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 […]
The Story Bridge – built as part of the State Government’s response to the Great Depression – remains one of Queensland’s most iconic landmarks. Ground was broken for the project in 1935, and the cantilever bridge was officially opened on 6 July 1940 by Governor Sir Leslie Orme Wilson. Public meetings calling for a bridge […]
Twenty-four high school students from Thursday Island set a world record on Saturday 6 May 1972 for the longest non-stop game of basketball played on an outdoor court. This herculean effort of 110 hours and five minutes broke the previous record by three hours, five minutes. Played at the Wongai Courts, the marathon, as it […]
At the end of World War II, repatriating and demobilising the Australian military was a huge and challenging logistical task. There was a large variety of military equipment needing to be shifted, including 530 army pigeons that needed to be returned from Canungra, Queensland, to their original civilian owners in New South Wales, Victoria or […]
The Townsville Bulk Sugar Terminal was built in 1958 and could hold 10% of Australia’s annual sugar production. On 9 May 1963, the sugar in shed caught fire. Black smoke blanketed the city and a thick, black molasses-like ooze of melted sugar poured into creeks and the harbour. Fire services were brought in from Cairns, […]
Mrs Eliza Baxter – who lived in a house on the premises of the Victoria Steam Saw Mill in the Drayton district with her husband, her stepmother and her son – became another victim of the deadly crinoline fashion on 24 March 1865. At about 7 am, Eliza – in her dress and a crinoline […]
To most of us the 3Rs connote literacy and numeracy, but did you know the initials also used to apply to the Queensland Railway Refreshment Rooms? Originally run by enterprising locals, the Railway Department, Refreshment Rooms Branch was created in June 1916. The official public announcement that the Queensland Government would run the railway refreshment […]
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 […]
You may have seen in the news recently that Sweden – one of those countries that recycles almost all of their household waste and even imports waste from other countries to recycle – has opened a shopping centre that only sells recycled, upcycled and repurposed goods! This news story got me thinking about the methods […]
Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, She pays us back threefold My Country, Dorothea Mackellar In this famous ode to her adopted country written in 1908, Dorothea Mackellar successfully captures the spirit of Australians battling a hostile environment in which flood, fire and famine […]