Queensland Local Studies Group Minutes

Community Meeting Room One (Ground Floor) Library – 26 Wilbur Street, - 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, Sally Paris - Local Studies Librarian, Region Kelly Ashford – Local Studies Officer, Raylene Jensen – Local Studies Librarian, Regional Council Cynthia Cochrane – Archivist, State Archives Dr Jacqueline Stockdale – Access Archivist, Queensland State Archives, Jayne Royal - Local Studies, 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, Regional Library Annabel Lloyd – 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 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 as Electoral Rolls, where women and immigrants (not naturalized) are not listed.

Visit to Mayes Cottage, 20 Mawarra Street, Kingston (loglib.org/mayes)

Historic Mayes Cottage, Kingston on 321 acres was settled by the Mayes family in 1871, a basic cottage constructed of rough sawn timber. Still secure and weatherproof sixty years later it contained an open fire for cooking and a hollowed-out anthill as an oven. Some of that cottage is still present today. In 1887, a timber dwelling with pyramid roof and verandas and separate kitchen were built for the family and subsequent generations of the Mayes until the late 20th century. The house was filled with furniture and utensils – many from different eras. A project is underway to improve the authenticity of the house as a museum. It is open to the public Thurs - Sat, Mon – Tues dedicated to visiting school groups.

Queensland Local Studies Group - Round Table Local Studies, Southport, City of Gold Coast • City of Gold Coast celebrating its 60th birthday as a city throughout 2019 • Local Studies librarians visited the recent South Indigenous Artists’ Camp. It was a wonderful experience to meet the artists, see artworks being created and connect with people from the wider GLAMR sector • Currently adding Australian Indigenous language codes to MARC catalogue records to increase visibility of items in the local studies collection during, and beyond, the International Year of Indigenous Languages • Increased engagement, partnership and advocacy with other areas of Council including: Librarians on Loan research support, walking tours for council colleagues to increase their knowledge of the history of local areas and inviting subject specialists (eg. botanists) to the library to explore the collection provide guidance on future collecting/cataloguing • Recent visit to Council’s Records Services to gain better knowledge of how the shift to digital records is occurring and how this may impact future researchers

Redland Libraries Local Studies • Due to recent relocation of the Local History collection, a review necessary. Some smaller parts of the collection are still to be assessed (notes explaining the process were shared ahead of the meeting). • We have been updating timelines, most of which had not been updated for nearly 10 years. As part of this, the timelines have had images added and been put into a format that is more ‘reader friendly’. The old timelines are being kept in their original format. • Our bound hard-copy local newspaper collection (Redland Times and the Bayside Bulletin 2004 – 2011) is being scanned in-house, we are halfway through the project. • Redland will be 135 years old in 2020, operating from the same location. To celebrate, a possible publication to capture Redlands history from before the arrival of Europeans.

Queensland State Archives • Exhibition - Birdcage of the Bay: St Helena Island Prison, 25 March to 6 September 2019. Includes: o Educators’ Professional Development Day: St Helena Penal Establishment, 16 July o Curator tours, 24 July & 4 September • QSA Talks: o Living Under the Act, presented by Kathy Frankland, 10 July o Superintendent Spicer’s Workbook, presented by Roger Ford, 19 July • QSA “Memory Lounge”, incorporated into the Reading Room, has been developed as a welcoming space furnished to create a dementia-friendly environment. QSA is recognised by Dementia Australia as a Dementia-Friendly Organisation. Community members and residential care facilities are able to book available sessions. • Go Fish is an interactive display, screening in the entry foyer, of an underwater scene. Visitors can click on moving fish, submarines etc to reveal a favourite record from the archive contributed by staff and public. Go Fish will be focusing on indigenous languages for NAIDOC Week in July, the Ekka in August. • Behind-the-scenes tours – groups can contact QSA for bookings • First Steps Workshops for beginner researchers are being held.

Local Heritage, Libraries and Creative Industries, Logan City Council

• Corley Explorer has proved to be challenging for the Local Studies volunteer as 640 near identical housing commission homes were constructed in 1969 in the Woodridge - Kingston corridor. The houses on corner locks were the easiest to identify. • Active role in the SLQ grant projects for Logan - Deadly Digital and Tech Savvy Seniors. Facilitating workshops in over-55 resorts and aged-care facilities on using iPad devices to read newspapers online via Trove and accessing free online family history resources. Strong growth in all family history offerings.

• Urgent need to update the historic grave locations on the Local Heritage Register as these are not appearing on the LCC heritage overlay. Particular concern are burials prior to the gazetting of the Beenleigh Cemetery in 1872. The Logan District BDM registrar started the same year. I am reverse searching the Qld Pioneer CD Rom by registration number to purchase the death certificates for the district in 1872, and a large number of previously undocumented burial sites are emerging. I will share this data with surrounding cities as the Logan District included what is now Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Redlands. If anyone has any Logan registered death certificates in their collections, could they please let me know. • Indexing template attached

Moreton Bay Region Libraries

• Successful Heritage Festival Seminar in May - Connecting People, Places and the Past Guest speakers included: - Cara Downs, National Archives of Australia, who looked at the history of Australian South Sea Islanders in Queensland; Dr Jennifer Harrison explored the history of Moreton Bay as it approaches 200 years since white settlement; Historian Thom Blake delved into the history of Deception Bay and two of its illustrious residents, Joseph and Thomas Bancroft. Joseph was a distinguished medical practitioner and scientist; his son Thomas also became a distinguished researcher.135 people attended the event. • Many requests coming in for Park naming assistance in the region in the lead up to the recent Federal elections. • Sally Paris recently appointed to the role of Local History Services Leader. Currently working on strategic documentation for the Council’s LH Collection.

Toowoomba Regional Council Local Studies • A display of memorabilia will be held in the annexe during the 10 days of carnival -20-29th Sept. Local history is working with other council officers. • We need to be able to borrow display cabinets. Also, a request for any memorabilia- photographs, objects, films etc that people are willing to loan for the display. We have had a media call-out.

State Library of Queensland

• The recent Q ANZAC 100 Heritage Leaders Workshop challenged everyone to think about the impact of the work of cultural institutions on attitudinal change and thinking in our respective communities, both local and national. John Voss, based in New Orleans, delivered a powerful keynote address about the need for truth in history to ensure that events like World War One and Two are not repeated. Have we learnt the lesson from the Great War? John Voss thinks we have not. Using story sessions, he described his work with Afro-Americans and refugees to confront the past and tell the true story of slavery, Klu Klux Klan activities and other social movements in American history. His message was that libraries should enable healing through story telling. However, John stipulated that the stories we make known must be truthful and confront the past. • Anzac Square Galleries - State Library of Qld will be staffing three small gallery spaces in the Brisbane Anzac Square memorial croft, commemorating all wars. A light table showcases photographs and information from the collections of the State Library. Five visitor services officers are currently being trained to support and assist clients, opening to the public soon. • Home: a suburban Obsession – Christina Ealing-Godbold has conducted four talks about the photographic collection of Frank and Eunice Corley – two of them as curatorial talks with the exhibition curator. • Convict program April: public session Discovering your convict ancestors; May: Video of the convict program • House history presentations: 2 inhouse sessions in conjunction with Home - the exhibition; one presentation with Brisbane History group involving Caylie Jeffrey of Under the lino project; Marianne Taylor - the House Detective; Carmel Black – Brisbane City Council Heritage Unit on Anzac cottages; Helen Bennett - houses in the 1920s - 1930s; Annabel

Lloyd – Brisbane City Council Archives house history research; Claire Stewart -dealing with Queensland heritage. Additional house histories sessions planned with Logan and Redlands. • Who’s your mob session (April) using SLQ resources for ATSI family history; Accessing Trove tailored to ATSI family history. • Regional Libraries Queensland: May, 2 sessions on an overview of family history July webinar for regional libraries: Australian births, deaths and marriages • Waves in Time Conference: Family and local history (May) SLQ presented Lost lists of the 1860s’ immigrants to Queensland; SLQ staffed a table for the duration of the Conference. • Stories from the records: NAA, QSA and SLQ will be presenting Surprises in their records 8 August at SLQ 10-noon. It will cover the resources and how to use them in each case.

Meeting closed 2:30pm

Next Meeting: Queensland State Archives – 435 Compton Road | Runcorn QLD 4113 Date: Thursday, 5 September 2019 (PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE)

Enquiries can be forwarded to Anne Scheu [email protected], Collections Engagement Officer, State Library of Queensland