Queensland

Events

09 May 2010 -16 May 2010 : Queensland Heritage Festival 2010 - Celebrate Your Story
NAWteaser. The National Trust of Queensland is hosting a program of events from Cooktown to Currumbin. This program of events is the State's largest celebration of Queensland's heritage and plays a key role in fostering an appreciation of our history and our cultural identity. We will see in 2010 once again a fantastic variety of community-hosted events being held across metropolitan and regional Queensland from Sunday 9 May to Sunday 16 May. Dig deeper...

11 May 2010 : Our Story Your Story - Search for AHS Centaur
NAWteaser. Public talk. Queensland Museum’s Historic Shipwrecks Officer Ed Slaughter will discuss the historical background and provide an eye-witness account of the successful search for the wreck of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, during a special presentation at Queensland Museum South Bank on Tuesday 11 May. The Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine off Moreton Island on 14 May 1943 with the loss of 268 lives. The exact location of the wreck was shrouded in mystery until the discovery of the last resting place of the Centaur, and many of her crew, on 20 December 2009. Dig deeper...

13 May 2010 : Discover More – Search for AHS Centaur
NAWteaser. Public lecture. Queensland Museum’s Historic Shipwrecks Officer Ed Slaughter will discuss the historical background and provide an eye-witness account of the successful search for the wreck of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur, during a special presentation at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville. The Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine off Moreton Island on 14 May 1943 with the loss of 268 lives. The exact location of the wreck was shrouded in mystery until the discovery of the last resting place of the Centaur, and many of her crew, on 20 December 2009. Dig deeper...

14 May 2010 : The 2010 Hall Lecture. The origins of agriculture in the Amazon: Dark earths, manioc domestication and landscape transformation in the Amazonian Formative.
The annual Hall Lecture honours Associate Professor Jay Hall, who retired in 2007 after more than 30 years of service to the Australian archaeological community. His teaching of archaeology produced several generations of scholars who continue to influence archaeological thinking in Australia and beyond. This year's public lecture will be delivered by Dr Manuel Arroyo-Kalin of Durham University, UK. Archaeology has recently demonstrated that agriculture and sedentism were widespread in the Amazon Basin during prehistory and that humans were a major influence on Amazonian ecosystems. However, the origins of agriculture and sedentism in Amazonia sit uncomfortably within accounts of South American pre-Columbian history, partly because newer data defy simple interpretation and also because many discussions continue to ignore evidence of pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape transformations. In this lecture, recent archaeological investigations into the prehistory of Amazonian agriculture and landscape change will be discussed, focusing on geoarchaeological research of the soils themselves. Research shows that anthropogenic soil formation was a hallmark of the Amazonian Formative and suggests manioc domestication accompanied the widespread appearance of Amazonian anthropogenic dark earths during the first millennium AD. Dig deeper...

16 May 2010 : Special Exhibits and Hands On Workshops at the R D Milns Antiquities Museum
Special Exhibits for National Archaeology Week: Greek Pottery as Archaeological Evidence and Archaeology of Ancient Olympia, 17 May - 21 May, from 9am-5pm. Plus Hands On Workshops – 10am – 4pm (16th and 22nd May Only). Two workshops focusing on the museum’s special NAW exhibits: Greek Pottery as Archaeological Evidence and Archaeology of Ancient Olympia. Handle Real Greek and Roman artefacts! Dig deeper...

16 May 2010 : Guided Tours of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum, University of Queensland
Guided tours of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum. The R.D. Milns Antiquities Museum is the foremost collection of classical Mediterranean antiquities in Queensland and amongst the top university collections in Australia. Envisaged as a highly accessible teaching museum for both the public and university students and researchers, the collection has grown from humble beginnings to its current location, taking pride of place on Level Three of the university’s Michie Building. The collection now consists of several thousands antiquities on constant display, mostly relating to the classical civilisations of Greece, Rome and Egypt, but also housing collections which are relevant to the study of other Near Eastern and European groups. The R. D. Milns Antiquities Museum also holds a broad collection of Athenian black and red figure ceramic fragments, along with a wide variety of other fragmentary artefacts housed in on site, permanent storage. Dig deeper...

16 May 2010 : Mill Point Heritage Walk: The Archaeology of a Noosa Landscape
In the late 1800s Mill Point on Lake Cootharaba was a thriving sawmill employing up to 150 men at times. The men and their families lived in the settlement associated with the sawmill and which included a variey of shops, a school and library, community hall and a hotel. The boom years did not last and the mill closed in 1892. Attempts at dairy farming in the area met with limited success. Join Steve Nichols and Karen Murphy (University of Queensland), coordinators of the Mill Point Archaeological Project, for a free guided walking tour of the late nineteenth century sawmill, cemetery and domestic areas as well as remains of the early twentieth century dairying industry. The walk lasts around 2-3 hours and is a very popular National Archaeology Week event. Dig deeper...

17 May 2010 -21 May : Archaeology at the Queensland Museum
Guided and self-guided tours of the archaeology on display at the Queensland Museum. Archaeology at the Museum Tours – daily floor tours (17-21 May) at 11:30am of the archaeology-related exhibits at the museum by staff archaeologists Kate, Geraldine and Nick. People from the Past Tour – a self guided tour around the archaeology-related exhibits at the museum. Maps of the tour trail are available at the enquiries desk. Dig deeper...

18 May 2010 : A Sustainable Future for Pattemore House
Public presentation by Cultural Heritage Consultant Steve Chaddock. Pattemore House is a lowset timber dwelling constructed of Beech cut, pit sawn and dressed on the property, for John Robert and Emily Pattemore in 1907. Among other things, it is important in demonstrating the early development of Maleny as an agricultural settlement and the expansion of dairying in Queensland in the early 1900s. Pattemore House is on the State Heritage List and lies within the 126 hectare Maleny Precinct. Steve will cover the known history, a recent conservation plan and council/community group establishment. He will highlight the need for increased understanding, particularly in relation to archaeological features in the landscape, and consider the future of this important in situ dairy farming residence. Dig deeper...

19 May 2010 : Gummingurru - A Very Special Place
Visiting Gummingurru. The Gummingurru Aboriginal stone arrangement site is north of Toowoomba, between the towns of Highfields and Meringandan on the Darling Downs, in inland southern Queensland. It is almost 5ha in size and is made up of more than a dozen designs made from the arrangement of local rocks which are formed from the basalt that covers parts of the site. It is one of the largest stone arrangement sites in Queensland, and is the most easterly stone Bora site recorded in Queensland. Gummingurru is in the country of the Jarowair Aboriginal people, who are one of the many Aboriginal groups associated with the Bunya Mountains and the feasts and ceremonies that were held there once every three years. Today Gummingurru is no longer used as an initiation site. The Jarowair custodians want the site to be open to everyone who is interested in learning about Aboriginal culture and heritage. They have opened the site to all Australians: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, young and old, male and female. Dig deeper...

19 May 2010 : Our Story Your Story - The Colonial Goldfields: Visions and Revisions
Public talk at the Queensland Museum by Dr Kate Quirk, Curator of Archaeology. Kate's PhD research focused on the former gold mining town of Paradise in the Burnett Region, which flourished in the late 1800s but which was all but abandoned by 1904. In association with principal investigators Dr Jon Prangnell and Dr Lynda Cheshire, Kate found that life at Paradise did not fit the stereotypical view of a rough and ready frontier town. She is the co-author, with Dr Prangnell and Dr Cheshire, of 'Paradise: Life on a Queensland Goldfield'. Dig deeper...

20 May 2010 - 22 May 2010 : Towoong Cemetery Uncovered
In the 1970s a short-lived scheme to turn parts of Toowong Cemetery into parkland saw the demolition and removal of headstones and monuments deemed to be dilapidated or dangerous. Many of these were dumped in the creek at the cemetery. Since 2005 UQ archaeologists and the Friends of the Toowong Cemetery have excavated and recorded some of these historic headstones, and work is continuing this year. Activities also include the 'Elizabeth Dale Trail'(Elizabeth drowned in the cemetery dam in 1905 while visiting family graves), demographic and survey exercises. Organised schoolgroups on Thursday 20 May - Friday 21 May, public welcome on Saturday 22 May, 9am-2pm. Dig deeper...

22 May 2010 : Seeing what's under the surface - geophysics in action!
Public demonstratiion of the 'geophys' so beloved of TV's Time Team! Brisbane geophysicist Mohammed Hayat will be using ground penetrating radar to 'see' what's below the surface the of the creek line in Toowong Cemetery. In the 1970s the cemetery underwent a 'beautification' process whereby monuments and other masonry considered to be dilapidated or unsightly were removed and dumped in the creek line. Since 2005 UQ archaeologists, Friends of Toowong Cemetery, school students and members of the public have been excavating the creek line to recover and record the monuments. Now it is hoped that geophys will help direct the search! Dig deeper...

Exhibitions/Displays

18 Apr 2010 -30 October 2010 : The Social Life of Things
A special exhbition at the Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland. The Exhibition showcases material from research conducted around the world by academics from the School of Social Science, along with treasures located in the Anthropology Museum. The Museum houses a significant collection of 24,000 items, including 5000 photographs. The majority of the Museum’s holdings were made by Indigenous Australian or Pacific peoples and include many stone tools. Dig deeper...