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| Participants in the Armistice Day celebrations, Flinders Street, Townsville, 1918. Photo: City Libraries Townsville Local History Collection |
The signing of the Armistice between Germany and the Allies on 11 November 1918 signalled the end of World War I and sparked a celebration in Townsville - the likes of which the city had never seen before. An enormous procession of motor vehicles and horse-drawn lorries, buggies and spring carts, stretching for almost 2.5km, passed through Flinders Street three times over. A huge bonfire was lit at the top of Castle Hill. But after the excitement had died down and the volunteers started returning from the war, what did they make of their lives?
From Swords to Ploughshares explores this question, by delving into the lives of those who returned from the war and made lasting contributions to the community of Townsville. In today's post we meet the researchers working on the project.
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| Dr Claire Brennan. Photo: James Cook University |
Dr Claire Brennan is history discipline coordinator at James Cook University in the College of Arts, Society & Education. Claire’s teaching focuses on the environmental history of Australia and the Pacific; Australian and Pacific exploration; and global history. While her research centres on the history of animals her global history interests mean that she is currently exploring the ANZAC centenary and its commemoration.
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| Dr Lyndon Megarrity, pictured with books on the life of L.J. Wackett, who served in World War I. Photo: Trisha Fielding |
Dr Lyndon Megarrity is an adjunct lecturer at the College of Arts, Society and Education and is a tertiary teacher and historian specialising in Australian history. His latest book is
Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia (2018). Lyndon's interest in the current project has been in highlighting the stories of Townsville World War I soldiers and how these men contributed to society after the war.
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| Trisha Fielding. Photo: Bronwyn McBurnie |
Trisha Fielding is a professional historian and freelance writer. She has written more than 120 historical articles for regional Queensland newspaper, the
Townsville Bulletin, and writes two history blogs:
North Queensland History and
Women of the North. Her latest book
Queen City of the North: a History of Townsville, was published in 2016. Trisha has enjoyed uncovering the stories of resilience and determination in the lives of World War I returnees for the Swords to Ploughshares project.
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| Rachel Garlando. Photo supplied |
Rachel Garlando has a research interest in genealogical history, and in particular, the loss of identity and culture that can be the result of lost histories. Having grown up in a transient family that moved around Australia and the world, Rachel has a special interest in telling people's stories and ensuring their history is preserved for future generations. Rachel is currently completing her Bachelor of Arts in history and criminology at James Cook University.
In our next post we'll discuss some of the stories the team have uncovered.
Don't forget to check out the displays in the James Cook University library and the Flinders Street branch of City Libraries from 1 November 2018.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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