HISTORY
Bribie Inspired HISTORY WRITERS Hector Holthouse and Zena Turner
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EVERAL NOTABLE AUTHORS AND HISTORY WRITERS HAVE MADE BRIBIE THEIR HOME OVER THE YEARS. THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT TWO QUITE DIFFERENT PEOPLE, HECTOR HOLTHOUSE AND ZENA TURNER, WHO WERE INSPIRED TO WRITE HERE FROM THE 1960’S. IT IS A SUMMARY OF A PRESENTATION RECENTLY GIVEN BY HISTORICAL SOCIETY SECRETARY LYNNE HOOPER
He moved to live here in 1976 when he married Sibyl Shiach. His first very popular book, River of Gold, written in 1967, told of the Palmer River Gold Rush in North Queensland. He wrote to engage and inform, so his books covered
HECTOR HOLTHOUSE by Lynne Hooper
Hector wrote more than 30 books about Queensland history, and until recently, a room at the Bribie Library was named in his honour, but sadly is no more. Hector, born in Toowoomba in 1915, started work as a Brisbane Telegraph journalist prior to WW2 and visited Bribie regularly from 1960.
life as it was on the wild and untamed Queensland frontier. No subject was off-limits and his easy style made colonial history an enjoyable read with titles like Cannibal Cargoes, about South Sea Island Kanaka labour, followed by Up Rode the Squatter, then Cyclone, Gympie Gold, White Head Hunter. His celebrated book, Suppose I Die is the true story of a young English bride
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The Bribie Islander
who in 1912, with her new husband, travelled to North Queensland, to set up home on a pastoral station. In the late 1970s, Hector began writing Illustrated
in Bongaree in 1959, and later bought the adjoining block. Sibyl met Hector while working at the Brisbane Telegraph newspaper, where she was the Editor-in-Chief’s secretary for over 10 years, before becoming a journalist herself. After Hector’s death in 1991, Sibyl donated copies of all the books he had written to the Bribie Library. Sadly, his books are no longer held in the Library, and a room that honoured his name was changed in recent renovations. Sibyl was active in the Bribie community as a volunteer at the Abbey Museum, the Community Arts Centre and a member
Histories, starting with Illustrated History of Queensland, followed by Illustrated History of Brisbane, and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. A keen photographer, he also produced a number of photographic books of Queensland. Hector’s second wife, Sibyl Shiach, was the reason he moved to Bribie Island. As a single girl, she had purchased a block in a new land release
Hector Holthouse with HIstory Books
