Creating "Min(d)ing the Dead"
By Evelyn Saunders, 2024 Digital Collections Catalyst Fellow | 24 July 2024
Evelyn Saunders - 2024 Digital Collections Catalyst Fellow
Creating “Min(d)ing the Dead” – an interactive project about Ravenswood, Queensland’s first large inland settlement and North Queensland’s first major mining town.
Thorp’s building in Ravenswood, Queensland, 1985, 2003, Ron Gale, 7435, Ron and Ngaire Gale Collection, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image number: 503-34-07
The idea of using this blog to explore the process of creating an interactive project came out of a chat with State Library of Queensland staff. We thought it might be a good way to give readers an insight into how they could go about creating projects of their own. It may also have the potential to make the project collaborative. [1]
This blog will share processes, thoughts, and research findings. I hope you’ll find it interesting. I may get a little deep from time to time. I may excavate tunnels that lead to dead ends as did many of Ravenswood’s pioneering gold miners.
Diagrammatic Cross-Section showing how the town of Ravenswood literally grew around early small mine claims, 1974 (pg40), Ian Black and Co., Ravenswood: A Report for the National Trust of Australia (Queensland), John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
Even so, now, Ravenswood is officially Queensland’s largest gold mine. [2]
Connections: Heritage and Identity
Heritage in the Landscape: Triple Venn Diagram, 2024, Image and concept by Evelyn Saunders.
The concept of heritage is core to what attracted me to this project. Thinking about the nature of Ravenswood’s built heritage and how it is being affected by a rapidly changing landscape led me to reason that landscape is the key fabric of this story, one that links to every person who has ever lived there. I then got to thinking about connections and how our memories and stories revolve around our perception of time, place, artefacts, and family - be they biological family or the families / groups / communities we find ourselves members of.
Digital Collections Catalyst
Min(d)ing the Dead seeks to be an image-based experience that celebrates Ravenswood's stories, memories, and hopes for the future via an interactive timeline and map interface. The Digital Collections Catalyst has provided an opportunity to deep dive into the subject matter. I’ve researched original texts, consulted academic theses, extracted details from newspapers and journals, explored digitised and un-digitised materials (text, image, audio and film), spoken with librarians and historians, and met with representatives from Charters Towers Regional Council, Ravenswood Gold and Ravenswood residents. My research is ongoing – which is necessary for finding an engaging narrative arc. I also have a backup plan should I not find one.
Below is a screenshot of the first page of my timeline. Its purpose is to provide insight and understanding of who’s who, what happened when, as well as why and how certain events took place. Given this is an interactive project, I’m looking for links such as names, locations, and events to facilitate branching narratives.
Record of Event Timeline: Unveiling Ravenswood’s Past, Present, and Future. Image supplied by Evelyn Saunders.
In storyworld terms, the big picture regarding the history of the town looks something like this:
The Ravenswood Storyworld. Image supplied by Evelyn Saunders.
A storyworld outline is useful for identifying story points and categorising information so that the experience can sequence aural histories and interviews as well as visual assets like these:
Maps
Office of the Surveyor General. Atlas of the colony of Queensland, Australia (1865), Thomas Ham, 1821-1870 & Belbridge, W. C & Queensland. Courtesy of National Library of Australia.
Street Maps & Aerials
1886 Town of Ravenswood, Parish of Ravenswood, County of Gladstone Qld Surveyor General’s Office Photographs of Land Surveys in North Queensland. Image courtesy of Special Collection, Eddie Koiki Mabo Library, JCU. NQ 333.18099436 QUE C.A
Historical and recent images, documents, and references will explore the town’s changing landscape over time… think “Game of Thrones” season one opening title sequence but simpler – much simpler - and without the high end special effects…
Official Opening Credits: Game of Thrones (HBO), courtesy Game of Thrones YouTube channel.
Streetscapes
View of Ravenswood, Queensland, around 1870, Richard Daintree, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 199957
Linked thematic elements will facilitate transverse exploration that hopefully will include narrative from all key stakeholders – Ravenswood residents (Indigenous and non-Indigenous, old, young, long-term, new, former, and drive in drive out mine employees), Ravenswood Gold, Charters Towers Regional Council, and Government, as well as historians, heritage architects and heritage institutions. Players will be able to visit unexplored paths with ‘follow-your-interest options’ such as the history of the Thorp’s Building:
Ravenswood's Historic Thorp's Building
Macrossan Street including Browne’s Ravernswood Hotel and the Thorp’s Buildings, 2007, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Negative number: 164755
Some story threads that I have explored have started at one location and led to another. Wm (William) McCulla, for example, rests in Ravenswood Cemetery. His headstone identifies him as a solicitor from Newry, Ireland. His name is also detailed in a State Library photo of the Ravenswood Bazaar. A search of Ancestry.com and Trove [3] reveals that he was also a proprietor of the Mining Journal. Hannah Craig-Ward’s thesis “At Home on the Goldfield: A Domestic Archaeological Investigation of Identity at Ravenswood, North Queensland” details his involvement in Ravenswood’s Federation Day celebrations [4] . What I first noticed about Wm McCulla was the unusual spelling of his name, the last thing I expected to find was a story about Australia’s Federation Day and patriotism.
William McCulla’s grave in Ravenswood Cemetery (10/06/1845 – 06/05/1902), Image by Evelyn Saunders March 2024 (during an atypically wet wet-season!).
Some stories might take the form of an interactive scrapbook, newspaper, or/and journal. This “book” might be located on a desk inside a virtual building such as the Court House Museum. Below, and in State Library’s John Oxley Library, is a scrapbook of articles written by H.G. Goddard:
29489 Ravenwood Mining Journal Cutting Book, 1888-1908, Harry George Goddard, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Record number: 99294893402061
29489 Ravenwood Mining Journal Cutting Book (pg1), 1888-1908, Harry George Goddard, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Record number: 99294893402061
Photos on walls might link to other elements. I will drill down into my search for an overarching narrative and vertical slice story ideas in my next blog instalment.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to get in contact if you have any images or documents that you might like to donate to State Library's collection – and / or that you might think are suitable for this project.
All the best and I look forward to keeping you updated!
Ev
Other blogs by Evelyn Saunders
Reference
[1] i-DOCS The Evolving Practices of Interactive Documentary (Nonfictions). Edited by Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi and Mandy Rose. Columbia University Press. 2017.
[2] https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/99875. Accessed 12 June, 2024
[4] https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:755cd30 (pp92-93) “At Home on the Goldfield: A Domestic Archaeological Investigation of Identity at Ravenswood, North Queensland” by Craig-Ward, Hannah. 26 August 2022
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