“Hail! strangers, hail’: Scots in Queensland

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 […]

A soldier’s mother writes to the Premier of Queensland

In July 1915, Lallie Fowler Houston – mother of Francis (Frank) William Houston – wrote a letter of complaint to T J Ryan, the newly elected Premier of Queensland. Frank joined the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) soon after war was declared – on 21 August 1914. He was a sergeant with the 9th Battalion and […]

Boiled beef for the Borough of Bethnal Green

Looking at all the food available in a supermarket today, it’s hard to believe that someone would thank the State of Queensland for sending them six hundred tins of boiled beef. But in February 1915 David Keep, the Town Clerk from the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green in London, wrote a letter of thanks to Hon. […]