Queensland Museum & Community Collections

Category: Uncategorized

  • A tale for our time

    On 25 April 1910, Rachel Rose Campbell of Kilburnie Station married James Joseph Daley in Johannesburg, South Africa. The couple had eloped there as the groom’s Catholic faith meant John and Elizabeth Campbell considered him an unsuitable match for their daughter. Ironically, John and Elizabeth had themselves eloped to Australia…

  • Reopening Atherton Chinatown

    After four months of closure due to COVID 19, the National Trust of Queensland (NTQ) have been preparing to reopen the Hou Wang Temple and museum displays in the Tableland Regional Council’s Old Post Office Gallery in Atherton. Like other cultural venues across the state, reopening is not as simple…

  • Carl Zoeller & Co

    While undertaking the significance assessment of the collection at Greycliffe Homestead recently (see here), I came across a small stoneware bottle of a patented cold branding solution. While the story of the branding solution itself is interesting, this little bottle has surprising links to much wider stories in Queensland’s history. The…

  • Back on the road – heading west to Croydon

    Last week, after almost three months working from home, MDOs Jo Wills and Ewen McPhee traveled to Croydon in western Queensland. While it was great to be back on the road, the journey also gave us the chance to see how small towns have been impacted by the COVID 19…

  • The little ship that could

    Recreational boating is an avidly pursued pastime in the tropical waters around Mackay, and this was as true 100 years ago as it is today. In 1914, local carpenter Henry Charles Rose completed his 22ft (6.7m) motor launch Eleanor and launched her at Cremorne.  Rose had built two other boats –…

  • Island Artists

    I recently came across an object when working with Proserpine Historical Museum that made me think of a project that I was involved in seventeen years ago for the Queensland Museum. It was entitled “Old salts, alternative life-stylers and beach bums”. The goal of this Queensland wide project was to…

  • The mystery of the Quetta Tea Towel

    “Rarely if ever before has so deep and so general a gloom been cast over the community of this colony as that which has been occasioned by the sad catastrophe which occurred in Torres Straits on the night of the 24th February. The wreck of the R.M.S. Quetta in the…

  • Pesky Pests 1: What is IPM ?

    Pesky Pests 1: What is IPM ?

    Protecting collections from pest and fungal damage is one of the greatest challenges faced by cultural heritage custodians. The most effective approach to controlling pest and fungal activity in collections (including any personal collections) is a well-considered, practical Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. So if you thought IPM was just…

  • Chapter 2: Mysteries revealed… who is behind the chair?

    Chapter 2: Mysteries revealed… who is behind the chair?

    I decided to follow the Pomona lead suggested by the museum staff with a quick search on Trove. The name “Hodge” and “Pomona” limited to the decade in question turned up quite a number of results. Through the newspaper articles I discovered Mr Hodge and (presumably) his wife occupying a…