PHA (Qld) was well represented at the launch of Griffith University’s Harry Gentle Resource Centre attended by many industry delegates on Friday 21 April. The Centre, focusing on Queensland history prior to 1859 arises from the bequest of its sole benefactor Harry Gentle, who obtained at BA from Griffith in 1984. The university’s Chancellor Henry Smerdon AM unveiled a plaque in honour of Harry Gentle, and Neil Gentle provided some insight into the life and career of his brother. The function concluded with a banquet of food that might have been available to Queenslanders in the 1850s: kangaroo, crocodile, emu, mutton, liver pate, devilled eggs, damper, home-made bread, bush berries, lemon myrtle, jelly, boiled lollies, and more delicacies than anyone managed to sample on a smorgasbord of historical allusions.
The Centre’s Director Professor Regina Ganter announced that the inaugural Harry Gentle Honours Scholarship for 2017 had been awarded to Dean Kerrison, a recent Griffith BA graduate and university medallist, to write a creative non-fiction account of the encounter between an Indigenous diplomat and a German missionary in the Moreton Bay region from the 1840s to the 1860s.
PHA (Qld) President and HGRC Fellow Dr Jonathan Richards was first in line for a HGRC seminar series in conjunction with the Queensland State Archives from May to July this year. On 19 May Dr Jonathan Richards spoke about Native Police movements and activities in South-East Queensland. Dr Ray Kerkhove’s talk titled ‘Reconstructing Resistance: mapping frontier affrays’ will be held on 16 June 2017. On 14 July 2017 Dr Anastasia Dukova will speak on ‘Policing a Colonial Metropolis: from Moreton Bay to Brisbane’. For more information on the seminar series talks contact the Queensland State Archives.
Dr Lee ButterworthJune 2017e-bulletine