Cairns Historical Society

The big news from the Cairns group is their 'In Times of War' exhibition held at The Tanks Art Centre which was launched to commemorate the approaching centenary of the start of the First World War.  The Society's usual April meeting was also held at the Tanks so members could view the exhibition which is based on the group's extensive collection of photos of soldiers and to listen to lectures on local Victoria Cross winner, Harry Dalziel and the Cane Beetles Recruitment March of 1916 and of the Kanowna Expedition which was the first Australian action of World War One.  The Society is also busy organizing their next big event which is the Heritage Week fieldtrip to be held in early May.  This annual Society trip, which is combined with the Cairns branch of the National Trust, will be a train ride up to Kuranda instead of the usual bus trip with a theme this year of 'Journeys'.  It was also reported that the Society museum's 'History on the Move' trailer has had a make-over with the interior having been remodelled for their visits to local schools.  The trailer project has been a great success for the Society having been visited by 1177 school children last year with the feedback received being very positive.  Their Research Officer, Nicky Horsfall has also been hard at work with her team of volunteers checking and correcting the new database and conducing their first ever stocktake of research books which was needed after the big move when some of the bookshelves were combined.  She is also calling for anybody who has overdue library books to return them as soon as possible so they can be recorded.  Good to see this group up and running again.

Douglas Shire Historical Society

The folk at the Douglas Society are certainly embracing the new computer media world with their new Facebook page which they have just recently launched as well as having commenced two new local history Blogs.  One of the new blogs tells the story of Christy Palmerston's 'Bump' Road while the other gives a short history of the old Royal Hotel of Mossman.  Two members of this group, Pam Burden who acts as their Media Liaison Officer and Noel Weare, travelled to Cairns to attend a recent seminar on social media conducted by staff from the Queensland State Library and it appears to have paid off for the Society.  Although, along with their recently up-graded website, they will certainly be kept busy sustaining this effort.  The Society was pleased to have assisted with the project to create the longest history mural in the North at the Mossman Woolworths' Shopping Centre.  Another major project which this group has started involves a long-term study of the pioneering Chinese community of the Douglas district.  This project began at the groups April meeting where members were asked to bring along any stories they had of the district's early Chinese people.  The group has also been busy with their Heritage month displays, one at the Coffee Club in Port Douglas and the other at the Shire Hall in Mossman.  The next meeting will be their AGM.

Yet Another Yasi Book

I had a quick flip though the pages of the recently published 'After Yasi' by June Perkins.  This must be the third or fourth book written about this severe tropical cyclone and in this case, it was compiled with the assistance of the residents of the Cassowary Coast area who had experienced the event.  Although there are some pictures of the damage done by the storm and a few descriptions of what happened, the main emphasis is not on the traumatic incident but on the recovery of the community afterwards.  This volume is not so much for the local historian as it is a social reflection of how the cyclone affected the lives of the residents and changed their attitude to life.  The poetry and artistic expression in this book will appeal to many readers and to those who are interested in how people coped with this kind of disaster.  Not really my 'cup of tea', but others might like it.

Innisfail District Historical Society

At a recent heritage meeting, I caught up with several members of the Innisfail history group who brought me up to date with happenings at their Society.  They are busy with planning for a number of projects, one of which is the approaching annual 'Taste of the Senses' festival which they support with a display at their museum and a stall out the front of the building.  Another project the group are occupied with is the publication of a booklet of old photographic images of the distrct which will raise needed funds.  This year is the 100th annual Innisfail Show and some thought is already been given to a special history display for the event.  They received some good news recently when the Society learnt that they had been successful in obtaining a grant of $900 to appropriately copy three editions of a historic local newspaper that was donated to the group.  They also brought us up to date on the work been done with the new book on the history of the Mission Beach district.

North Queensland Mining History

The mining history enthusiast gathered recently at the Herberton Mining Centre for their first quarterly meeting for the year which started with the long awaited news that the problem of searching for some affordable insurance for the group had been resolved.  A few updates were given on research been done by members and a project for next years' centenary of Anzac was discussed with some ideas on recording the local miners who joined the Tunneller Companies.  This was followed by a brief discussion on the risk to mining heritage from the Government program to fill in old mine shafts and the lost of old mineral collections and geological libraries.  The speaker at this meeting was Col Robinson who gave an excellent lecture on his research into the history of the northern tin dredging industry.  Hope to see this turned into a book some day.

Heritage North

Ten local history buffs representing four member groups attended the recent quarterly meeting of the Heritage North Association which was hosted by the Eacham Historical Society in Malanda.  After the reports from the different Societies, a brief discussion was held on the personal accident insurance policy for museum volunteers and it was resolved to look into the policy to ensure that it is suitable for today's requirements.  That was followed by a talk on the need to produce a new tourist brochure to promote the north's museums as the previous one is now some twenty years old and the few that is left are quite out of date.  Also discussed at the meeting were ideas for training workshops for the current year and the need to restart the Association's newsletter to keep the more isolated members, who find it difficult to attend, informed of goings-on.  The Innisfail Society will host the next meeting in late May.

Atherton Family History Group

Gwen and the history buffs who conduct the little family and local history group at the Atherton Library has been busy and have drawn up a draft schedule for this year.  The theme of the last meeting was Names and as the next meeting will be held before Anzac Day, the theme for the April meeting will be Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen.  The upheaval caused by the de-merger of the Shire Councils has been sorted out with the group moving their history centre into the room previously used by the Children's Activities group.  The group gather at the Meeting Room in the Atherton Library on the first Thursday of the month at 10am.  For a copy of the schedule or more information on this group, contact Gwen at the library.