Story of Minnie Kemp

The second small booklet that the Watsonville folk published for this year's annual Pioneer Women's Day event is another great addition to their collection and is worth the effort to obtain.  Entitled 'The Story of Minnie Kemp nee Roos' it was also compiled by Watsonville historian, Jane Chapman.  This little book tells the tale of a local lady who was left with seven young children to rear on her own after the death of her husband in 1928 and how she soldiered-on during those hard old days.  The booklet includes a number of short memories of life with Minnie which was shared by her descendants.  Another great addition to anyone's collection of short stories of life in early North Queensland produced by the Western Progress Association.

Heather Joan Howe's Story

The family of Mrs Heather Howe was pleased to be able to present a snapshot of Heather's life in this small booklet which was featured at the recent Watonville Pioneer Women's Day event.  Entitled 'Heather Joan Howe's Story', this story was compiled by Jane Chapman from an eulogy written by Heather's daughter, the Cairns historian, Kay Earl.  Heather spent much of her life on the coast particularly about the Gordonvale-Aloomba area before she and her husband moved out west to manage cattle properties including their own small station 'Red Bend' on the Herbert River.  The Western Progress Association was pleased to produce this booklet to pay tribute to Heather who, until her passing in 2016, was a regular at their Pioneer Women's Day where she was well known for her enthusiasm for bush poetry.

Kuranda Historical Society

A new group is welcomed to the local heritage movement.  The new Kuranda Historical Society is now officially constituted and incorporated and proudly proclaiming their objective 'to receive and preserve historical items from or relevant to, the Kuranda region and display them appropriately to as wide an audience as possible.'  The committee is in place with Dugg Stratford as President and Anne Clarke as the Secretary and the position of Treasurer filled by Gayle Hannah.  Now that the Society is legally up and running, they will begin to seek a 'home' for the group and start pursuing funding.  They are also to organize their first public meeting and be able to open up a membership drive in the near future.  The committee wish to thank everyone who has expressed interest in being involved and with the administrative tasks finished, they hope soon to be in a position to begin receiving donations of historical materials.  Anyone with queries can contact the Society via email on kurandahhistory@gmail.com or c/- P.O.Box 66 Kuranda 4881. 

Cooktown Historical Society

The Cooktown Historical Society is trialing a series of history nights this year and May saw the inaugural 'History Evening' at the History Centre in Charlotte Street.  The twenty people attending made a full house in the available space.  The presentation by Bev Shay was enthusiastically received and led the way to several lines of discussion.  This month saw the second evening, presented by Marge Scully and entitled 'Tommy Ah Kum, His Legacy'.  It looked at the life of one of Cooktown's Chinese merchants from the 1880's.  One of the visitors said they, "found it fascinating in the amount of 'detective archaeological' efforts to acquire the presented information and the discussions on the types of opium medications we used to take was very humourous."  Disappointingly, attendance numbers were down but perhaps they should check as to when the football is on when planning these event!  Next public event will be the opening of the Sam Elliot/John Hay display.  There was a busy Monday recently at the History Centre.  It started with a visit by sixteen pensioners from Brisbane and finished with a VIP visit.  The French Consul-General Mr Crozier, the German Consul-General Mr Freischlader, the Honoray Consul from Cairns Mrs Indorato accompanied by Marie-Claude Nicot from the French Benevolent Society of North Queensland.  They had requested a meeting with the historical society.  The purpose of the visit was to lay wreaths on the memorials to the French sailors who died of disease here in Cooktown in 1879 and on the grave of Dr Korteum, Cooktown's resident doctor for many years and the German Vice-Consul from 1886 to 1914.  The Society would also like to make contact with anyone associated with the old Palmer River Preservation Society which was operating in the 1980's.  If they could make contact it would be much appreciated.   

Innisfail & District Historical Society

The Innisfail & District Historical Society recently held their Cyclone Centenary event in the Shire Hall and it was a major success.  The storytellers all did a wonderful job telling the tale of the great 1918 cyclone and the compere for the evening saw that everything ran smoothly.  Special thanks go to Les Cavanagh, Barbara Smith, Jeff Baines, Sheryl Cavanagh, Paul Hynes and Pam Egan along with Kirsty Densmore who also told a story or two while handling the compere's job.  A very special thanks you to the CCRC Council staff that did so much to help with the success of the evening.  And thanks to the members of the Society, it has taken many months to get this event together and it all came together beautifully.  The 1918 Cyclone booklet will be on sale in the museum as soon as the printer in Townsville is able to get the rest of the order to the Society.  The forty books they had at the launch night were all sold out very quickly.  Thank you too, to everyone who came to support the event.  With the weather over that week or two, the group didn't really expect so many to turn up but a fabulous bunch of history buffs came out in support and the Society was so pleased.  Another book from the group, 'Memories of old Geraldton/Innisfail Volume 3' is also now on sale for $18.00.  Brilliant photos of old Innisfail and a great companion book to volumes 1 and 2.   

Douglas Shire Historical Society

At the Douglas Shire Historical Society's April meeting at the Mossman Community Centre, Gail Coburn spoke about the history of the Mossman Support Services group which recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.  The Anzac exhibition on display at the Douglas Shire Council's Mossman Foyer commemorating this Anzac Day and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One has been successful.  This computer presentation of the Diggers who had connections with the Douglas Shire and filmed remembrances of their descendants closed on Thursday 3rd May.  The Society's AGM will be held on Monday 14th May at 2pm at the CWA Hall in Port Douglas.  The talk for this meeting will be on Port Douglas and the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill.  The group has an interesting year ahead with the lease of the old SES shed going ahead.  It appears the Society will finally have a resource centre for office space and for the safe storage of heritage documentation and artifacts.  So please come along and volunteer your time to learn how to help with the digitizing and cataloguing of the collection.

Harry Dalziel Commemoration

When David Dalziel and his son John planned their journey to the North to speak to a couple of school class about his famous war-hero father Harry Dalziel, he had no idea the trip would turn into a full week of lectures and civic functions.  To celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Hamel and the action that won Harry Dalziel his Victoria Cross, a glossy twenty-page booklet was printed telling the story of Harry's life and of the battle that became a turning point of the First World War.  Harry, who was born at Irvinebank and spent much of his life in Atherton, has the distinction of been the only soldier from the Far North of Queensland to have won the V.C.  This little pictorial booklet was compiled by David Dalziel mostly from family records and makes a great souvenir for those interested in Australian military history.  Copies can still be obtained by contacting the Eacham Historical Society.