From The Archives

Irvinebank, near Mareeba, is west of Cairns on the Atherton Tableland. Once a rich mining town, it is now virtually abandoned. Established in 1884, it yielded tin until about 1900. Many of the buildings in the town are heritage-listed. At a time when gold was the...

Spanish immigrant, Jose Paronella, came to North Queensland in 1913 to work as a cane-cutter.  In 1924 he returned to Spain, married Margarita and brought her back to see the piece of tropical scrub that he was intent on buying.  His dream was to build a castle within...

Eidsvold explored by Thomas Archer whose Nordic family soon settled there and built the first homestead in 1850. This family later sold out to the Ivory brothers, two Scots, who built the first golf course in Queensland on Eidsvold station. Later still the station was...

Ravenswood in Queensland is an old gold mining town which was heritage listed in the 1980s by both the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Trust of Queensland. Of all the many grand hotels Browne’s Ravenswood Hotel was, in 1896, the ‘most prominent...

After much agitation by various groups and factions in Queensland in 1851 a petition was sent to Queen Victoria urging that Moreton Bay should receive the same concession for separation as had Port Phillip. This request was not granted then, but three years later the...

This month's featured artwork is a photo of the sinking of HMAS Australia, the first flagship of the Royal Australian Navy on 12 April 1924. To learn more about this story, visit the Commissariat Store, 115 William Street, Brisbane - all welcome!!  

This month's featured artwork from the RHSQ's collection is a framed certificate and bronze medal from the Royal Humane Society of Australasia, awarded to William Russell of Lowood on 19 May 1893 for his bravery.  On 4 February 1893, Russell...