Image of the Week

"Hector Poynter Dibby on the fly again"

This picture came from a collection of photos for the Palm Island Dormitory reunion.

I haven't been able to find our notes on what year this photo was taken. Any ideas?

Image of the Week

Yes, well. Ah, we think this photo is of a "child in fancy dress on a beach" taken in Townsville in the early part of the 20th Century (as in, somewhere near 1905, according to our records).

There is a note in our records: "thought to be Hume Willmett" - whether that's the child in the photo or the person who took the photo, I'm not sure.

Does anyone out there have more details?

Image of the Week

Can any Townsville locals recognise the location of this one? It's the Townsville Show Grounds.

This picture was taken during the Townsville Show circa 1910. It's from the W.J. Laurie collection.

Image of the Week

You may recognise this building if you frequent the Townsville campus of JCU. Well, you might half recognise it...

It's the first stage of the Library building on the Townsville campus, just as they're about to complete it. The next stage involved knocking down a large part of that concrete wall and adding the Eastern half of the building. The third stage, added almost thirty years later, involved creating a further section on the southern side of the building. You can still see the original outer walls for the first section inside the library - as long as you know what to look for.

The building was meant to evoke thoughts of the Endeavour, with its round portholes and curved lines. The Endeavour, as I'm sure you're aware, was an 18th Century Barque and didn't have any round portholes - only square gun ports...

Image of the Week

Corpus Christi Procession, 1948, Fantome Is. (men carrying canopy and other paraphernalia, priests in vestments in background, nun to one side).

We actually have a number of pictures from Fantome Island - just twenty or so - which focus mainly on the church and clergy, although there are some pictures of the living quarters and residents.

A State of Flux

We apologise for not updating this blog every week at present.

We are in the middle of changing between Special Collections librarians, and unfortunately this blog has been low on our list of priorities.

We will endeavour to publish posts more frequently in future.

Image of the Week

The image this week comes from the JCU Special Collections 'Delta Ironworks' photograph collection. It highlights not only the existence of a business that began when Alfred Green founded it in 1906 in the Burdekin district of Queensland, but also the fact that machinery within it is still operating. Delta Ironworks is situated in Brandon and continues to make castings and this business has continued to be an ongoing family concern and is now owned and managed by Alfred Green's heirs, Douglas and Robert Green. Delta Ironworks celebrated its centenary in 2006 (see http://www.abcscience.net.au/local/stories/2008/12/03/2436458.htm).

The Special Collections has acquired a considerable archive collection of original order books, stock orders, invoices, account books and ledgers. These records include documents dating back to the 1890s involving Alfred Green's purchase of a business enterprise in Townsville. The records of the Delta Iron Works represent a valuable addition to the Special Collection's coverage of north Queensland history.

If you have any memories, photographs or other pictures of an item that originated from Delta Iron Works, we would love to hear from you.

Image of the Week

Our image for this week comes from the Special Collections in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library at James Cook University. This particular photograph from Alex Trotter's albums shows Queen Elizabeth II conversing with students in the library.

Next year marks the 4oth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Townsville on April 20, 1970. Accompanying her were Prince Phillip and Princess Anne. This occasion marked the two hundreth anniversary of when Captain James Cook charted the eastern seaboard of Australia, including northern Queensland.

Following the proclamation of an Act of the Queensland Parliament, The University College of Townsville became James Cook University of North Queensland on 29 April, 1970.

Special Collections has several photographs of members of the Royal family on their tours of Townsville, the first of which occurred in 1954. If you have photographs from their visits to other areas of North Queensland, or if you remember seeing them, we would love to hear from you.

Image of the week

This photograph, taken in late July 1942, shows the aftermath of the bombing of Townsville. Two ‘Diggers’, with curious onlookers behind them, are searching for bomb fragments after the third of three Japanese air raid on Townsville in that month. The bombing was carried out by Japanese 'Emily' flying boats based at Rabaul in New Britain. Only a small number of bombs were dropped on Townsville and they luckily fell wide of the target area, causing little or no damage. Compared to the 64 raids that engulfed Darwin between February 1942 and November 1943 (see 'The Japanese bombing of Darwin and northern Australia', http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/darwinbombing/), these were small-scale affairs.

Townsville was better protected by Australian and American fighter planes and harder for the Japanese to target, although air raid sirens were common and a strict blackout in operation. Interestingly, the Townsville raids were considered important enough for exaggerated propaganda purposes. On August 1 and 2, 1952 Radio Tokyo reported: "All important military installations at Townsville smashed in three raids by the Japanese naval air units . . . This attack on Townsville was one of the heaviest since the fall of Singapore." Even more boastful was Radio Berlin which reported on August 26, 1942: "In Townsville, which is still burning, the Brisbane railway line was again bombed and made unusable over long stretches" (cited from Peter Charlton, 'The home front', Our Queensland website).

Image of the Week

"At Lammamoor Station North Queensland 1874"

There are 50 people in this assembly, photographed near one of the Lammermoor station buildings. They 'comprised several groups of the local tribe who had gathered for a corroboree and been posed'. The photograph was taken some time between 7 and 23 August 1874. It is unusual in that anywhere else an assembly of this size would have been dispersed by the Native Mounted Police.

The photo can be found in The Bowly Papers: Letters 1873-78, Reminiscences, & Photographs 1873-91 of C.W. Bowly in North Queensland, ed. Anne Smith and B. J. Dalton (published 1995). It is located in the North Queensland Collection in the Special Collections, in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, James Cook University in Townsville.