumed writing the diary and recorded details of his daily life and work in Brisbane, from the 1st January to the 16th January 1863. He added the date 17th January clearly intending to continue the diary but at this point something happened….

For some reason the diary was returned to England to Tom’s mother and step-father, Margaret and Charles Webster. It was forwarded to them by a Mr Saul Grimley of Jimbour, Queensland and stayed in the family until a descendant John Frederick Webster, decided to pursue some family history research. In doing so he discovered that Tom Bird had married and had a family before he died in Queensland in 1881.

Further investigation led John Webster to Tom’s great-grandchildren in Brisbane and the diary was returned to them last year. They, in turn, have generously donated the diary to the John Oxley Library.

Patricia Parr – Original Materials Librarian, State Library of Queensland

New Acquisition: Terry Swann Works of Art of Yarrabah and the Torres Strait

Posted on 19 Mar 2013| by Lynn Meyers |

The John Oxley Library has been fortunate to receive five beautiful paintings by Terry Swann, one of Australia’s foremost contemporary watercolourists. Mrs Swann was born in Sydney but lived for many years on the Gold Coast with her late husband, Dr. Ken Meehan. She has been painting full time for more than twenty years, winning many awards and gaining inspiration for her works from the landscapes of the remoter parts of Australia.

Her late husband, Dr. Ken Meehan, was educated at Downlands College, Toowoomba, and the University of Queensland, specialising in tropical medicine. Through this interest he first went to Papua New Guinea to live with the tribal people before studying at the London School of Tropical Medicine. In 1983 he began seven years at the Yarrabah Aboriginal Community in North Queensland where he was the sole doctor caring for about 2000 aboriginal people. In 1989 he and his wife also spent time on Murray Island in the Torres Strait where he did a medical aid posting as there was no resident doctor on the island. During this time Mrs Swann painted the three works below which include her own descriptions.

Murray Island painted from the top of Mount Gelam.

“This is a small painting done on location from the top of Mt. Gelam. I looked down on the small village and bay. There had been a ‘burn off’ and you will see grey patches from the fire”.

Murray Island painted from the water

“A view of the village done from the water. You can see the strong image of Mt. Gelam (in the shape of a dugong – a sacred symbol to the people).”

Waier Island in the Torres Strait

“Waier Island is a small uninhabited island, just off Murray Island. It had an infamous past as many years ago human sacrifices were carried out there. It had ‘bad vibes’ to me. In such a tropical, beautiful setting there is a tall towering rock face with black jagged rocks on top – like black teeth. In the painting I have depicted some symbols from the past and that of the present: 1. a crouching pagan figure, watching, hidden; 2. a drum, still used by the Meriam people with a shark’s head at one end; 3. the symbol of the cross – the current religion of the people.”

The next two works were painted during Mrs Swann’s time at Yarrabah. She described the experience as follows “I lived in Yarrabah Aboriginal Community from 1987 to 1990 with my doctor husband, Dr. Ken Meehan. As an artist I spent time encouraging the local people to make and paint artworks. During my time I heard many stories of loss and sadness. Some knew their ‘roots’ but many didn’t as they came to the mission many years ago and their language and culture were left behind.”

Lost Heritage

” I felt strongly about the lost heritage of these people. I show a strong fig tree with roots clawing the ground and a ‘screaming head’ with outstretched arms (a cruciform shape). Behind the figure is the shape of the turtle shell which is an important symbol to the Yarrabah people. Although this is a dark image the background is full of light depicting hope for the future.”

The Land and its People

“A similar figure of the ‘human fig tree’ but underneath is a swirling mass of colour and shapes not clearly defined. This is symbolic of the people’s past heritage which is, hopefully, waiting to be discovered”.

The original artworks may be viewed at the John Oxley Library - Acc: 28948, Map Cabinet 4D/136-B7. The paintings were donated to the library to honour the memory of Terry Swann’s late husband, Dr. Ken Meehan, who died in 2003.

Lynn Meyers – Original Materials Librarian, State Library of Queensland

New Accessions: Foot Fashions Ledgers (1937-1957)

Posted on 18 Mar 2013| by Veronika Farley |

This accession contains nine business ledgers with accounts of Foot Fashions.

Foot Fashions, situated at 141 Queen Street (in the T&G Insurance building) sold women’s shoes. The store was a few doors away from Mathers Shoe Store, owned by Bill Mathers. This was the first in the Mathers chain, later created by Bill’s son Bob Mathers. Bill Mathers and Ernest Noad were business rivals, but also very good friends.

Pedestrians crossing the intersection of Albert and Queen Streets, in front of the T & G Building

Foot Fashions had a display window on Queen Street, well positioned near the safety zone where commuters waited for trams heading south. Inside the store were two benches, placed back to back, for customers to try shoes, and shelves of show boxes from floor to ceiling. Staff used ladders to take down the stock at the top of the walls. Two large pedestal fans blew all day in the heat of summer to keep the temperature comfortable for staff and customers. Foot Fashions employed two female staff, often unmarried women.

At the back of the store was a small office where Ernest Noad managed staff, met trade representatives, ordered stock, kept the accounts, organised staff pay and banking. The business was open five days a week from 8:30 am to 4.40 pm and on Saturday mornings from 8.30 to 11.30. The store had no cash register, but a cash drawer which had a number of levers under it. A certain combination of levers had to be pulled with the fingers, each by exactly the right amount for that lever, for the drawer to open. All receipts were handwritten and purchases were wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. All shoe boxes were marked with the cost price in a secret code, as well as the retail price in the currency of the day–pounds, shillings and pence. At one time the store acquired an X-ray machine, so that customers could see if a pair of shoes was fitting correctly. This did not last long as the X-ray dosage could not be controlled.

The busiest times of the day were over lunch hours and after 3.30 pm, after school. On the basis of his conversations with customers, Ernest Noad designed shoes he thought would sell, and had shoes made to measure for difficult feet. These were manufactured for him at Fulcher’s Boot and Shoe Factory on the corner of Wellington Rd and Nile St in Woolloongabba. A descendant of the Fulcher family now has a shoe shop in the Westfield Shopping Centre at Chermside.

The Noad family often used their store as a base. From the offices higher in the building they would watch parades in Queen Street, including the parades at the end of Word War Two. On Saturday mornings the children would go to the city to take music lessons, go skating at the Blue Moon rink across the Victoria Bridge and, when they were teenagers, take dancing lessons in the O’Connor Boat House on the river bank.

Foot Fashions closed when Ernest Noad retired in 1957.

Veronika Farley – Librarian/Archivist, Queensland Memory

New Acquisition – Photograph of Murphy’s Creek in the Lockyer Valley

Posted on 07 Mar 2013| by Lynn Meyers |

The John Oxley Library recently received a beautiful sepia photograph of a family group relaxing on the banks of Murphy’s Creek in the Lockyer Valley, ca. 1900.

Murphy's Creek, ca. 1900

The serenity of the scene belies the dormant power of the creek which caused catastrophic flooding in January 2011. This flood tore a path of destruction through the Lockyer Valley, resulting in loss of life and significant damage to property in the area.

However this was not the first major flood of Murphy’s Creek. The following article appeared in the Queenslander newspaper of 28th June 1873:

Murphy’s Creek (From a Correspondent) June 18

Never was such a flood known in the memory of the oldest resident here as has just swept over the face of this extensive and fertile district. The one that occurred some six years ago, I am confidently assured, did not reach the flood mark so high by many feet. All along the circuitous and eccentric bends of the main creek, from its head, where the first springs rise, near Ballard’s Camp, for a distance of some nine to ten miles to the Quarries, its swollen waters flowed and eddied like a roaring torrent. Huge trees of the forest floated down incessantly for two days and two nights, here and there damming up the rising waters as they caught the numerous knolls and corners on their way, undermining the banks at various spots for many yards and carrying swiftly away tons of earth, silt, sand and soil. Finch’s Pocket, a small peninsula, was nearly all under water, and here and there stray huts and dwellings became so suddenly threatened, that the inmates, quaking with fear, passed many a restless hour, and prepared themselves for flight to more fortunate neighbours on higher ground. A very substantial bridge, only some twelve months erected, at Macdonald’s Crossing, had its approaches entirely washed away.

The photograph may be viewed at the John Oxley Library, Acc: 28851, Box 17209. A digitized version will shortly appear on our catalogue.

Lynn Meyers – Original Materials Librarian, State Library of Queensland

“Shirting” the Issues

Posted on 04 Mar 2013| by zpappas |

The democratic process has provided us here at the John Oxley Library a plethora of opportunities to collect contemporary materials. From our last State and Local elections and from ephemera, websites to photographic essays; we have been collecting, capturing and receiving content around the Queensland political landscape of the moment for our future reflecting and remembering.

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister, The Hon Julia Gillard MP, announced that the date of the next Federal election was set for Saturday 14 September. Such an announcement is invariably followed with a call to arms as members set about the process of electioneering. This sends us at the John Oxley Library into a tizzy as we keep our eyes peeled and our fingers poised for Queensland election content.

We had an auspicious time last week, for not only did our first item of Queensland related election ephemera come in (we are once again doing a call out for Queensland related ephemera for this coming Federal election. If you’re wondering what this is, and what we want, well we’ve blogged about ephemera before and asked for your assistance in collecting election ephemera. This will help you know what we want and where to send it!), but we also received a new item of clothing.

Yes, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Member for Griffith, kindly took us up on our request to donate to the John Oxley Library, a signed copy of his, “It’s our Ruddy Future” T-shirt; which will now complement the Kevin 07 shirt we already have in our collection.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

KRUDD's 2013 Local Griffith Campaign T-shirt

"It's Our Ruddy Future" T-Shirt, Front (signed)

"It's Our Ruddy Future" T-Shirt, Back

Zenovia Pappas – Contemporary Collecting Coordinator, State Library of Queensland

New Acquisition: Paul Zammit Benemerenti Medal

Posted on 19 Feb 2013| by Lynn Meyers |

The John Oxley Library has been fortunate to receive a donation of a medal awarded to Paul Zammit by the Catholic Church in recognition of his services to the church and the Catholic community in North Queensland.

Paul Zammit Benemerenti Medal

The Benemerenti medal was first awarded by Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) in recognition of military merit. In 1925 the Catholic Church broadened the scope of the medal to serve as a mark of recognition for services to the church in both a civil and military capacity. Paul Zammit, a Maltese pioneer of North Queensland, was awarded the medal by Pope Pius XII in January 1948 for building the Church of St. Paul amidst the canefields of Bartle Frere. Zammit was the first person in Queensland to be awarded the Benemerenti Medal for distinguished service.

Bememerenti medal certificate presented to Paul Zammit

The story of Paul Zammit is a remarkable one. He was born in Malta in about 1888 and immigrated to Australia in 1912 where he worked in the Chillagoe mines and later in the canefields of North Queensland. He eventually settled in Mooliba, near Bartle Frere, around 1919. By December 1913 his wife, Paulina, with their first child had joined him in Queensland and over the following twenty years the couple had nine more children, all of whom were talented musicians.

Paul Zammit became one of the most successful sugar farmers in North Queensland and prospered financially with numerous property investments. He used his growing prosperity to support many migrants from Italy and Malta and his deep faith led to him funding the construction of the Catholic Church of St. Paul in the canefields of Bartle Frere. The little concrete church was opened on 31 August 1947. Below is an extract from an article appearing in the Cairns Post, 6 September 1947, p.9:

“In his address, Most Rev. Dr. Heavey congratulated the people on their good fortune in acquiring such a really beautiful church. Supporting His Lordship the Bishop, the Parish Priest (Fr O’Byrne) stressed some unusual features of the opening. The church was being opened completely free of debt. This was due to the extraordinary generosity and piety of one man – Mr Paul Zammit of Bartle Frere. Mr Zammit was one of the pioneers of the Bartle Frere district. He had roughed it there in the early days. Privation and hardship had been his lot, and as was only fitting he now shared the general prosperity of this very rich and beautiful area. ” He has now”, continued Fr. O’Byrne, “given us a token of his love for Bartle Frere and for his Church in this beautiful concrete building which we are opening today. The concrete bricks, by the way, used in the construction of the walls, were made here in Bartle Frere at Mr. Zammit’s farm. What can be said of such a man? Perhaps one could best express oneself by saying that, not unlike his beloved Malta, while small in stature, he is big in heart.”

Paul Zammit died in 1959 after contributing so much to the business and community life of North Queensland. The Church of St. Paul was unfortunately destroyed by Cyclone Winifred in 1986 and the Benemerenti Medal was transferred to St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Babinda where it was on display for many years before being donated to the State Library of Queensland by the descendants of Paul Zammit.

The beautiful medal, housed in a velvet lined box, may be viewed at the John Oxley Library, Acc: 28911, Box 16917 O/S A3.

Lynn Meyers – Original Materials Librarian, State Library of Queensland

New acquisition: James Birrell Papers

Posted on 11 Feb 2013| by Janette Garrad |

The State Library of Queensland recently acquired the James Peter Birrell Papers.

Birrell was an influential force in Queensland architecture. He was born in Victoria and attended Essendon High School. He graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1951. He was appointed Brisbane City Council Architect in 1955. During this time he designed and oversaw many projects, including the:

Toowong Library
The Centenary Pool and car park on Wickham Terrace
The J.D. Story Administration Building and the Union College Building at Queensland University
The campus plan at James Cook University in Townsville

He later went into private practice in Queensland and New Guinea and became a planning consultant to the Indonesian Government.

Other projects included:

Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation (PNGBC) (now Bank South Pacific), headquarters –
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Agriculture Bank – Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

This material now held at the John Oxley Library, represents not only the projects that this firm was involved with when Birrell was in private practice, but also personal records relating to the life and career of this noted architect. Further information on the James Peter Birrell Papers and the James Peter Birrell Photographs 1957-1961 can be found via SLQ’s One Search.

James Birrell, Mack & Partners

Janette Garrad – Library Technician, State Library of Queensland

A newsworthy acquisition: the Cape Times

Posted on 07 Feb 2013| by Elizabeth Fielding |

Earlier this month the John Oxley Library was pleased to accept a somewhat unusual donation. The donation was out of the ordinary – and particularly appreciated – not just because it consisted of a small run of a Queensland newspaper not already held by the State Library but because of this title’s geographical coverage.

Cape Times, July 1983

The Cape Times, a largely forgotten monthly newspaper based in Cairns and published only between 1983 and, it appears,1985, had a singular point of distinction: it was, as it declared in a number of its issues, “the only publication that circulate[d] throughout the entire Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait Islands”. Delivered to its readers courtesy of Cape York Air Services and Air Queensland, its brief was to serve the Gulf and Cape York Peninsula and to publish for “all of the major communities – European, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders – as well as the stations and homesteads” within the area of its reach. Begun on a “shoe-string budget” by a husband and wife team and initially offering free local advertising space, it was able to boast by mid 1984 that its print run had been increased to 7,000 issues.

The Library’s recently acquired holdings consist of nine issues published in 1983 and 1984 – and to our knowledge the only other institution in possession of the Cape Times – in this instance a single issue – is the National Library of Australia. As a library acquisition the paper’s particular value is that, leaving aside the Torres News (which is distributed across the inhabited islands of the Torres Strait and the five communities of the Northern Peninsula area) and The Western Cape Bulletin(whose distribution covers the mining and indigenous communities of Western Cape York Peninsula), there is very limited newspaper coverage of the vast Cape area beyond Cooktown.

Cape Times, June 1983

The other significant point of interest is the period in which this rather idiosyncratic publication briefly reflected the social, political and commercial environment of its times. The paper began its life in the year the coalition between the state Liberal and National Parties was dissolved, when a subsequent election resulted in a sixth consecutive term for the Bjelke-Peterson led National Party and soon afterwards, a majority National Party government. It was the same year Bob Hawke defeated the incumbent federal Coalition Government led by Malcolm Fraser. It was also the year a historic attempt by environmental activists to blockade the Daintree Rainforest to prevent the construction of a road through the forest wilderness was intercepted by the Queensland Police.

The Cape Times is an eclectic mix of local humour (some amateur poetry, cartoons, tall tales, stories about larger than life “characters” like Wild Bill Toohey and Batavia Bill), accounts of life in the Gulf and Cape York (pearling, fishing, “wreck diving”, the School of the Air, the banana prawn industry, the experience of a “Gulf cop”), historical snapshots (the Aboriginal shellmounds near Weipa, the arrival of the first Christian missionaries in the Torres Strait in 1871, the building of the Normanton-Croydon railway) and articles which reflect topical issues of the day (the legacy of established hippie communities, the options for achieving economic independence in the Gulf and Peninsula, the case for and against rainforest logging).

Among other pieces which define this paper as being quintessentially about its physical territory are articles on the quarantine extension in the Cape York area, the pilots of the Torres Strait Islands, the Croydon rodeo, Cedar Bay Bill (and his now legendary association with a hippie commune in the seventies), Aboriginal activist Mick Miller, a diary of (and purportedly found on) a “dope patch” north of Cairns, the lost gold reefs of Cape York, an interview with the Pandora Reef’s drivemaster – and an account of the associated recovery operation – and histories of the Cape Tribulation protest blockade and the Hopevale Lutheran Mission at Cooktown.

Offsetting advertisements for commercial enterprises such as shipping transport in the Gulf and Cape, custom built homes, waterbeds, real estate, Cape York safaris and ultralight planes designed for mustering cattle – there is a tilt, on some of the Cape Times’s pages, toward the notion of self sufficiency, alternative lifestyles and an environmental awareness which reflects the surviving optimism of the early eighties. You could pick up advice, for instance, on the growing of leguminous species or fruit trees on the Cape or about alternative health remedies, aerobics eighties style or Cape York specific gardening hints. There is also an instructive piece by bush tucker man, Captain Les Hiddons on the subject of survival skills in the wilds of Cape York.

The particular blend of local wisdom, humour and history which characterises this slightly eccentric newspaper spring from a time which, tantalisingly, is just out of the reach of library based online sources. This is because traditional commercial database products do not typically capture newspaper content – and certainly not regional news content – this far back. And because of copyright limitations, the digitised material available from the excellent national newspaper source, Trove, ceases to exist after the mid 1950s.

Cape Times, August 1983

For this reason the donation of several issues of an obscure and interesting news publication from the early eighties amounts to a significant addition to the State Library’s extensive Queensland newspaper holdings. And it goes without saying that, were you to happen, at the point of ripping up the kitchen lino, upon a missing issue of the Cape Times, then the State Library would be very happy to hear from you.

While we’re on the subject of elusive newspapers, the same might be said of a sizable number of Queensland newspaper titles which are included on the Queensland Missing Newspapers list. As is evident from a reading of these issues of the Cape Times, the undeniable research value of newspapers is that – through the combination of their opinion pieces, reporting of contemporary events, personal stories, their design and even their advertisements – they enrich our understanding of the time and place which gave rise to their publication.

Libby Fielding – Published Materials, State Library of Queensland

New accessions: Richard Roe Correspondence (1936-1940)

Posted on 04 Feb 2013| by Veronika Farley |

This interesting new accession comprises letters sent by various Queensland businesses to Mr Richard Roe, a CSIR staff member working at the Gatton Agricultural College in the late 1930s. The accession includes a typed article titled, Richard Roe’s Recollections.

Richard Roe was born in Geraldton in 1913 and spent his childhood in Perth. He attended the Subiaco Primary School, the Narrogin School of Agriculture and Muresk Agricultural College in Western Australia.

After completing a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, Roe was appointed to the Weeds Section of CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, later CSIRO) and worked on the control of nut grass and on galvanised burr. Here is an interesting excerpt from the Recollections about life at Gatton Agricultural College in the late 1930s:

‘My work on nut grass control at Gatton mostly involved work with herbicides and the effect of cultivation. With continued and frequent cultivation you could control the weed but it left the soil in a pretty bad state. Galvanised burr studies at St George were done on Warrie Station. It was a grazing trial, the burr was a native and had become a weed following the development of the country and stocking. The rationale in this grazing trial we ran was that if grazing had been responsible for a build up of the burr, by proper grazing management of the country maybe the favourable species could be brought back and so the burr would be controlled. We set up a grazing trial but just when it was about to start there was a very severe flood in the Balonne River at St George. All the surrounding countryside was under water for weeks and it washed away the fences on our trial so we had to start again.

Getting out to Warrie was a trial. There were no vehicles available to research stations in those days. I generally went out on a Sunday night and by arrangement with the railways department we could stop the train at Lawes Siding, which was at the college. I used to clamber aboard with various items of gear to be used in the work I was to be engaged in for the following week, plus my personal effects. Then this train took me to Toowoomba, where I changed into another train and had a sleeper for the trip to Goondiwindi. At Goondiwindi I changed again to a railcar which took me to Thallon. At Thallon I boarded the mail coach which took me to St George where I was picked up by the station people. Or sometimes I stopped off at Nindigully–that was half way between Thallon and St George. There was very little in those days at Nindigully except a hotel and store. Both were run by the one individual and he also had a contract for road work that was going on between Nindigully and Thallon. He had a nice arrangement in that he paid the workers on Friday and they spent their wages either on drink or the stores they needed to keep them going. So the publican was on a very good thing there.’ (p.21)

In his job as a CSIR scientist Roe travelled a lot, often by car. In the ‘Recollections’ he describes a trip from Gilruth Plains (about 700 km west of Brisbane) to Brisbane:

‘On another trip the other way, that is from Gilruth Plains to Armidale, a Dr Pierce, a visitor to Armidale from the Division of Animal Nutrition in Adelaide joined me. Dr Pierce was concerned with surveying the extent of trouble caused by a high level of fluorine in the drinking waters. In those areas where the level was high the sheep developed trouble with their jaws, their teeth were misshapen and so forth. He wasn’t travelling by road, he had flown into Cunnamulla, but as I was going back towards Brisbane in which direction he was heading, I’d agreed to take him.

Well, we set out. It was a very hot day with a strong westerly wind. The vehicle we had started to boil and we were having real trouble. We finally stopped at one of the stock watering places where water was available. We drained the radiator and took out the gadget that regulates the flow of water through the engine. We hoped we would be able to proceed with less trouble from the boiling water. It didn’t help very much but we got to Dirranbandi just on sundown and decided we needed a meal. As I pulled in front of a café I ran over a dog and killed the poor thing. Well, there were a couple of fellows outside the café and one of them, presumably the dog’s owner, said: “Oh, it was a mongrel of a thing anyhow, wasn’t worth much!” We went inside and in those days in the cafés in the bush there was a limited menu. It was always: ham and eggs, sausage and eggs, or bacon and eggs. I’ve forgotten what we ordered, but while we were waiting for it to be produced the bit of butter the fellow had brought out had melted in the dish–melted until it was just oil by the time we got our meal. We finally ate this and came outside and at this stage the owner of the dog had changed his mind about the dog, he was talking to his cobber and said “Oh the best sheep dog I ever had!” So I said to Dr Pierce: “Let’s go!” and picked up the dog and threw it in the back of the utility and off we went.’ (p. 26)

The letters in this collection relate to Richard Roe’s dealings with various businesses, most of them based in Queensland: The Canberra (a hotel on the corner of Edward and Ann Streets, Brisbane); Stuart Suit Specialist (Ruthven Street, Toowoomba); Georg Gough & Son Pty. Ltd (240 Albert Street, Brisbane); Rothwells Outfitting Ltd. (237-241 Edward Street, Brisbane); P. Victorsen Photographic Service (Edward Street, Brisbane); Longwear Industries Pty. Ltd. (Elizabeth Street, Sydney); State Government Insurance Office, Queensland (Adelaide and Edward Streets, Brisbane).

It is interesting to examine the different designs of letterheads in this accession. While some merchants use plain print or even just a stamp on their correspondence, others take advantage of the letterhead feature to advertise their business. Here are some examples of both:

Veronika Farley – Librarian/Archivist, State Library of Queensland

Peranga – a short history

Posted on 24 Jan 2013| by Janette Garrad |

From the collections of the State Library of Queensland an exciting new publication, Peranga : 100 years which traces the history of this small town located on the Darling Downs, 70 kilometres north-west of Toowoomba and 55 km north-east of Dalby in Queensland.

This little town was once a prosperous hub a rich dairy-producing area, Peranga went into sharp decline after the closure of the Oakey-Cooyar railway line in the mid -1960s. The hotel burnt down in 1967, followed by the school in 1973. Today the township population numbers approximately fifty. This publication offers a plotted history, a timeline of events, early photographs and biographical information about some of the early settlers. The area was settled by immigrant farmers from Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland. Local heritage enthusiasts and family historians will enjoy discovering the contents of this well written work.

A copy of Peranga : 100 years, is available for viewing in the reading room on level 4 at the State Library, link to the bibliographic details here

Janette Garrad – Original Content Technician, State Library of Queensland