From The Archives

(Featured Image: Tangalooma Whaling Station, Moreton Island, c. 1952 – 1961) Whales were first hunted in Australian waters in the late-eighteenth century. By the end of the nineteenth, intensive commercial whaling had caused whale numbers to fall precipitously. From...

Today, the tiny town of Laura, located in Cook Shire on Cape York, 310 km north-west of Cairns, is primarily known for the ancient and impressive Aboriginal rock art connected with the Quinkan and Regional Cultural Centre. The town itself (home to 80 people and...

In 1901, workers began to cut a ninety-one-metre tunnel through the sandstone of the Darlington Range. First used in 1903, it is now known as the Lahey’s Canungra Tramway Tunnel. It was part of a privately-constructed tramway route owned by the Lahey family, who...

Goats played an important role in the early history of Queensland. Arriving in Australia on the First Fleet, goats spread across the country with European settlement. Serving as a handy source of meat, milk, and transportation, they thrived in the harsh Australian...

This plaque, from Possession Island off the tip of Cape York, commemorated Captain James Cook’s claiming of the “whole eastern coast of Australia from the Latitude of 38 degrees south” (from near Melbourne north to Cape York) in the name of the British king. The...

While television broadcasting officially commenced in Queensland in 1959, Queenslanders first started experimenting with television broadcasting technology in the 1930s. Thomas Elliot was part of a group of dedicated amateur radio operators, who, in 1934, began...

Big Pineapple opened in 1971, as part of the Sunshine Plantation – an early example of agricultural tourism. Located in Woombye in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Region, the sixteen-metre-tall fibreglass Big Pineapple is arguably Queensland’s most iconic ‘big thing’....