Through a gap in our back fence we could see the lone building in the middle of a paddock. Surrounded by grass it stood solidly and silently. The building received few visitors but we knew it was significant and deserving of care. The building was a Chinese Temple and was all that remained of a vibrant Chinese settlement in the town of Atherton in Far North Queensland. When we … [Read more...] about Chinese Settlers in Atherton, Queensland
Queensland
Book Review: Flood Country by Emily O’Gorman
I would never have read this book if it wasn’t for twitter. Last year I came across the twitter stream of the University of Wollongong’s, Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research (@AUSCCER) and those of researchers who work at the Centre. I have enjoyed these tweets about geography and the environment . One day I noticed their tweets about the Sydney launch of a … [Read more...] about Book Review: Flood Country by Emily O’Gorman
Women and Archival Silences
Archives are not neutral. We can't keep everything so choices have to be made and those choices reflect the values of the people making the decisions about what to keep and what to discard. In the past people such as women, non-Europeans, Aborigines, the poor etc were not considered important contributors to our history so their stories are often not portrayed in archival … [Read more...] about Women and Archival Silences
Top 10 Posts for 2011
Blogs and cricket have something important in common - statistics! This week I've enjoyed spending lots of time with my family visiting from interstate and watching the exciting Boxing Day test match between India and Australia. It was a great example of test cricket - four days of see-sawing between the teams until Australia finally won. I tried to write a blog post while … [Read more...] about Top 10 Posts for 2011
The Regime of the Coin Tea Has Come…
"The regime of the coin tea has come", declared 'Sympathiser' in the Brisbane Courier in 1909. This announcement was apt. If you do a search for 'coin tea' on the National Library of Australia's online newspaper database (Trove) you will be struck by how popular this form of fundraising appears to have been in Queensland during the early twentieth century until the outbreak … [Read more...] about The Regime of the Coin Tea Has Come…