Memories of Stephens Conference
Archiving Collected Information
Peak History Body Memberships
Brisbane-Queensland Commemorations 2023-2025
Elizabeth Blomberg and the Dutch Houses Story Collection Initiative

You’ll notice this is the “November News”, not a “fortnightly” newsletter. It’s actually been three weeks since the last newsletter because there are more than four weeks in a month. The inconvenient irregularities of the Gregorian Calendar calendar has interested me for some time. I recently gave a presentation to Queensland Skeptics on the Fixed Calendar that solves these problems. I digress, I know, but this prompts me to simplify my job as informal Chair of the CPHG and make an executive decision. From now on, there will be only one Newsletter per month, issued two weeks before the monthly meeting (on the 3^rd Saturday). The joys of being a committee of one! I jest, of course, and am patiently waiting for volunteers to come and lighten the load.

Conference

Our neighboring history group in Annerley held its biennial conference last month and many interesting presentations were given. Many valuable connections were made as well. For a wrap up, see the Annerley-Stephens History Group’s website. A printed copy of the presentations are usually published and sold at the Annerley Library some time after the events. (https://annerleystephenshistory.org/the-2023-memories-of-stephens-conference-wrap-up/) The ASHG will have a History Room at the Yeronga Community Centre, Villa St., Yeronga from early 2024.

Archiving

The work of history groups such as ours is to collect and archive historical information for research. The avenues for contributing information are (currently) our Facebook group, our website and our monthly meetings at the library. At our October meeting, Dr Neville Buch explained that digital records need to be kept on external hard drives for storage at the library. Also, Pandora (National Library of Australia) https://pandora.nla.gov.au/ created capacity for websites to be saved.

Peak History Groups and Bi/Centennial Commemoration Planning

Last month I joined the CPHG up to the Royal Queensland Historical Society, the Annerley-Stephens History Group and History Queensland Inc. History Queensland Inc.’s role is to support the many local history groups across the state by providing things like Public Liability Insurance. We will use the Zoom account that comes with membership to hold a meeting mid-November to bring together peak history bodies and consider the apparent lack of action on the bicentennial of British settlement in Queensland and the centennial of the formation of the Greater Brisbane City Council (see the previous newsletter or our website for more information about this campaign).

Dutch Houses Story Collection Initiative

Elizabeth Blomberg, a Dutch resident of Brisbane, has volunteered to oversee the collection of stories of people associated with the Dutch Houses of Coopers Plains. She is archiving conversations in the chat group we have set up on Facebook. There will be a launch of the Initiative to bring members of the community and dignitaries together and promote awareness of the Dutch presence and its history in Brisbane.

Cowpers Camp Convict Station Search

Thanks to contributions in the Facebook chat group, progress is being made to pinpoint the convict camp location. At the last meeting, Neville, Allan and Simon looked more closely at the photograph of the bunya pine said to have been planted by the convicts at the entrance of the camp in the Sunday Mail, 1929. It appears to have been taken from across the rail line facing south west. This would place the tree on the corner of Edith St and Musgrave Rd. This led us to surmize that the location of the camp covered the area west of Edith St, south of Musgrave Road and north of Stable Swamp Creek; an area of about 1 hectare.

Events

Brisbane Motor Museum

Look out for the Coopers Plains History Group visit to this brand new museum in Banyo.

https://www.brisbanemotormuseum.com.au/

Cooper Plains History Group

is booked to meet every 3^rd Saturday at 4pm (except this month it’ll be at 1pm) at the Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room until May 2024, after which the schedule may change.

Next Meeting:
Saturday November 18^th
1-3pm
Coopers Plains Library Meeting Room (rear of the library)

All welcome. Please RSVP by text to 0405587988 or comment below (you may need to click the heading of this post to bring the comment field up.) Thanks to the friendly and helpful staff of the Coopers Plains Library for printing out these newsletters and offering them to anyone who wants to keep in touch without going online.