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The South Will Rise Again: Rebels of the 4077th
(Asian American Journal)There was a big kerfuffle in the centre of Brisbane last month when a Vietnamese restaurant called 'Uncle Ho' - a nickname for Ho Chi Minh, founder of the communist Democratic...
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Stop the Rot at Boggo Road
Are you concerned about protecting the heritage and history of the Boggo Road heritage prison?I am. I've devoted a big chunk of my life to the old place, as a labour of love without financial...
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Western Maps & the Dreaming
The map to the right is not of downtown Moscow, but is instead how my hometown of Heywood, Lancashire, looked on a mid-1970s Soviet map of Britain. It was produced for a potential Soviet invasion, and...
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The Burleigh and Bilinga Sperm Whales
On the hot afternoon of 27 December 1926, hundreds of holiday-makers on the main surfing beach at Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, were horrified to see a massive white object floating out in the ocean....
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Whaling Days at Tangalooma
Tangalooma, 1957 (State Library of Qld)Every southern winter, thousands of Humpback Whales migrate from the Antarctic and up the east coast of Australia to their breeding and birthing grounds in warmer...
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A Whale Hunt Off Moreton Island
In 1954 two Humpback Whales - a male and female - paired up as they headed along the eastern coast of Australia to the warm breeding grounds of the South Pacific. They, along with thousands of other...
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Three Men (& a Humpback) in a Boat: The Yeppoon Whale Tragedy of 1928
The whale-watching tourism industry springs into life off the coast of Queensland each year as Humpbacks migrate north to breeding and birthing grounds. The sight of breaching Humpbacks can be truly...
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Boggo Road: It's All Been Done Before...
A bull in Boggo Road? Already been done... (C. Dawson)I was recently having a discussion about the Boggo Road heritage prison, specifically about what kind of events could be held there, and which ones...
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Did Johnny Cash Play a Concert at Boggo Road?
Did the great Johnny Cash ever play a concert at Boggo Road? It's a reasonable question to raise, as I have been contacted twice during recent months by media/marketing types wanting a chat about 'that...
View ArticleThe Life & Death Quiz: Hanging in Queensland
Welcome to a new series of quizzes about Queensland history. In this first entry you can test your knowledge of the dark history of hangings in Queensland.Loading...
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The Short Life of Marburg Prison Farm
During World War 2 the small town of Marburg (about 60km west of Brisbane) had a brief but somewhat confusing role in the Queensland prison system. A new prison farm for women was established there in...
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The Life & Death Quiz: Brisbane Prison History
It's time for another 'Life & Death Quiz', this time with ten multiple-choice questions about the history of various prisons in Brisbane.Be warned - they're not too easy! You can find some answers...
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A Bit of Housekeeping
I'm currently in the middle of reorganising my online material, which means shuffling around a few articles from one website to another. Approximately half the posts here will be moved to new homes as...
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The Lost Graveyard of Terranora Creek
A look at a lost graveyard with links to some tragic events near Tweed Heads.This story is now located at the 'South Brisbane Cemetery' website.The dry dock (constructed 1898) on the Tweed, 1937. This...
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The Gallows of the Old Windmill Tower
This story can be read at 'A Scaffold High'Depiction of the 1841 hanging. (Telegraph, 10 March 1970)
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Life and Death Quiz #4: Brisbane Cemeteries
Welcome to another 'Life and Death Quiz' about Queensland history. In this fourth entry you can test your knowledge of the history of cemeteries in Brisbane.Be warned - they're not too easy! You can...
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Cryptid Cats and Dogs of the Far North
There have been some recent reports of possible sightings of a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) in the far north of Queensland. The witnesses were reasonable sources - a Park Services employee and a...
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The Merrimac Bunyip
Although the 'bunyip' had generally been consigned to the realms of fantasy and folklore by the early 20th-century (see my history on 19th-century Queensland sightings here), occasional speculation...
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Walking Among the Dead
"Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchres - palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay - ghosts of women...
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A History of Queensland Bunyips (Part Two): The 20th Century
By the end of the 19th century, the possibility that the mysterious 'bunyip' could be a real zoological entity had been generally dismissed, and it had taken its place firmly in the realms of...
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Mums and Dads Pay a Hefty Price at Boggo Road
This very telling graph reveals how much various 'crime and justice' heritage sites around Australia currently charge school groups to visit. I'll discuss aspects of this below.School group prices,...
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A 2017 Cemetery Tour Gallery
It has been a big, big year for the Friends of South Brisbane Cemetery. I'm reluctant to say the biggest ever, because back during 2005-10 the group was made up of just three women who tidied,...
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The Bloody, Bloody Hangings of Ellen Thomson and John Harrison
There's a couple of points I always like to make on my 'Hangman's Walk'cemetery tours. The first is that hanging could be a messy and unpredictable process, despite the concerted attempts to make sure...
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Stories of Women in the Cemetery: Getting the Balance Right
I recently co-hosted an 'International Women's Day' night tour at South Brisbane Cemetery, along with cemetery historian Tracey Olivieri. We basically split the tour, doing alternating spots, and did...
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Ghost Trek: The Next Generation
I helped develop the 'Ghosts of South Brisbane Cemetery' night tour for the Friends of South Brisbane Cemetery, and I'm a guide on the tour. And I'm even not sure 'paranormal tours' should be allowed...
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