Dr Lee Butterworth, Research Fellow at HGRC, delivered a talk on the forthcoming Harry Gentle Resource Centre Dictionary of Biography at the recent Australasian Federation of Family History Associations (AFFHO) Congress 2022, held on Norfolk Island in August. Great interest was shown in the ‘Dictionary’, with a number of attendees volunteering to share their family research with the Centre.

Tours of the old cemetery, Government House, HMS Sirius Museum, and the Pier Store Museum were included in the conference program.

This history experience of Norfolk Island was enjoyed by professional historians and local and family historians alike.

(Image: Sunset at AFFHO Congress dinner. Source: Lee Butterworth)

History Redcliffe is partnering with History Queensland to host the 4th Queensland State, Local and Family History Conference at the Redcliffe Dolphins Leagues Club on Friday 21 October to Sunday 23 October. Guest speakers include Jennifer Harrison, Shauna Hicks and Michelle Patient. The conference will feature a wide variety of interesting speakers and topics, DNA sessions, trade exhibits and a conference dinner. There will also be free workshops on Friday 21 October, one of which will feature a team from Griffith University led by Prof Mark Finnane, Director of the Harry Gentle Resource Centre, discussing the use of digital records in genealogical research. Register at sandsoftime.org.au

It is with great sadness that the HGRC team learnt of the sudden passing of our past visiting fellow, Rod Pratt, on Thursday 23 June 2022.

Rod was a visiting fellow with the Centre from July 2020 to October 2021. He was extremely generous in sharing with the HGRC his research of over 30 years into Queensland military history .

Rod’s life-long fascination with Queensland history led him to author and co-author almost fifty journal articles, books and book chapters, dealing with the roles of the military in Queensland. The topic of these publications range from the British red-coats posted to early Moreton Bay from 1824, the rise of Volunteer Forces in the 1860s, the Colony’s early school cadet movement, through to the service of Queensland Aborigines in the First A.I.F.

Through his project as a visiting fellow titled “The British Army at Moreton Bay, 1824 to 1850”, Rod contributed over 1,000 military entries for our dictionary of early Queenslanders.

Rod was a humble, self-effacing and polite man and the HGRC is honoured to provide an audience for a fraction of his extensive military history.

Join HGRC Visiting Fellow Janis Hanley at the Queensland State Archives on Thursday 16 June at 12.00pm for a presentation titled ‘Woollen Threads’ exploring the heritage of the woollen textile industry in Ipswich from the 1850s to the 1870s. Register to attend this free talk in person at the QSA premises at Runcorn or via livestream here.

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 Margaret Kowald, Greg Hallam and Jan Richardson, with a special performance by Leena Salim.

Jan Richardson, PhD candidate and Research Assistant in the Harry Gentle Resource Centre, will focus on convicts and ex-convicts who escaped to, lived in, and travelled through the Moreton Bay region, from the hills and valleys of the Pine Rivers district to the shores of Moreton Bay and Bribie Island.

Date and time

Thursday 19 May 2022, 9:00am – 3:00pm

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 historian, Rod Pratt, believes the coatee may have been donated by his wife Letitia upon her arrival back in the UK. View the coatee here.

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 for London but the ship caught fire east of New Zealand. They boarded one of the overcrowded life-boats but were never seen again. Read Cameron’s biography.

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 greatly to the development of the Centre’s biographical and historical database. Rod’s research report on the roles of the subaltern officers at Moreton Bay can be accessed here.

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The HGRC is delighted to announce the appointment of its 2022 Visiting Fellows. Congratulations to Dr Dorothy Wickham and Dr Deborah Jordan who will join us for 12 months as they undertake original and innovative research.

Dorothy Wickham is a Director of a successful boutique publishing house, educator, author and historian. Dorothy intends to create a comprehensive database and biographical sketches of the immigrants on the Artemisia that arrived in mid-December 1848 carrying the first free settlers from Britain to Queensland. The database has the potential to unlock stories, linkages, and associations that have previously been overlooked and under-researched.

The links between early colonisation and the later successes of the nineteenth century women’s movement is the focus of Deborah Jordan’s project. Some of the women from early colonial families who experienced Queensland’s transition from penal to free settler colony in 1859 went on to play a leading role in the call for women’s rights as the century progressed. Re-visiting the women’s stories will enrich and deepen our understanding of the distinct achievements of the early women’s rights movement in colonial Queensland.

Welcome and congratulations to Dorothy and Deborah. We look forward to learning more about your research during your time with the Centre.