Queensland Local Studies Group Minutes Community Meeting Room One (Ground Floor) Logan Central Library – 26 Wilbur Street, Logan City - 10:00am – 3:30pm Hilda Maclean, Local Heritage Specialist, Libraries and Creative Industries E: [email protected] Attending Hilda Maclean – Logan Heritage Specialist, Logan City Council Kyla Stephan – Local Studies Librarian, Southport Local Studies Library, City of Gold Coast Sally Paris - Local Studies Librarian, Moreton Bay Region Kelly Ashford – Local Studies Officer, Moreton Bay Region Raylene Jensen – Local Studies Librarian, Scenic Rim Regional Council Cynthia Cochrane – Archivist, Queensland State Archives Dr Jacqueline Stockdale – Access Archivist, Queensland State Archives, Jayne Royal - Local Studies, Toowoomba Regional Libraries Gilliam McNeill - Redlands City Libraries Angela Puata - Redlands City Libraries Robert Ah Wing - Logan City Library volunteer Michelle Williams - Logan City Library volunteer Kirsten Perris - State Library of Queensland Christina Ealing-Godbold - State Library of Queensland Apologies Jane Harding – Heritage Librarian, Noosa Library Service Lisa Ryan – Librarian, Gympie Regional Library Annabel Lloyd – Brisbane City Archives Anne Scheu – Collection Engagement | Queensland Memory | State Library of Queensland Session 1 - Logan Libraries Indigenous Voices / Deadly Digital projects Presenters - Debra Cooper, Library Programming Coordinator | Libraries and Creative Industries | Logan City Council and Robert Ah Wing, Project Officer Guided by the Nyeumba-Meta Advisory Group, the community are narrating their own stories in language. The Indigenous voices program - “Our Words, Our Stories”, come from any part of Australia as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island residents of Logan are from many different language groups. Picture Books have also become a focus using 360-degree video and Green Screen to make them come alive. Indigenous Family History Workshops with Hilda MacLean are very popular. Digital movie making is offered during the school holiday program. Robert Ah Wing, a Kalkadoon man conducts a different language study group in Logan each week. There are 250 versions of most basic words in Australia – different for every language group, however, the pattern or common order is often the same – ie Subject, Object, Verb - boy girl hill went. Some languages simply do not have words for concepts that were not part of their existence – so inland groups do not have words for surf, or crocodile. Robert Ah Wing’s language is a suffix driven and was written down by a linguist in 1969 but many are not making it important to record what is left while there are elders who remember words. During the Jaggera language day, students learn words, and make short sentences. With three short sentences participants can make a story. Local man Reg Knox wrote a children’s book about a platypus in the local creek. The beautifully illustrated book has been popular in Logan and Logan schools for decades but now has been narrated in the language relevant to the Knox family. The Library has a separate Nyeumba-Meta History collection. It includes books, movies and music and is maintained by Local Studies. Session 2 - #widerlocalstudies – Presenter Kyla Stephan, Local Studies, City of Gold Coast Initiative lead by SLNSW Local Studies and lead Ellen Forsyth, the #widerlocalstudies group met in a webinar on 2 May, using Blue Jeans wix software. 100 public librarians and specialists registered from every state and territory, with 70 accessing the link on the day. 9 presenters had 5 mins to discuss a topic of their own choice. Queensland was represented by Jane Harding: Noosa-: different by nature (& levy); Kyla Stephan-: This is not an archive and I am not an historian: describing a contemporary local studies collection, City of Gold Coast. This online initiative supports sole practitioners and those dealing with professional isolation; sharing of ideas we are all interested in. Presentations (1:36:46) are available online http://wikibeta.libraries.nsw.gov.au/doku.php?id=presentations_and_video_from_2_may_2019_wider_ local_studies Ideas for future presentations can be emailed to Kyla - [email protected]; or Anne [email protected] June 14 update – Noosa’s Heritage Librarian Jane Harding attended the discussion on behalf of Queensland. Points raised: Staying in touch: Email list the most manageable of various suggestions. Ellen Forsyth (SLNSW) will create two email lists – one for the organizing group and retain the widerlocalstudies list for broad/general subscription. Instructions forwarded to each State contact to disseminate to networks. Wiki: Email best for ongoing conversation/discussion between meetings, wiki best platform for presentations using SLNSW existing subscription. Other suggestions welcome. Future video conferences: Decision to host two (2) per year. A chair to be nominated for each meeting and Ellen to manage the technology. Presentations increased to 10 mins per presenter, 5 presenters per webinar. Evaluation: Feedback is valuable. More consideration given to survey to maximise feedback. Session 3 - Spanish Influenza and its impact on Queensland Presenter - Christina Ealing-Godbold, Senior Research Librarian, State Library of Queensland The effects of Spanish Influenza in Queensland was considerable as a result of WWI. The greatest pandemic of all time Spanish influenza killed more people than the Great War – up to 40 million. It was named Spanish Influenza because initial fatalities originated in Spain, however, doctors on the Western Front reported a debilitating and sometimes fatal respiratory disease for 2 years prior to the outbreak in 1918. Australia was protected by quarantine measures, and so did not suffer from the earlier more lethal strain but the Pneumonic Influenza hit Queensland in May 1919. Emergency hospitals were set up at the Exhibition Ground (400 beds) and Lytton. By May 27, bread deliveries, trams and railways were severely interrupted with up to 25% of staff ill, schools were closed, nurses and doctors ill, hotels closed and indoor activities with large numbers of people forbidden – eg picture theatres and church services were forbidden unless conducted in open air. Each community set up an emergency corps and kitchen, where food, barley water and lemons were prepared for delivery. School children were organized to check houses twice a day. Householders placed message cards in the window saying “SOS” or “Food”. Beef and chicken broth, custard and jelly, barley water and lemons were delivered by volunteers wearing masks made of butter muslin. Inner city areas such as Fortitude Valley, Ithaca (Paddington, Red Hill), South Brisbane and surround- ing neighbourhoods had high numbers of infected families; councils employed nurses (army nurses and VADs) to check on the ill. The nurses being supported by community volunteers who supplied food and laundry services and cared for children. At Coolangatta and Wallangarra, travellers coming into Queensland (often returning home from holidays or business travel) were detained in tent camps, for which they had to pay 7s 6d per day! Detention required two inoculations, three inhalations of steam and zinc sulphate and daily temperature checks. At Coolangatta, a daily dip in the sea was mandatory. Aboriginal reserves and groups were severely affected, with 596 ill in Barambah by early June. The final statistics for Queensland vary. Most agree there were 1030 deaths, including 315 Aboriginal deaths. The difficulty in precision arises from the fact that separate statistics were recorded for Influenza and Pneumonic Influenza (Spanish Influenza). In the Logan -Beenleigh area, the infection was reported to be mild in nature yet several well-known identities succumbed. Those who worked in busy centres where travellers congregated were most at risk – eg, transport occupations. In one Queensland city, the manageress of the Railway station refreshment rooms died and in another, the local Queensland National Bank Manager was a victim. Australia had one of the lowest infection rates worldwide but up to 15,000 people died across the country. State Library resources and databases contain current scientific papers that demonstrate a continued lack of understanding as to why the virus mutated and moved so quickly across the globe. The second and third waves seemed to hit Britain, Europe, and Australia almost simultaneously. Session - 4 Harnessing volunteer effort to extract heritage from the written page Presenter - Hilda Maclean, Local Heritage Specialist, Logan City Council. Through volunteers, Logan Libraries has concentrated on indexing resources as finding aids to information on local identities in the Logan region. Many local histories were not indexed. Volunteers are provided with a training session; indexing guidelines; a template; a publication to commence indexing Personal names, Place names, Businesses, Organisations, Ships, Photographs Once amalgamated the spreadsheet/ database allows library officers to find every reference to early residents, businesses, or place name instantly through the “Control Find” function. Logan Libraries has records for 16,000 personal names indexed from 32 local history books completed by two volunteers. Researchers are given the source and page numbers of references. Access Logan historical facts on Trove o Tagging Trove records with “loganlocalstudies” o Creating lists in Trove The resource provides an excellent supplement to printed sources such