Blackall, Winton and Longreach

White Gloves at Longreach hosted at the Qantas Founders Museum

Four members of our  Q ANZAC 100 project team recently travelled to Western Queensland, bringing original items from the First World War from State Library of Queensland to the towns of Blackall, Longreach, and Winton. These objects, including diaries, letters, photographs, medals and more, provided an opportunity for the community to glimpse into the lives of those who were affected by the war, and to provide an opportunity for the community to share their own stories and treasures of the First World War.

Blackall State School students

From 13 to 17 February, the team delivered six White Glove events to local community centres and schools, with a great visitation numbers at each event.

Blackall White Gloves and Historypin event

We were also very fortunate to be able to attend the launch of the Blackall State School and Blackall Historical Society Historypin collection, and to display our First World War collection along with some of the local First World War memorabilia. It was a wonderful evening, and attended by close to 100 members of the community. You can view their Historypin collections here: Blackall State School and Blackall Historical Society.

In the spirit of recording and sharing the commemorative activities, we’ve also created a Historypin collection about our trip, White gloves in Western Queensland

On a very hot Sunday afternoon The Q ANZAC 100 team enjoyed the company the Winton Community.

While we were there we were very pleased to speak to Mrs Collins from the Winton District Historical Society & Museum who recognised the image on the Q ANZAC 100 banner which we carry with us on these trips. The image is a section taken from a larger image which up until now had no names attached to it.

State Library of Queensland's Q ANZAC 100 banner

We now know that the soldier is Herbert Selwyn (Tom) Dawson  who embarked 21 December 1914 for initial training in Egypt, and active service at Gallipoli. He landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 25 April 1915 and died of heart failure following illness on 28 June 1915.  His mates shown in the original image are Walter Alexander Young  and his brother William James Gregor Young. Thank you Mrs Collins for the information.

Niles Elvery  | Regional Coordinator, Q ANZAC 100,  State Library of Queensland