Queensland Museum & Community Collections

Category: Uncategorized

  • Significance

    Significance. It’s a term we use frequently in museums. But what does it actually mean, and how can we apply it to our collections? Having just undertaken site visits to two collections for significance assessments, and with the Community Heritage Grants open to fund significance assessments, now seems like a…

  • Two worlds: Cairns Museum’s latest temporary exhibition brings the museum to life

    “Everybody…  it’s going to get LOUD!” So warned Cairns Museum Manager, Susan Gibson, as CADCAI’s lion dancers and musicians geared up to begin their performance. Celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Metal Rat, and the opening of the latest temporary exhibition, dancers made their way through the museum and…

  • 80 year anniversary for Mackay’s harbour

    On 26 August 1939 Queensland Premier William Forgan Smith officially opened Mackay’s new harbour. The construction had commenced in 1935 and was the largest infrastructure project undertaken in the region to date. But the journey to that point had been long and fraught with difficulty. Mackay’s original port was situated…

  • Pioneer Valley Museum Open For Business!

    It has been a long road for the volunteers at Pioneer Valley Museum since a leak during the rain event in February forced them to close and empty their museum (see Water damage at Pioneer Valley Museum). But they have tirelessly persisted, and today they will open their doors to…

  • Water damage at Pioneer Valley Museum

    While all eyes were on Townsville during the floods at the beginning of the year, the steady rain also occurring in the Mackay region was creating its own style of disaster at the Pioneer Valley Museum west of Mackay. While the museum was closed over the Christmas/New Year period, the…

  • Discovering Jack Wilkie’s orchid specimen at Cairns Museum

    Earlier this week, I was contacted by Don Lawie, one of the volunteers at Gordonvale’s Mulgrave Settlers Museum. His email contained a link to a newsletter he had recently prepared for the Society for Growing Australian Plants. Don drew my attention to the piece called “Beautiful Plants of the Tropics”,…

  • ‘Dressed to Impress’: Cairns’ museums collaborate to showcase fabulous frocks from the far north

    What do you get when you bring together a wedding gown, a ‘fashions on the field’ racing dress, a kaftan, a Chinese silk skirt panel, a debutante gown and a fancy dress costume on International Women’s Day? A window into the lives and creativity of local women from the far…

  • MDOs work in Townsville on flood recovery

    Last week, Jo Wills and Melanie Piddocke traveled to Townsville to assist groups affected by the recent severe flooding. Although most collections have emerged unscathed from days of torrential rain, the Family History Association of North Queensland and the Townsville RSL were both inundated, sustaining damage to their collections, assets…

  • Dealing with flood and mould damaged collections

    Our thoughts and best wishes are with the people of Townsville and Western Queensland who are currently experiencing unprecedented rain and flooding. The Museum Development Officer program is currently in the process of contacting heritage organisations in the flood affected areas to see how they have fared and if they require assistance.  If your…