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...

Armistice Day Essay Competition for Queensland students: To commemorate this year’s Armistice Day the Royal Historical Society of Queensland invites year 5 and 6 students - or younger if their teacher recommends them - to tell us in 150 words or less what peace means...

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...

The historic re-enactment left this morning from the Commissariat Store, 115 William Street, headquarters of The Royal Historical Society, at 9.35 am, on 5 July 2018 precisely 100 years after the original trip. On the fifth of July at 9.35am 1918 Fred Eager left from...