The summer of 1896 had seen extensive flooding along the Brisbane River, which had seriously weakened the Victoria Bridge. Piles had been broken, the structure began to sag and all traffic across the bridge was stopped until the extent of the damage could be ascertained. In February three ferries, Alice, Young and Pearl were brought […]
There was a time during the First World War when the relationship between the Prime Minister of Australia and the Queensland Premier was so acrimonious it led to the establishment of a federal police force. Tensions had been growing for months between Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes and Queensland’s Premier Thomas Joseph ‘T.J.’ Ryan over […]
An essay by historian Dr Jonathan Richards on frontier violence in Queensland, as documented in the records at Queensland State Archives. Histories of violence Our nation’s longest war occurred during Australia’s colonial and post-colonial periods. State-sanctioned racially-based violence – an issue that many Australians are either ignorant of, or deny occurred – was often carried […]
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this blog post contains images and names of people who have died. Committed, strong and dignified – just a few words used to describe Loris Williams, a passionate advocate for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to use archives as a means of […]
James Hampson and Norman Osborne walked into the Murgon Police Station, about 100 kilometres west of Gympie, at about 8.40pm on Wednesday 6 June 1917. Hampson said that he had shot Edward William Wenzel. He did not know if Wenzel had survived. Hampson and his wife, Mary, ran a small shop in Murgon with their […]
German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt and his companions headed west from the Darling Downs in 1848. They were never seen again and the disappearance of their expedition remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of Australian exploration. Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt was born in Prussia in October 1813 and became fascinated with exploration at an early […]
Before the 1912 strike, labourers worked a 12-hour day with only 20 per cent of workers earning the minimum wage and women earning as little as nine to fifteen shillings a week (approximately $55–$100 per week now). Despite union membership trebling from 1907 to 1911, there were few concessions for workers. This changed when workers […]
The 1891 shearers’ strike is one of Australia’s earliest and most important industrial disputes. The quarrel was primarily between unionised and non-unionised wool workers, and sabotage and violence issued from both sides. The strike is seen as one of the factors that led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party. Throughout the 1870s and […]
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Queenslanders quickly rallied to support the troops overseas and their families at home. Support for the war effort came from all quarters: community associations, private organisations, government, businesses and concerned citizens. Events such as benefit nights and theatrical fundraisers not only lifted the spirits of […]
When people hear the words ‘bubonic plague’, thoughts turn to the deadly pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe killing tens of millions of people during the Middle Ages. However, the infectious disease, spread to humans by rat fleas, came closer to home with multiple epidemics occurring in Queensland in the early part of the […]