UNIVERSITY PLACES NORTH QUEENSLAND TREASURES ONLINE

More than  100 years old , this photograph, from a glass  negative ,  shows a  miner named  Johnson with a combination  sluice and  cradle  on  the Copperfield River, Oaks Goldfield , Queensland , in the superb  Reverend Frederic  Charles Hall collection , part of  the new  online Special Collections  repository , James Cook University Library , Townsville, Australia .  

 

Reverend Hall (1878-1926), a very keen photographer , born  Woollahra , Sydney,  hoped to be a missionary in China, but served  in North Queensland,  starting with  two years  under the  first Bishop of Carpentaria , Bishop Gilbert White , on Thursday Island ;   later he was  based at Georgetown with an extensive parish taking in  Burketown, Normanton, Croydon, Golden Gate  and small settlements in the south-east Gulf country. (Years later, author Xavier Herbert  (Capricornia , Poor Fellow My Country ) would  travel  through this self safe  area in a car  with  a  clergyman  he  described  as  being  hooked  on  condensed  milk .) Another Reverend Hall photograph , below, shows elegantly dressed women at  a North  Queensland  picnic.

The website was officially launched  by James Cook University vice chancellor , Sandra  Harding, below, right  , at a  packed ceremony  which  included  descendants  of   Reverend Hall , a grandson ,  from Sydney ,  Kenwyn Arthur Hall , providing details about the   invaluable collection of more than 700 glass negatives and  early photographic gear  used  to  take the  photographs .  

 

As part of the   launch the Special Collections section displayed  some of  its  treasures which included early  paintings of  Townsville , part of  the  Sir Russell Drysdale antiquarian  book collection  on   early Australia  and  documents  from the Pioneer Sugar Mill with which  the renowned  artist  was   associated  ,  ephemera  dealing  with  early North Queensland ,  the  extensive  sketchbooks  of  artist Val Russell , part of the library  and  postcards of Spanish   anarchist  Salvador  Torrents  who  came to  Australia in 1915  (the subject of a  series  in Little Darwin ), mining activities and an early  brochure  which  indicates Queensland  was  the  winter  mecca  for Australasia . 



During  the  launch  it was mentioned  that Special Collections  has  the  important  archive of  the  New  Zealand  author , activist , feminist, environmentalist  and  Communist , Jean  Devanny , who   died  in Townsville , the  subject of  a  series  in   this  blog ,  with  still  more  to  come.

FOLLOW UP :   A quick  online viewing of  a   small part  of   Reverend Hall's magnificent collection  resulted in some interesting  subjects  , including  ones of him conducting  a  wedding   at the  front of a  humpy like structure which  includes a  tent and   hessian  walls,  him mounted on a horse, with six others posing against a  tree , another  one of the group  a  cleric  ;  a couple, both dressed in white , with a silver tea service, a Japanese wall  hanging , an embroidered  tablecloth, tongue and groove walls, an unusual clock ; two women inside a building  sitting at  a table  with a large cockatoo on the back of  a chair , what could be a canary in a cage ;  a view of  Thursday Island and  inside the  All Souls  St  Bartholomew's Quetta Memorial Church  there, see view  below   ; a   funeral procession  in  Croydon  with  a  long line of  men on horseback. 

Lifebuoy  off British-India Steam Navigation Company  SS Quetta  which sank with a loss of  134 passengers on  February 28 , 1890 , Queensland's biggest maritime  disaster , visible on wall  above pulpit  .

The interesting site can be viewed at  nqheritage.jcu.edu.au