Today’s blog post explores the war service of an Aboriginal Queenslander who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. The extract below from an open letter published in the Townsville Daily Bulletin, 24 Oct 1916, brings to the fore the subject of this blog post: Private William (Billy) Elsdale. Believed to be the first Aboriginal digger […]
The more I research First World War records, the more I realise that many connections can be made today to one hundred year old material. An article by Desmond Crump about Private Archibald James Marshall, published on State Library of Queensland’s blog in August 2014, flagged the fact that Queensland State Archives may also hold […]
Discovering archival records can throw up as many questions as answers. When staff from the Community and Personal Histories section (Department of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander and Multicultural Affairs) located and indexed aboriginal census returns we knew this to be a treasure trove of information, but the questions started: Were these stand alone lists […]
Established on 1 January 1864, the Queensland Police Force is celebrating 150 years of service. Since the inception of Queensland and the Police Service, local trackers have been employed, initially to assist troopers and later Queensland Police officers. The hunting skills of Aboriginal trackers and their ability to find food and water were utilised by the Queensland Police […]