From The Archives

During the Second World War (1939 – 1945), Australia, in common with other Allied nations, rationed important commodities, including food, petrol, rubber, and clothing. Australia implemented rationing for a variety of reasons, including reduced imports, a smaller...

Today, Central Australia is home to the world’s largest herd of wild camels. This population is a legacy of the challenges of transporting goods across Australia’s arid inland during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In 1860, three cameleers and...

In 1864, the British and Queensland governments established the settlement of Somerset on the Cape York Peninsula. Named for Lord Somerset, first Lord of the Admiralty, Somerset was intended as a refuge and supply depot for passing ships, a base to establish a...

On the morning of the 30th December 1950, a CAC Wirraway (a small Australian-made military aircraft) was conducting a shark patrol at Maroochydore. While this activity was routine, it was 27-year-old pilot Flight Lieutenant Hebert Thwaite’s first patrol. At 11:10...

Bananas are Australia’s largest horticultural industry and its bestselling supermarket item. Over ninety percent of Australia’s banana crop is produced in North Queensland. Banana plants were introduced to Australia in the early to mid-nineteenth century, with the...

The town of Boulia was founded in 1879 near a waterhole on the Burke River. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Boulia gradually acquired stores, hotels, blacksmiths, a sawmill, a cordial factory, a post office, and a telegraph link to Cloncurry. In 1887,...

Traditional Torres Strait Islander art and craftsmanship have been passed down from generation to generation, and remain a key part of today’s cultural practices. These skills continue to be taught, and processes and tools are adapting to suit the changing social ...