ORIGINS: Displays from the Special Collections showcasing the diversity of North Queenslanders

Ghiridelli’s gang of canecutters from Mantua, ca. 1900—1915, NQ Photographic Collection, Publications Album, NQID 3140. Go to NQHeritage@JCU to read Sotto la Croce del Sud = Under the Southern Cross: The Jumna immigrants of 1891.

 

What makes history, and how does it shape our lives?

Wars, natural disasters, political maneuverings – large events make a difference to what shapes the world, but you don’t have to look further than yourself and your family to see how the past shapes the here and now.

William Hann's expedition diary, 1871. Photograph by Michael Marzik.
Go to NQHeritage@JCU to read the diary online.

From stories of journeys, to stories of survival, to stories of adjustments as cultures clashed and eventually melded into uneasy truces, the items around you can provide insights into our shared history in North Queensland.

We all have a point of origin.

Queensland has two distinct First Nations peoples – the Aboriginal peoples from the mainland and the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the archipelago situated between Cape York Peninsula and Papua New Guinea. For more than 65,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been caretakers of this land, and their knowledge systems and traditional beliefs are a key part of Queensland’s identity.

Eddie Koiki Mabo presenting a lecture. © James Cook University.
Go to NQHeritage@JCU to watch Koiki Mabo’s Guest Lecture on the Torres Strait Islander Community delivered in 1982.

 

Many other North Queenslanders can trace their heritage through waves of migration. British and Irish free settlers and assisted migrants came to Queensland following the convict era. Successive gold rushes brought diverse groups of miners to the state’s North (particularly from China). And the state’s sugar industry saw South Sea Islanders brought in as indentured labourers.

Waves of migration to Australia after WWII saw displaced persons from throughout Europe flee their countries of birth due to war, dislocation and the redrawing of national borders, while immigration in the 1950s and 1960s consisted of those seeking employment and better living conditions. These included migrants from Italy, Greece and Malta. Since the 1970s, Australia has welcomed migrants from all over the world.

What are your origins?