Original Content series: interesting items from our collection: Michael O’Leary Notebooks (1917-1918)

The creator of this collection (Accession OM65-06, two small notebooks) was a Queenslander, Michael O'Leary. Born in 1858 in Spring Hill, he completed an apprenticeship as a printer and later travelled around North Queensland with the explorer Christy Palmerston.
O’Leary published his observations about the area and its inhabitants in ‘Cairns Post’, under the pen name ‘Coyyan' (quartz).

Michael O'Leary died at Cairns in 1930, aged 72.

Veronika Farley - Librarian, State Library of Queensland