Issue 11 :: July-August 2012

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speak easy!  new ways to discover old stories  how to see if your family was on film or radio  expert tips on preserving your audio records

society spotlight logan river, queensland

Win t

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160 years of fashion photography

Copyright & genealogy find out who owns what

revealed! your top 10 history books

uluru balancing time & timelessness

s to

9 771838 504008

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Aus $10.50 incl GST NZ $11.95 incl GST PRINTED ON FSC-APPROVED PAPER JUL–AUG 2012

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ISSN 1838-5044

Jul–Aug 2012

 battle of milne bay from a pilot who was there

celebrate

eResources

a portal of gold

Byron Bay Writers’ Festival 3–5 August 2012 Be delighted and inspired by more than 120 featured writers, readers and thinkers from around the globe, including Tom Keneally, Bob Brown, Katherine Boo and Jane Gleeson-White.

Widely regarded as one of Australia’s premier literary events, the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival draws together thousands of literature lovers for three days of great conversation, debate and discussion. Hear from some of our eminent history, historical fiction and biography writers, such as…

Jane Caro is an author, novelist, journalist, columnist, lecturer, advertising writer and media commentator. Caro has published three books, The Stupid Country, The F Word, and, in 2011, her historical novel, Just a Girl. She is a sought-after debater and speaker and also appears regularly in the media, including on the ABC’s Q&A, The Drum and the iconic The Gruen Transfer. She is on the board of Bell Shakespeare, where she chairs the company’s Artistic Advisory Panel, and The NSW Public Education Foundation.

John Bailey is an Australian author with six books to his credit. Bailey’s risky decision to change careers from law to full-time writing at the age of 55 paid off. His books have been well received by the critics and the public alike. They have won, or been shortlisted for, literary prizes and have been optioned for movies. Bailey’s latest book, Into the Unknown, is a masterful biography of the explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt. Set against the background of colonial life in the 1840s, it reveals the quirks of character that made Leichhardt such a success and that also eventually destroyed him.

Image Hamilton Lund/Distination NSW

Rohan Wilson is winner of the 2011 The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award for his novel, The Roving Party. The book gets elbow-deep in the muck of our nation’s early years, and knowingly courts objections from several quarters.

It has been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award for Literature, and recently, Rohan was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists for 2012. Rohan is currently writing a PhD dissertation on the topic of fiction’s problematic relationship with history and the ways in which the Australian novel imagines its connection to the past.

Brenda Niall is one of Australia’s foremost biographers and has authored four award-winning books. Her latest work, True North, focuses on the story of Mary and Elizabeth Durack. Niall holds degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australian National University and Monash University.

She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Michigan and Yale University. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for ‘services to Australian literature, as an academic, biographer and literary critic’. She frequently reviews for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

To peruse the entire Festival program, book tickets and for all further information, visit www.byronbaywritersfestival.com or call the booking hotline on 1300 368 552.

our family

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

PO Box 406 Erskineville NSW 2043 Australia Publisher Ben Mercer ben@insidehistory.com.au Editor Cassie Mercer cass@insidehistory.com.au Designer Rohana Archer Editorial contributors Teresa Cannon Hazel Edwards Kerry Farmer Miranda Farrell Michael Flynn Paula Grunseit Barbara Hall Shauna Hicks Michael Martin Elizabeth Masters Merrill O’Donnell Pristine Ong Annie Payne Margot Riley Emma Sutcliffe Sarah Trevor Mark Webster Janis Wilton Print Subscriptions See page 71 or subscribe online at www.insidehistory.com.au Digital Subscriptions For iPad, find us on Apple Newsstand For Android and PC, find us at au.zinio.com

Cover image Possibly “Professor” George Parker (1829–1871), ca.1858, attributed to Thomas Glaister. Find out why Professor Parker became a local celebrity and the “Champion of Australia” on page 51.

Inside History (ISSN 1838-5044) is published six times a year by Cassie Mercer (ABN 13 353 848 961) PO Box 406 Erskineville NSW 2043 Australia.

Views expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright 2012 by Cassie Mercer and Inside History. All rights reserved.

Distributed by Gordon and Gotch Australia Printed by Ligare Pty Ltd 138 Bonds Road Riverwood NSW 2210

Contents Issue 11, July-August 2012

31

On the cover 16 Ask our experts The curators at the National Archives

of Australia show how to preserve

your audio files 24

“A fine tract of land” We spotlight Logan River and District Family History Society in Queensland

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Portal of gold Michael Flynn shows why the eResources available through your state library and national library are worth logging on to

31 From reels to radio Shauna Hicks looks at the treasures the National

Film & Sound Archive could hold for your family

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New ways to discover old stories We meet researchers who are promoting oral history from a fresh viewpoint

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Battle of Milne Bay World War II fighter pilot Nat Gould talks about his experience in Papua in the first of a series on his extraordinary life

44

Copyright & genealogy Hazel Edwards on controversy and copyright when writing a non boring family history

50

160 years of fashion photography Margot Riley looks at the impact portraiture and fashion had on our ancestors’ lives

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Revealed! Your top 10 history books We asked and you delivered. Now it’s time to vote for your favourite!

62 Balancing time & timelessness The next chapter in Uluru’s long history 68

Win VIP tickets to History Week NSW! Celebrate this terrific event with our giveaway

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Contents 62

46 genie on the go 29 History apps The best ones to download to your tablet,

from walking tours, to a handy compass

your family 46

Our suffragists & pioneers In 1891 in Victoria, 30,000 women stood up to be counted by signing a petition asking for the right to vote. Now two family historians have traced the lives of those who hailed from Colac, and are publishing their remarkable stories

your history 58

Fading from view One man’s mission to document Victoria’s architectural treasures before they are lost for good

regulars 8

Ed’s letter

10 Postie’s here!

Your thoughts, your say — we feature some

of our readers’ letters to Inside History, plus

give away a terrific prize for our star letter 11 Bob’s your uncle Your chance to network with other

researchers and perhaps find a missing

piece of your genealogy puzzle

13 Platform

We talk to Janis Wilton from the University

of New England on teaching history; plus

the latest news and happenings from the

history and genealogy world 19 History now Events you won’t want to miss around

Australia and New Zealand 67

The book shelf What we’re reading

74 One picture… a thousand memories The story behind a family photo

offers 71

Subscribe to Inside History… and go into the draw to win 1 of 10 books!

28th Annual Conference of the NSW & ACT Association of Family History Societies

Family History Expo and Conference 3 EXCITING DAYS 14–16 September 2012 in Gymea, Sydney Hosted by Botany Bay Family History Society

Registration now open.

Check the website for program details

www.conference2012.org.au Theme

“Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure, Discovery” For more details: Write to Conference 2012 PO Box 250 Caringbah NSW 1495 Email info@conference2012.org.au

editor’s letter

There’s always more to learn when it comes to family history. Which is what makes it so much fun — and so addictive!

In this issue we’re looking at oral and audiovisual history , and are spotlighting the records held at the wonderful National Film & Sound Archive in Canberra. Could your ancestor have been on radio or TV? Learn how to find out on page 31. Our interview with a fighter pilot from World War II certainly reveals the power of words in storytelling. Read about his extraordinary life on page 40. Plus, we also talk to two genealogists and a university who are recording personal histories and promoting smaller media collections in different ways on page 36. And while on the subject of collections, be sure to read about eResources on page 26. Michael Flynn talks us through this terrific — and free — online archive .

In the fourth of our six-part series, Hazel Edwards looks at the issue of copyright when it comes to family history. Who owns what? Read her advice on page 44. And how did fashion and photography influence our ancestors ? In a number of ways, says Margot Riley. Read her terrific story on page 50.

Plus we travel to Uluru to look at the area’s multicultural history (page 62), meet a photographer in Melbourne who is documenting abandoned houses before they disappear forever (page 58), and look at new research on some of the suffragists from Victoria (page 46). And it’s time to reveal your top 10 non-fiction history books . We asked you at the start of the year to nominate the work that inspired you the most from those published in Australia and New Zealand, and we loved reading about your nominations. See which titles made the list on page 56, then vote for your favourite , or for the one you’d most like to have on your bookshelf. We’ll reveal the result at the end of the year! I hope you enjoy the issue, and happy researching.

PS Like us on Facebook for more great genealogy advice, the latest news and events, and exclusive giveaways. Join us at www.facebook.com/ insidehistorymagazine

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our family

This issue we ask our contributors…

Which on our shortlist of history books would you vote for and why?

Margot Riley

Sitting pretty, page 50 Although it’s not on your list I’d put forward the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Vol. 7, as it has contributions from leading Australian and NZ dress history professionals and scholars all presented in an easy-to-use format. For those with a SLNSW library card, it’s free via eResources.

Pristine Ong

Online administrator To the uninitiated, the nuances of Aboriginal culture can be intimidating.

They certainly are for me, so my pick is Seeing the First Australians. Using art and photography, the authors provide a point of access to this ancient culture.

Sarah Trevor Intern journalist It’s difficult to choose just one!

Michael Flynn’s book, The Second Fleet, stands out though, for the incredible research and diligence involved in bringing to life some 1500 individual passengers’ stories.

We want to know your answer, too!

Turn to page 56 to see the shortlist.

Congratulations to our competition winners from issue 9!

T. Wright, Kenmore, QLD; J. Russell, Lilyfield, NSW; P. Benstead, Epsom, VIC; M. Morkham, Apollo Bay, VIC; and B. Patullo, Lalor, VIC, each won a copy of Writing a Non Boring Family History by Hazel Edwards.

K. Dixon-Ward, Parkdale, VIC; D. McAndrew, Alexander Heights, WA; J. Sparrow, Eumundi, QLD; E. Pardy, Cootamundra, NSW; and R. Allan, Paddington, NSW each won a copy of A Very Short War on DVD. G. Hatch, Marangaroo, WA; R. Hocking, Abbotsford, VIC; D. Anderson, Canadian, VIC; J. Regan, Inverell, NSW; and J. Sutton, Bathurst, NSW, each won a copy of Who’s Been Sleeping In My House? series 1 on DVD. M. Morfitt, Mandurah, WA; K. Evershed, Noranda, WA; K. Cowen, Caulfield, VIC; K. Weaver, Moss Vale, NSW; and T. Cosier, Angle Vale, SA, each won a copy of Government House and Western Australian Society 1829-2010 from UWA Publishing.

F. Archinal, Botany, NSW; G. Hough, Lavington, NSW; I. Stewart, Elermore Vale, NSW, L. Brennan, The Gap, QLD and V. Marshall, Glen Waverley, VIC, each won a copy of Government House Sydney from Historic Houses Trust of NSW.

letters

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historypin the next great coMMunity archive

May–Jun 2012

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cemeteries new local resources preservation successes life and death on the KlondiKe

a looK inside its faMily tracing service

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50 blogs you need to follow +the latest apps reviewed

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reMeMbering the attacK 70 years on

A tale

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18/04/12 5:38 PM

Postie’s here!

Joining the genealogy community

I just wanted to let you know how impressed I am with your publication. The first issue I came across was issue 10, and I have since ordered all the back copies (which arrived the next day — such excitement!). I’ve now subscribed so I don’t miss out on the next issues!

Every issue has something of interest and importance to me. I especially loved the article, “Entering the blogosphere” in issue 10, which listed your top 50 blogs to follow. I’m not a blogger (or should I say, I wasn’t a blogger!), but I now subscribe to several blogs recommended in your article. It is great to make contact with others in the genealogy community, and learn from their experience (and mistakes). Everyone I have encountered has been so willing to share information and their time.

I love the quality and feel of the paper in the magazine — it is a pleasure to read. Thank you.

— Vanessa Campbell, Glenbrook, NSW

a fantastic conference

On behalf of myself and my guest, Jan Parker (both committee members of Yarrawonga Family History Group), we would like to thank Inside History for allowing us to attend the In the Shadow Of War: Australia 1942 conference and gala dinner in Melbourne recently.

Organised by Military History and Heritage

Like us on facebook.com/insidehistorymagazine

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Victoria, the event was an eye opener for us both.

I had very little knowledge of the war involving Australia, apart from my mother’s three younger brothers being involved (unfortunately one didn’t return) and my father’s four younger brothers (all returned). The calibre of the speakers was superb. Military History and Heritage Victoria should be commended on the organisational procedures of the conference. We look forward to the next conference in 2014. Once again, many thanks to your marvellous magazine.

— Gina Annand, Yarrawonga, VIC

Signed, sealed, delivered!

At last I have a magazine to receive in the post that I can really look forward to. It’s a delight to hold, view the layout, and of course read. I even love the smell when it’s first opened! It’s full of treasure snapshots of the past jumping out to surprise me. Thanks!

— Helen Foley, via Facebook Want to have your say on our “Postie’s here” page?

Write to us at contribute@insidehistory.com.au Each issue our star letter will receive a great prize for writing in! This issue, Vanessa Campbell wins a copy of Wellington’s Men in Australia by Christine Wright (Palgrave Macmillan, $135)

Join us on twitter.com/insidehistory

your family

Bob’s your uncle Are you looking to connect with other descendants or historians?

Each issue we’ll feature who and what people are researching.

Image Courtesy Douglas Stewart Fine Books, www.douglasstewart.com.au

john/johns/bolitho

My lost great, great grandfather is Thomas Rapson John/Johns. He was born in 1848 in Cornwall and married Annie Bolitho. They arrived on the Glamis in 1883 in Adelaide, with their children. I’ve been searching for nine years, and the only mention of Thomas is in his wife’s obituary, published in 1926. In this he was merely mentioned as “the late Thomas”. Annie is buried with other family members. She lived in Broken Hill, NSW, and Seaford, SA. I do know that Thomas was a copper miner and commercial traveller. Their son Thomas lived in Kanowna, WA, and Bendigo, VIC, among other places. I hope to make contact with anyone researching this family.

— Bindi Johns, Bendigo, VIC bjbambi1977@hotmail.com

ROBERT AND JANET BRODIE NÉE FORSYTHE

Robert and Jane Brodie left Leith, Ireland, on the Palmer and arrived in Sydney on 25 February 1835. On 18 September that year they were married in Morpeth, NSW. She was named Janet Forsythe.

I have no idea whether the Jane Brodie who came out with Robert was later to be his wife or not although on some of the children’s birth certificates she was Jane, some Janet and some Jannet. Some also stated they were married in Scotland. My great grandmother Minnie Brodie, who later married Albert Frome Knight, apparently assumed that

her parents were Robert and Janet, because this is stated on her birth, marriage and death certificates.

Robert ran into trouble with an unpaid account and left NSW. He died in Queensland while living with an older daughter, leaving Janet and the children in NSW. Janet later married Peter James Shoppee in Sydney. She died in 1876.

Janet had 12 children and I am hoping I can make contact with some descendants who can help me in my research.

— Judith Nolan, Leeton, NSW 02 6953 3170; judith.nolan@bigpond.com

The Emu Plains Cemetery Project

The Nepean Family History Society is seeking assistance with biographical information on those buried in the Emu Plains Cemetery in western Sydney.

The society would like stories, memorabilia and old photographs of the cemetery for inclusion in a book to be published in May 2013 to coincide with the cemetery’s sesquicentenary. Any help will be much appreciated.

— Judy McLeod, Emu Plains, NSW 02 4733 1631; publications@nepeanfhs.org.au

Lots of researchers have been linking up through “Bob’s your uncle”. To place an ad, email contribute@insidehistory.com.au. Adverts are free!

Inside History | Jul-Aug 2012 |

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Now you can enjoy Inside History magazine whenever and wherever you want on iPad! Download the app for free, then buy each issue inside the app or subscribe and start building your family history library. Store all your issues in one place and refer back to them when you need to, and save bookshelf space at home!

Get the iPad version of Inside History today and benefit from… l

Enriched content with video and audio files, and photo galleries

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Interactive content with links to websites, emails and phone numbers

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Choice of viewing mode to zoom in on text and make reading as easy as possible

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Instant access to your Inside History library, no matter where you are

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No waiting time for the post — you receive your issue as soon as it’s released

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Save 36% on the printed subscription cost.

Subscribe now on the Apple Newsstand

genie on the go

History apps Though hardly hallowed by the passing of time, these apps harness the latest technology to help you link with your past in informative and interesting ways.

Mark Webster roadtests four of the latest to see how they fare.

black plaques A99c/NZ$1.29; iOS compatible

Powerhouse museum walks Free; iOS and Android compatible

spyglass A$4.49/NZ$5.29; iOS compatible

Love2read Free; iOS compatible

For those with London ancestors, you might like this “misadventures” app.

Black Plaques London shows you where bad, or just darkly weird, things happened. And since it’s a big city with a big history, there are lots of them!

Putrid gases pumped up Big Ben, executions in Trafalgar Square, underwear looted from Buckingham Palace, and Jack the Ripper sites are some of the oddities you can explore. And that’s not all — I found a huge Victorian folly of hidden sewerage works at the end of the otherwise perfectly respectable street my great grandfather lived in.

Yikes! I didn’t know that when I visited last year.

Search by location or by theme, including Gore, Lust, Oddballs, and War.

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has developed a free app that offers a collection of self-guided walking tours around the city. From within the app you are able to choose from a tour of the historical inner-city suburbs of Pyrmont and Ultimo (home to the museum itself), bustling George St in the CBD, or a heritage pub crawl.

The latter costs A$1.99, while the others are free.

Every tour includes a map, information and images from each vantage point, and voiceovers from museum curators to guide you along the way. It’s a great companion for next time you’re in the city, and fascinating to browse through from the comfort of your home.

Spyglass is an app that overlays a compass readout with an image captured by the iPhone or iPad’s camera. In other words, hold the app up in front of your face, and you see what you’re looking at with the compass overlaid on top.

Visit a battlefield for instance, and Spyglass provides a clear vertical and horizontal readout, height above sea level, GPS coordinates and more. Lay it flat and a map appears showing you exactly where you are — genius! (This feature requires internet access.)

Touch the screen and little controls appear to let you zoom in on the image, calculate angles, and show the position of stars (even if it’s cloudy).

Very impressive!

It’s National Year of Reading in Australia, and libraries and library associations around the nation are getting behind the campaign.

The latest tool is a free app designed to celebrate reading and offer easy access to tools to help you participate.

The app is GPS enabled to locate your nearest library, and lets users view upcoming events, share a picture of a library via the app (the developers then add it to the library profile) plus it supports free reads to download to your phone as PDFs. Australia has a fair few libraries: with this app you might well uncover more great records.

Inside History | Jul-Aug 2012 |

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your history

Your

favourite history books Earlier this year we asked you to nominate which non-fiction works inspired you to fall in love with history, or that contributed to your research. Here, not in any ranked order, are the ones that made it to the top 10!

1.

Dancing with Strangers: Sydney 1788–1800

By Inga Clendinnen (Text Publishing, 2003) Award-winning historian Inga Clendinnen turns her attention to the first few years of British settlement in Australia, detailing the early relations between the Indigenous Australians and the newcomers. Exploring the cultural misunderstandings that marked their interactions, this work is a lively, often humorous account of an important theme in Australian history.

2.

3.

4.

As an infamously harsh penal colony where the worst-behaved convicts were sent for repeat offences, along with juvenile convicts, some as young as nine, Port Arthur was certainly a place of misery.

Maggie Weidenhofer expertly paints an engaging, if at times heartbreaking, picture of Port Arthur’s tragic early days.

The woman behind “the father of Australia”, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Elizabeth was a woman of great passion and diverse abilities. In Her Own Words documents her life through numerous personal records: her diary, surviving letters, official colonial records, and more.

This is a book to treasure and a pleasure to read.

This personal record of a pioneering woman in New Zealand’s remote southwest received immediate acclaim when it was published. Alice McKenzie conveyed, as few other writers had done, the reality of everyday life for many of the people who immigrated to New Zealand during the 19th century.

Port Arthur: A PLace of misery

By Maggie Weidenhofer (Oxford University Press, 1981)

In Her Own Words: The Writings of Elizabeth Macquarie

By Robin Walsh (Exisle Publishing, 2011)

Pioneers of Martins Bay: Life in new zealand’s most remote settlement

By Alice McKenzie (Southland Historical Committee, 1947)

From the classics of last century, to the latest in literature, we loved reading about your nominations. Now it’s your chance to vote for your number one. We want to know which inspired you the most, or which you’d most like to get your hands on!

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5.

The convict ships,1787–1868

By Charles Bateson (Brown, Son and Ferguson, 1959)

Image Overseer Jim Riley reading a newspaper on Isis Downs Station, 1915. Courtesy State Library of Queensland

This modern classic is regarded as the definitive guide to Australia’s period of transportation. It includes a chronological list of convict ships that arrived in Australia as well as in-depth details of their voyages to the colonies, using official and non-official sources, providing insight into the overcrowded and diseasestricken conditions on board.

8.

The Second Fleet: Britain’s grim convict armada of 1790

By Michael Flynn (Library of Australian History, 1993) This acclaimed work by historian and Inside History contributor Michael Flynn was the first historical non-fiction book about the ill-fated Second Fleet. His impressive, painstaking research into the diverse lives of over 1,500 convicts, seamen, officials and their families on board makes for an enthralling read.

6.

A Million Wild Acres: 200 years of man and an Australian forest

By Eric Rolls (Nelson, 1981) Both controversial and commended when first published, A Million Wild Acres traces the history of the Pilliga forestland in northern New South Wales, particularly how it has been shaped by both Indigenous tribes and European colonisers. Though regionally focussed, Rolls’ work is truly a significant history of settlement and its environmental impacts.

9.

digging for Diggers: A guide to researching an Australian soldier of the Great War, 1914–1918

By Graeme Hosken (ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee, 2002) A thorough and concise resource book that offers advice on how to find your Anzac in the records and to understand their experiences of war. It also provides useful explanations of terms often found in military research, and the abbreviations used on service records.

7.

Seeing the first Australians

By Ian Donaldson and Tamsin Donaldson (eds) (Allen & Unwin, 1985) A collection of articles exploring early European perceptions towards Aboriginal culture as revealed through art, photography and social science. An impressive lineup of Australian and British scholars delivers this insightful investigation into how settlers viewed the Indigenous peoples they encountered, providing many little-known pieces of information.

10.

Private Journal of a Voyage to Australia

By James Bell (Allen & Unwin, 2011)

When he started penning his journal in 1838 enroute to Adelaide from London, James Bell dedicated it to “C.P.”, advising her that “it must never be read by a third party”. It is a wonderfully vivid record of a journey frought with misadventure. Bell describes the romanticism of the life he left behind, and his hopes one day of being reunited with the lady for whom he was writing.

How to vote It’s easy. Simply email your favourite from the list above to cass@insidehistory.com.au, or send your vote to Inside History NYoR List, PO Box 406 Erskineville NSW 2034 by 5pm, 30 September, 2012.

Inside History | Jul-Aug 2012 |

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travel

Balancing time

& timelessness Uluru is a sacred site. It is the place of learning and knowledge, where ceremonies have been conducted for millennia and where ceremonies continue to celebrate the ancient knowing with its contemporary ethics and values. Teresa Cannon explores life as it has been, and will be.

T

he red majestic presence of the rock at Uluru rises some 348m above the low-lying dunes that surround it. Its changing hues to light and shadows, its black markings after rain and its imposing yet benign presence, often lead to Uluru being ascribed attributes such as mood and aura. Whether at its vibrant red, pastel auburn or rich brown, it portrays an awe-inspiring and poised authority.

Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) is the place of the Anangu, the Indigenous people of the area.

Visitors are welcomed with the Anangu term, Palya. Included in the welcome is a strong wish for understanding of the Anangu and their culture.

There’s also a request that visitors share their new awareness of Anangu culture with others.

For the Anangu, the rock holds powerful stories — of creation and existence, of morality and ethics. Some narratives speak against greed and jealousy. Others propose possibilities for discipline, sharing, for respect and

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responsibility for others. While Uluru is the physical manifestation of Anangu tradition, it’s the tjukurpa which is the law, the intricate intelligence about all existence. It specifies the way of living one’s life.

Ask the Anangu how long they have been at Uluru and they’ll answer “forever”. According to Western estimates, it’s about 22,000 years.

It’s these notions of time — a “forever” time and a measured time — that speak of the difference between Black and White cultures. These timely concepts are embedded in thinking and in custom. Unlike the 9am to 6pm day (or more commonly the 24/7) timing of the Whites, Black culture is a timing of connection and responsibility to others. There may be “sorry business” — the requirement to be present at a funeral and to attend to the needs of relatives.

There may be ceremonies, sometimes for three months, to participate in.

Explorers and cameleers White history of the rock is far more recent, with the first sighting in 1873 during the expedition led by surveyor, William Gosse. He named it Ayers Rock after the Chief Secretary of South

Australia. Gosse, like other explorers of his time, enlisted the assistance of cameleers — camel endurance for desert conditions being far greater than that of horses or bullocks. Indeed Kamran’s Well and Allanah Hill, both in the Uluru area, were named after two of Gosse’s cameleers.

Although the cameleers came from numerous Asian and Middle Eastern countries, they were generally referred to as Afghan. Initially they assisted explorers. Later they delivered mail and equipment for the developing pastoral stations.

Some cameleers married Indigenous women and their descendants live on, mostly having embraced Indigenous culture.

Today, the cause of the camel is avowed by Mark Swindell, director of Uluru Camel Tours.

“They’re like Labradors,” he says. Mark maintains a strong admiration for the early cameleers and their achievements. He agrees with the historical records. “They were law-abiding people,” he says.

“They didn’t drink alcohol. They followed their religious [Islamic] faith.”

Just 85km east of Uluru, Curtin Springs Station with its vast cattle property (some 416,406 hectares), presents another example of White history. Many stations have been operated by the same family for generations. And so it

is at Curtin Springs, which has been run by the Severin family for more than 50 years. It’s here that the lesser known Mt Conner is situated.

Often mistaken for Uluru, it is more than 340m high, with a circumference of 32km, making it slightly lower than Uluru but around three times larger at its base. The Severin family were the first in the area to accommodate tourists who began to arrive from the 1950s. And like other farming families, their business today is a combination of cattle and tourism.

New recognition In 1958 the Uluru area (132,566 hectares) was declared a national park. To reduce environmental damage, all tourist facilities close to the rock were removed and new facilities were constructed 15km away to Yulara — Aboriginal for howling 

Inside History | Jul-Aug 2012 |

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the book shelf

What we’re reading BOATS on the BAY

PATRICIA GEE

Images of the Interior

by Philip Jones (Wakefield Press, A$39.95)

Boats on the Bay by Patricia Gee (Moreton Bay Regional Council, A$30)

Gallipoli to Tripoli by Ian Gill and Neville Browning (Hesperian Press, A$94.95)

Curated by historian Philip Jones from the South Australian Museum, this book introduces the Central Australian frontier as it was in the first half of the 19th century. I use the term ‘introduces’ because many of the photographs have never been shown to a broader public.

The images were taken between the 1890s and 1940s, a time when the concept of the “bush” was starting to form as a new Australian identity. Each captures life as it was, from Indigenous ceremonial customs and the effect the European influence was having on their culture, to the experiences of local pastoralists, Lutheran missionaries and railway workers.

The images are the work of seven men, whose vocations took them into the heart of the outback. As Jones comments, “These early photographers trod lightly in Central Australia, but not casually.” This is a fascinating book that draws you in to every detail of the photographs presented. — Cassie Mercer

As the Brisbane Courier reported in 1880: “An excursion to Moreton Bay in a large and comfortable steamship is one of the most agreeable ways of spending a holiday…”

Produced by Moreton Bay Regional Council, this terrific book/DVD package celebrates an important time in Queensland’s maritime history, when steamboats regularly travelled from Brisbane to Redcliffe delivering goods and passengers. Researched and written by local history librarian Patricia Gee, the project discusses the history of the region, the boats, the companies which owned them, their captains and passengers.

Actor William McInnes voices parts of the DVD and some archival footage transports us to a bygone, television-free era when excursion boat outings were a popular form of entertainment. Order a copy by calling Redcliffe Library on 07 3283 0311. — Paula Grunseit

The 10th Light Horse Regiment is one of the most famous Australian mounted units, having seen heavy action at Gallipoli and later with the Desert Mounted Column in Egypt and Palestine.

It was later immortalised in Peter Weir’s classic film, Gallipoli.

It was with much excitement and anticipation that I read this latest title. It seeks to complement and add to Colonel Arthur Olden’s Westralian Cavalry at War, first published in 1921 and later enhanced and reprinted by Gill and Browning. In this book, the authors have sought to shed new light on the doings of the 10th Light Horse, from its formation in Perth in October 1914 until the Egyptian Uprising in 1919. The narrative was written using eyewitness reports, diaries and journals and contains photos of many of the soldiers.

Available from Regimental Books (www.regimental-books. com.au), it’s a must-read for those interested in the Australian Light Horse or who had a relative serve with the regiment. — Michael Martin

Inside History | Jul-Aug 2012 |

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www.historyweek.com.au “I want to swim. And I can’t swim wearing more stuff than you hang on a clothes line.”

Annette Kellerman PROFESSIONAL SWIMMER AND SILENT MOVIE STAR Born 1884

HISTORYWEEK2012 Explore the history of threads and unpick the meaning behind the wardrobes of the past.

8–16 September

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