dedicated to the study of
the peoples and lands of
Australia, initially focusing
on the area that became
Queensland in 1859.
The Centre aims to facilitate access to published and unpublished information for the period up to the 1850s, which represents an era of intercultural encounters. It seeks to document particularly the lives and experiences of those persons, groups and organisations that have not been the subject of historical investigation by collating an inventory of the diversity and claims on country that made up the early colonial period. This includes Indigenous diplomats and resisters, interpreters and guides, convicts and free-born, shipwrecks and settlers, religious and military – the whole range of contributors to a new era.
Latest Projects
only absorption: made visible
In a collage-based textual assemblage, Eva Phillips explores Moreton Bay’s culinary history against a backdrop provided by surveyor Robert Dixon. This feminist creative work references nineteenth-century Australian female poets, concepts of ethnographic verse, and settler and Indigenous poetics and visual art to play with ‘only absorption: made visible’ the shifting ideas of margins and marginalia. Who crafts the margins, who believe they reside there, and what can be said for a more angled, squint from the side-lines approach to research? Dixon’s hand has traced many landscapes along the east coast, and his time spent as surveyor in charge in the Moreton Bay district was coloured by acts of suspected mutiny and cartographical defiance— an appropriate theatrical backdrop to the convoluted text it bears.
Access the text-only version of only absorption: made visible here.
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Digital dialogues on diet: harvesting the archive for alternative patterns in Queensland food culture
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In support of the Commandants: subaltern officers of the Moreton Bay settlement, 1824 – 1850
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Queensland resident biographies pre-1859
The core work of the centre is the collating of biographies of residents of Queensland before 1859 for public access.
Latest BIOGRAPHIES
LAtest news and events
Moreton Bay History Seminar
April 15th, 2022
This year’s Moreton Bay History Seminar, organised by Moreton Bay Regional Council, explores the discovery, preservation and importance of history in the Moreton Bay region. The all-day event at Morayfield on Thursday 19 May includes presentations by respected guest speakers and stalls from the region’s historical groups and societies. Speakers include Dr Ray Kerkhove, Dr […]
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Capt. Patrick Logan’s coatee
March 17th, 2022
The full dress coatee of Captain Patrick Logan is part of the online collection of the National Army Museum in London. Captain Logan, 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot, was Commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement from 1826 until his death at the hands of Aborigines while undertaking a survey of the territory. Military […]
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George John Arnold Mackenzie Cameron
March 4th, 2022
George John Arnold Mackenzie Cameron was an Ensign in the British army who served at the Moreton Bay penal settlement from November 1848 to July 1850. He retired from the army in 1852 while residing in Brisbane and married Maria Feeney in July 1858 at Ipswich. In March 1865 the Camerons boarded the Fiery Star […]
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The Military at Moreton Bay, 1824-1850
February 21st, 2022
HGRC Visiting Fellow, Rod Pratt, has spent over 30 years researching the role of the military in Queensland and has led him to author and co-author almost fifty journal articles, books and book chapters. As a Visiting Fellow with the HGRC, Rod’s research on the British Army at Moreton Bay, 1824 – 1850 has contributed […]
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What is Trove?
February 11th, 2022
Have you heard of Trove? Trove is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of Partner organisations around Australia. It is a single point entry to a treasure trove of artefacts, curiosities and stories from Australia’s cultural, community and research institutions. These include libraries, museums, galleries, the media, government and community organisations […]
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Harry Gentle Fellowships
We offer generous programs for innovative scholars in any discipline relevant to digital history, to aid the research of our centre.
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Robert Henry (Harry) Gentle
The Harry Gentle Resource Centre was created from a generous bequest of Griffith University alumnus Harry Gentle, who sadly passed away, aged 95, in 2015. His wish was for Griffith University to form a digital resource centre dedicated to the study of the lands and people of Australia, prior to 1859. We are honoured to fulfil his wishes.
Harry Gentle’s Biography