Thomas Elliott was a man of many interests. A local engineer and licensed HAM radio operator, in 1934 Elliott and a group of amateur radio operators conducted a series of experimental television transmissions. The group performed demonstrations for politicians and journalists and successfully aired Queensland’s first broadcast, 25 years before television sets were available for […]
Brisbane City Architect Frank Gibson Costello designed the City Council’s air-raid shelters to provide a post-war utility as well as short-term safety. After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 and the presence of Japanese submarines off the Queensland coast, Brisbane prepared for the possibility of attack, building more than 200 air-raid shelters throughout […]
Copenhagan [has been rendered] … a city of turmoil … and the same exciting scenes recurred in Amsterdam. Beatlemania is coming … So watch out Australia. The Courier-Mail, 8 June 1964 Beatlemania was in full swing in 1964 and the spectacle was coming to Queensland. While the thought of the Fab Four visiting Brisbane was […]
On 1 December 1955 Karl Kast, equipped with ‘a revolver, more than 100 rounds of .38 calibre ammunition, a box of detonators and a satchel of home-made piping bombs’ murdered two prominent doctors at their practices on Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. Another doctor was injured and a local horse trainer had two fingers blown off as […]
Many of the sites and buildings that have housed Queensland government records have an important connection to the history of Brisbane. Many buildings are heritage listed and we have records about them in our collection. The Queensland State Archives building, along with some related sites it has been associated with in the past are open […]
This article, by Dr Julie Ustinoff, was originally published on the Queensland State Archives website, March 2013. If the walls of the Yungaba Immigration Centre (Digital Image ID 1588) could talk, there would be many stories to tell; stories of happiness, hope, and new beginnings; but also some of sadness, suffering, and loss. Since its […]
This article, by, Dr Katie McConnel, Curator, Qld Government House, was originally published on the Queensland State Archives website, February 2013. In preparation for the arrival of Queensland’s first Governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen and his family, in early December 1859, the Clerk of Works for Moreton Bay District, Charles Tiffin, selected, leased, ‘repaired, painted […]
This article, by Judith Nissen, was originally published on the Queensland State Archives website, March 2013. Hail! strangers, hail! right welcome to our shore, We wish you joy, – Eden could yield no more… — “Frederick”, 12 February 1849 By the time the Moreton Bay Courier welcomed Reverend John Dunmore Lang’s Fortitude, the Scots […]
So writes Private James Vercoe Solomon (Jim) to his family from Zeitoun Camp at Heliopolis in October 1915. Obviously concerned about his family, Jim writes about his desire for his younger brother to act on his family’s behalf while he, Jim, heads off to the Dards’ (Dardanelles). Jim asks his brother William Edward Solomon (Will) […]
In the course of creating the workshop and seminar on how to find your First World War Soldier, Queensland State Archives staff regularly came across references to Corporal Sizer, as he was mentioned frequently in newspapers of the time. With our curiosity stirred, we wanted to find out who this Corporal Sizer was and whether […]