
The HGRC is delighted to announce the appointment of its 2025/2026 Visiting Fellows. Congratulations to Belinda Daley, Trish FitzSimons and Robert Braiden.
Belinda’s project is titled Warders, wives and children – The families of St Helena Penal Establishment. The project will identify families living as part of the warder’s community at St Helena from the late 1860s to its closure in 1932, documenting these in a digital database. The project will also analyse this data to ascertain the roles wives performed, identify issues faced by families living in a colonial penal environment and determine women and children’s unique contribution to St Helena Penal Establishment.
Trish’s career has included documentary filmmaking, social history exhibition curation and digital humanities, along with writing narrative history. Her project is titled Quenched: a History of Queensland’s First Public Water Fountains. Quenched explores the Queensland dimensions of a relatively short-lived international phenomenon: sculptural monuments providing free public drinking water to urban citizens; part of a High Victorian movement; with neo-classical echoes. Quenched’s key questions include: How does this history relate to the broader push for clean water and sanitation that would radically improve public health? What does it tell us of life in the colony of Qld? How/was first wave feminism expressed in this state’s water fountains?
Robert’s project will produce three 20-minute videos that explore how and why the penal settlement at Redcliffe was relocated to the Brisbane River. To support this investigation, he will draw on archival documents, resources from the State Library, contributions from local history groups, consultations with local First Nations peoples, as well as historic photographs, maps, and site visits to key locations.
An award-winning film writer, director, and executive producer, Robert brings a wealth of experience to the project. His background as a Local Heritage Specialist at Logan City Council further informs his approach. The resulting videos will be informative yet conversational, visually engaging, professionally edited, and entertaining.
Welcome and congratulations to Belinda, Trish and Robert. We look forward to hearing more about your research during your time with us.