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Past John Oxley Library Fellows
The John Oxley Library Fellowship is awarded annually to support a research project that uses the rich resources of State Library's John Oxley Library and contributes to the creation of new knowledge of Queensland.
The recipient receives a stipend of $25,000 along with a personal work space within the John Oxley Library to utilise the extensive collections and material of the Library in the completion of an individual research project on their proposed topic of interest.
The 2024 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr John Willsteed for his project, Dive For Your Memory – Queensland music stories.
John's project developed a methodology for extending engagement with oral histories in institutional collections. Its intention was to create new knowledge about music in Queensland. It used the existing John Oxley Library collections and added to these collections by filming interviews with musicians from across the state.
Blog:
Dr John Willsteed, 2024 John Oxley Library Fellow
The 2024 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellowship was awarded to Dr Eun-ji Amy Kim and Dr Aaron Teo for their project, Culinary Crossroads: history of Asian-Australian eateries and migration policies in Queensland.
This project aimed to explore how changes in Australia's contemporary migration policies, spanning from the 1940s to the present, influenced Asian restaurant owners. The goal was to gain insight into the broader impact of multiculturalist policies on Asian-Australians, particularly in Queensland.
2024 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellows, Dr Eun-ji Amy Kim and Dr Aaron Teo.
The 2022 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Mimi Tsai for her project, Vernacular Landscapes and Queensland Memories: Exploring Queensland’s resilience through narratives of therapeutic environments.
Mimi's project explored the role of people-place relationships in Queensland history by examining three diverse cases that shared healing stories: prison farming in H.M. Penal Establishment of St. Helena Island, Queensland war gardens, and Chinese market gardening. Gaining new perspectives from these histories, the fellowship then investigated Queenslanders’ COVID-19 pandemic gardens and gardening experiences over the past two years.
Blogs:
- Garden stories in a time of pandemic digital storytelling pilot workshops
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Exploring therapeutic landscapes in Queensland histories: St Helena Prison farming
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Exploring therapeutic landscapes in Queensland histories: World War Two
Dr Mimi Tsai's Youtube channel:
Research Reveals:
- Watch Dr Mimi Tsai discuss the details of her project in her Research Reveals talk below (01:10 mins)
Research Reveals 2024 - Afternoon session
2022 John Oxley Library Fellow, Dr Mimi Tsai discusses her research project.
2022 Queensland Memory Fellows. A year in review.
The 2022 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellowship was awarded to Professor Anna Johnston for her project, History and Fiction: Mapping Frontier Violence in Colonial Queensland Writing.
Anna's project explored the representation of colonial violence in Queensland writing, including fiction, memoirs, and non-fiction. It revealed that many Queenslanders were aware of violence and dispossession, and some wrote about it and agitated against it.
Blogs:
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History and Fiction: Mapping Frontier Violence in Colonial Queensland Writing
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Fear on the Frontier: Settler Anxieties in Queensland Frontier Fiction
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The Selvage Edge of Civilization’: Queensland Fiction and Colonial Histories
Research Reveals:
- Watch Professor Anna Johnston discuss the details of her project in her Research Reveals talk below (47:06 mins)
Research Reveals 2024 - Morning session
A/Professor Anna Johnston discusses her project, History and Fiction: Mapping Frontier Violence in Colonial Queensland Writing.
2022 Queensland Memory Fellows. A year in review.
The 2021 John Oxley Library fellowship was awarded to Dr Henry Reese for his project Electrifying Queensland: Modern Machines in the Sunshine State.
Henry's project explored Queenslanders’ interactions with electronic and communications technologies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ‘Old’ technologies that are taken for granted today often revealed surprising stories when examined in their own context. When technologies like the gramophone, telephone, cinema, and radio were brand new, their meanings and uses were unstable. Questions like, ‘How does this work?’ and ‘What does this mean?’ prompted early users to reflect on how their worlds came together. Technologies that are now taken for granted moved in and out of surprising contexts, such as science, magic, popular entertainment, commerce, and government. Henry followed these threads to investigate the experience of modern life in Queensland over 100 years ago. He presented his research as a short podcast series, sharing some of the surprising and unusual stories he uncovered.
For more information on Henry's project, watch his videos below.
Blogs:
Dr Henry Reese, 2021 John Oxley Library Fellow.
2021 John Oxley Library Fellow, Dr Henry Reese talks about the 2022 Queensland Memory Awards, his research project and what it's like being a State Library fellow.
Research Reveals. Electrifying Queensland: Modern Machines in the Sunshine State.
The 2021 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellowship was awarded to A/Professor Mark Lauchs for his project, Social Networks of Crime and Corruption: the First and Second Jokes.
Mark's project re-examined the detailed and vital records gathered by Phil Dickie that had informed the Fitzgerald Inquiry to identify the many additional participants involved in producing Queensland’s extensive criminal networks. The analysis cast new light on the social dynamics driving criminal consorting among public officials and fellow offenders by mapping these previously hidden networks.
Mark explained, "The report of the Inquiry concentrated on a slice of social history, and the politicians received a deserved but disproportionate share of the focus. Those of us who were adults at the time knew parts of what was occurring. The Queensland community participated in the illicit economy that the Joke fed off. This broader information was not in the report but is included in this collection. By tracing social networks, criminal associations become transparent, revealing the everyday mechanics by which public institutions and individuals could be corrupted."
Mark's project aimed to produce a series of outcomes, including a digital repository that expanded the recent history of the Fitzgerald era. The project also generated both scholarly and public publications and informed an oral history project being developed by QUT and the Retired Police Officers Association of Queensland.
Blogs:
A/Professor Mark Lauchs, 2021 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow.
Research Reveals: Social Networks of Crime and Corruption: the first and second jokes.
Making Meaning 2024: Lightning Talks, Session one.
Lightning talks are simple 8-minute presentations that showcase best practice, tools, workflows, experimentation, or ethics when working with collections as data.
The Social Networks of Crime and Corruption - Assoc Prof Mark Lauchs, Associate Lecturer, QUT (Watch Mark's talk at 11mins 43 seconds into the video)
The 2020 John Oxley Library fellowship was awarded to Dr Deb Anderson and Associate Professor Kerrie Foxwell-Norton for their joint project The Women of the Great Barrier Reef: The Untold Stories of Environmental Conservation in Queensland.
In 1966, Terry Ridgway quit her typing-pool job in Brisbane and moved to a remote island in the Great Barrier Reef. At the age of 19, she became known as "the girl Robinson Crusoe," living alone and dedicating her time to studying marine life, aiming to identify the more than 1,500 species of Reef fish. Except for a brief Sunday feature in an American newspaper, written by the late Australian journalist Barry Wain, Ridgway’s story remained largely untold. Deb and Kerrie's fellowship explored what became of Terry's quest to advance our understanding of the largest living structure on Earth.
Their project highlighted the significant role women had played in the conservation of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. By learning from and adding to the collection of original materials within the John Oxley Library, their project sought to discover and share the untold stories of women from all walks of life who advanced knowledge of the Reef and its protection. Importantly, the project laid the foundations for a landmark catalogue of cultural memory and heritage related to environmental conservation in Queensland, raising awareness of the Library’s holdings and forming a vital tool for future research.
Blogs:
Publication:
Dr Deb Andersen and A/Professor Kerrie Foxwell-Norton, 2020 John Oxley Library Fellows.
2020 John Oxley Library Fellows: Deb Anderson and Kerrie Foxwell-Norton. The Women of the Great Barrier Reef.
2020 John Oxley Library Fellows: Deb Anderson and Kerrie Foxwell-Norton. The Terry Ridgway Story.
2020 John Oxley Library Fellows. Research Reveals: Women of the Great Barrier Reef
Dr Allison O'Sullivan was awarded the 2020 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow for her project In their own words: women diarists of colonial Queensland.
In the 1880s, three vastly different women kept diaries of their journeys to a new home in Queensland. Starting from a point of commonality—their diaries—Allison traced their divergent trails through the history of the colony, following the fortunes and achievements of everyday women and using these individuals to illustrate the distinct paths of women migrants to colonial Queensland.
Allison's project demonstrated how individual women’s lives, connected by a single shared experience, could branch into vastly different stories. The project provided Queenslanders with the opportunity to become familiar with people from their past and develop a deeper sense of connection to their ancestors through the lives of the women portrayed.
By utilising the original materials of the John Oxley Library, Allison's project created a living history for Queenslanders, giving a voice to the women of their past.
Blogs:
Dr Allison O'Sullivan, 2020 John Oxley Honorary Fellow.
2020 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow. Research Reveals: Women diarist of colonial Queensland.
The 2019 John Oxley Library fellowship was awarded to Louise Martin-Chew and Matthew Wengert for their joint project Designs-Details-Devils: A Visual History of Queensland’s Government Printing Office 1862-2013.
Matthew and Louise utilised the John Oxley Library collection to research the visual history of Queensland’s Government Printing Office (QGPO). The Government Printing Office was responsible for publishing official documents and information (‘Details’), including Hansard, Parliamentary Papers, Annual Reports, Royal Commissions, Acts & Bills & Regulations & Statutes, Nautical charts and Tide Timetables, Electoral Maps (and hundreds of other types of maps), Survey Plans, Railway Timetables, and other regular and occasional publications.
The QGPO also generated beautiful and elaborate decorative printing (‘Designs’), including posters for the Government Intelligence & Tourist Bureau, and invitations and menus for official functions (Royal Visits, Parliamentary banquets, festive events, etc.), along with official artworks and illustrations for publications by various government departments and agencies—books, maps, charts, posters, pamphlets, and signs.
Hundreds of people worked across the different sections of the QGPO, and the project aimed to organise a visual history of the workplace and its staff (‘Devils’). These workers included artists such as William Bustard, Lloyd Rees, and Peter Smith Templeton. The gargoyles above the George Street facade symbolised the workers, who styled themselves as ‘printer’s devils.’
The industrious work of the ‘Devils’—creative 'Designs' and informative 'Details'—published on behalf of the people and the State, contributed to a rich visual history of Queensland through the diverse range of materials the QGPO printed.
Blogs:
Louise Martin-Chew and Matthew Wengert, 2019 John Oxley Library Fellows.
Video: 2019 John Oxley Library Fellows - Louise Martin-Chew & Matthew Wengert. A Visual History of Qld’s Government Printing Office.
The 2019 John Oxley Library Fellows talk briefly about their time as Fellows and their project.
Video: 2019 John Oxley Library Fellows. Research Reveals: a visual history of Queensland Government Printing Office.
Research Reveals, a more in depth webinar by the 2019 John Oxley Library Fellows talking about their project and research undertaken over the previous 12 months.
Dr Gemmia Burden was awarded the inaugural John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow for her project Private lives, public knowledge: Gendered collecting and intimacies of place in Queensland c. 1842-1900.
Gemma utilised diaries, station records, personal papers, albums, and images found in the John Oxley Library collection to investigate how settler and pioneer women on Queensland’s frontier collected, categorised, and understood the world around them, including through their relationships with local Indigenous people.
By focusing on Queensland as a case study, Gemma uncovered exciting and intimate threads of knowledge production and histories of place that had largely been hidden from Queensland’s history. She also highlighted how the Colony was connected across the Empire, revealing the broader networks and exchanges that shaped Queensland’s development.
Dr Gemmia Burden, 2019 John Oxley Library Honorary Fellow.
Dr Jennifer Moffatt was the 2018 recipient of the John Oxley Library Fellowship for her project, The story of Queensland’s selectors: how those who won land in a ballot contributed to Queensland’s social, economic and political development.
Jennifer examined the collections of the John Oxley Library and academic research to describe how the last selectors contributed to the progress of Queensland. The project aimed to make a new, rich, and invaluable contribution to understanding Queensland’s social, economic, political, and developmental history, shedding light on the often-overlooked role of the selectors in shaping the state's evolution.
Blogs:
Dr Jennifer Moffatt, 2018 John Oxley Fellow.
Video: 2018 John Oxley Fellow - Dr Jennifer Moffatt. The story of Queensland’s selectors and how those who won land in a ballot contributed to Queensland’s social, economic and political development.
The 2018 John Oxley Library Fellow talks briefly about her time as a Fellow and her project.
Video: 2018 John Oxley Library Fellow - Dr Jennifer Moffatt. Research Reveals: Land ballots in Queensland.
Research Reveals, a more in depth talk by the 2018 John Oxley Library Fellow talking about her project and research undertaken over the previous 12 months.
The 2017 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Lauren Istvandity for her project, Reminiscing about jazz in Queensland: Preserving pre-1965 oral histories for the Queensland Jazz Archive Collection.
Lauren’s project involved recording and collecting new oral histories about the history of jazz in Queensland. The project aimed to increase the volume, quality, and accessibility of material housed in the Queensland Jazz Archive Collection (QJAC) within the John Oxley Library through strategic engagement with jazz communities across Queensland.
The significance of this research lay in the precarious nature of oral histories, particularly when charting the early beginnings of jazz in Queensland. Many individuals who have first-hand experiences with performers, venues, and events were nearing very old age, making it imperative to collect their personal narratives before their stories could be lost or forgotten. This effort helped preserve a vital part of Queensland's cultural history for future generations.
Blogs:
Video: 2017 John Oxley Library Fellow - Dr Lauren Istvandity. Queensland Jazz Archive Oral Histories.
The 2017 John Oxley Library Fellow talks briefly about her time as a Fellow and her project.
Video: 2017 John Oxley Library Fellow: Dr Lauren Istvandity. Research Reveals: Queensland Jazz Memories.
Research Reveals, a more in depth talk by the 2017 John Oxley Library Fellow talking about her project and research undertaken over the previous 12 months.
The 2016 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Lorann Downer for her project A century of politics ephemera: a window onto Queensland from 1915 to 2015.
Images and words were used to craft a fresh narrative about the use of political ephemera, thereby deepening our understanding of how politics is conducted in Queensland. Dr. Downer reviewed ephemera from the John Oxley Library—including posters, pamphlets, how-to-vote cards, buttons, t-shirts, and caps—used during significant state elections, referenda, and debates in Queensland from 1915 to 2015. Her aim was to chronicle the significant ephemera held in the Library collections and analyze its use from a political marketing perspective.
This project encompassed the 1915 state election, which marked the beginning of Queensland’s two-party political system, as well as the most recent election in 2015. Reviewing ephemera across a century produced a fascinating chronicle, and Dr. Downer applied a political marketing lens to consider what the ephemera revealed about the marketing of politics over time.
Dr. Downer has an impressive history as a political researcher. Her PhD, Kevin07 and The Real Julia: Labor’s Use of Political Branding in 2007 and 2010, was awarded in 2014 from the University of Queensland.
Lorann’s teaching and research draw on her experience as a reporter, staffer, and consultant. She was a Queensland political reporter for several years, including for ABC Radio. She then worked as a Director of the Government Media Unit for former Queensland Premiers Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie. She is also a communications consultant, specializing in working with government agencies.
Blogs:
Video: 2016 John Oxley Library Fellow - Lorann Downer. A century of politics ephemera: a window onto Queensland from 1915 to 2015.
Audio: Democracy – is Queensland different?, 2015, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The 2015 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Madonna Grehan for her project, ‘Something tangible to show our gratitude’: a History of Queensland’s Centaur Memorial. In 1943 during World War II, the Australian hospital ship the Centaur was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine 48km off Moreton Island. The sinking was Queensland’s worst maritime disaster, 268 lives were lost, 11 being Australian Army Nursing Service nurses.
From this disaster, five years later at a time of relative austerity, the people of Queensland rallied to create a tribute to the nurses lost, the creation of the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses in 1948. Ms Grehan’s project focused on this fundraising campaign, the largest coordinated in Queensland during the 20th Century, researching the stories around how communities and high profile public figures got involved right around the state.
Madonna Grehan has an impressive history as an independent historian and has completed a number of other fellowships and academic projects around Australia focusing on nursing and medical history. She has just finished a fellowship with the State Library of Victoria’s La Trobe Library and will produce a manuscript on Mrs Sarah Barfoot: An émigré gentlewoman midwife in Port Phillip and Victoria 1848.
Blogs:
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Avenging the Nurses: Government’s response to the sinking of 2/3 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur
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Highlighting Queensland’s links to the Centaur Memorial Fund for Nurses
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At the Brisbane Ekka, 1950-1977 – the Centaur Memorial Fund’s money spinner
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Centaur House, Mt Gravatt 1949: almost the first raffle of real estate in Queensland
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Centaur House, Queen St, Brisbane: A Memorial Edifice to Queensland’s Nurses in two World Wars
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A Centaur memorial event at State Library of Queensland, Monday 14 May 2018
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Imagining Centaur (Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne exhibition)
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75 years on – Photographic conundrums in the Centaur Memorial Fund Collection
Video: 2015 John Oxley Library Fellow - Madonna Grehan. Something tangible to show our gratitude’: a History of Queenlsland’s Centaur Memorial.
Historian Thom Blake was awarded with the 2014 John Oxley Library Fellowship for his project Liquid Gold: the history of the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland. Thom documented the history of the Great Artesian Basin, with a focus on its social and economic impacts. He utilised the collections of the John Oxley Library for his project, drawing on station records, photographs, and newspapers to deepen the understanding of the Basin's significance.
Thom Blake is a long-standing professional historian and heritage consultant. In 2002, he won the NSW Premier's History Award: State Records Prize for his publication, A Dumping Ground: A History of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement.
Blogs:
Video: 2014 John Oxley Library Fellow - Thom Blake. Liquid Gold: the history of the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland.
The 2013 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Kathleen Mary Fallon and Matthew Nagas for their project, A Commemorative Pilgrimage of Significant Sites: the Australian South Sea Islanders from Tweed Heads to Torres Strait. Kathleen and Matthew's project aimed to research, document, compile, and photograph historic sites significant to Australian South Sea Islanders. This work coincided with the 150th commemorations of the first arrival of Australian South Sea Islanders.
Approximately 62,500 South Sea Islanders were ‘brought’ to Queensland to work on sugar plantations. After extensive research, which included travelling to various significant sites, liaising with the Australian South Sea Islander community, and utilising the collections of the John Oxley Library, Kathleen and Matthew planned to publish a series of heritage tourism guides for different regional areas.
Video: 2013 John Oxley Library Fellows - Kathleen Fallon & Matthew Nagas. A Commemorative Pilgrimage of Significant Sites: the Australian South Sea Islanders from Tweed Heads to Torres Strait.
The 2012 John Oxley Fellowship was awarded to architectural historian Don Watson, who made a valuable contribution to local architectural history by extending his previously published research, Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A biographical dictionary into the 20th century.
Mr. Watson's research not only chronicled the lives and work of Queensland architects but also recorded pioneering aspects of Queensland life. His work explored how architects adapted their skills to design buildings suited to the climate, new technologies, and times of economic hardship, providing important insights into the evolution of Queensland’s architectural landscape.
Blogs:
Video: 2012 John Oxley Library Fellow - Don Watson. Queensland Architects of the 19th Century.
Audio: Liking the unloved Don Watson, 2010, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The 2011 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Heidi Gibson for her project, Border Ties, which examined the impact of Papua New Guinea’s independence on the traditional, familial, and social networks of the Saibai and Boigu island communities.
The project explored whether there had been changes in the perception and roles of PNG nationals within the Saibai and Boigu island communities since independence and how any such changes may have impacted relationships within families and other social networks that span the border divide.
Blogs:
Video: 2011 John Oxley Library Fellow - Heidi Gibson. Boarder Ties (Papua New Guinea and Torres Strait Islands).
The 2010 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Jeff Rickertt for his project, Ernie Lane, Australian Labour’s resolute rebel.
Dr. Rickertt used the Fellowship to produce a biography of Ernest Lane, a prominent figure in the Queensland labour movement from the early 1890s until the late 1930s. The biography aimed to explore Lane's significant role in shaping Queensland's labour history and provide a deeper understanding of his contributions to the social and political landscape of the time.
Blogs:
Audio: Ernie Lane the making of a Queensland rebel / with Dr Jeff Rickertt, 2011, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The 2009 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Susan Addison and Dr Judith McKay for their project, Cooking up Stories: exploring Queensland's rich and diverse culinary heritage.
Judith, a freelance historian and museum consultant, and Susan, a freelance editor and writer, used John Oxley Library resources to research Queensland's culinary heritage over the past 150 years. Their project aimed to explore the evolution of food culture in Queensland, examining how local traditions, ingredients, and culinary practices have developed over time.
Blog:
Audio
Video: Crazy about cakes, Susan Addison, 2009, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The 2008 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Gordon Grimwade for his research project on the overland migration of Chinese migrants from the Northern Territory to Queensland in the late 19th and 20th Centuries.
Blogs:
- Out of the Port: Illegal Immigration nineteenth century style with Gordon Grimwade
- Chinese Arrested In Queensland (same topic but blog written by historian David Huggonson)
The 2007 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Martin Buzacott for his project, Miraculous Mandarins: A Musical History of Queensland. Queensland is the only state in Australia that has never had a book written on its classical music history.
Martin said, "The Fellowship makes it possible for me as an individual author to write the most important book of my career, but I also intend to use it for the benefit of the John Oxley Library collection as a whole – and in turn for the benefit of Queensland’s cultural history." His project aimed to fill this gap in Queensland’s cultural history by documenting and analysing the classical music scene in the state, shedding light on its development and significance.
Audio: Classical Queensland speaker Martin Buzacott, with Patrick Thomas and Pamela Page, 2008, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The 2006 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to Dr Celmara Pocock for her research project on populist writer Henry Lamond. Lamond's love of the Whitsundays and the Great Barrier Reef played a significant role in their conservation and in making them popular holiday destinations during the 1920s and 30s. Dr. Pocock used resources from the John Oxley Library to build a fuller picture of Henry Lamond, focusing particularly on his personal life, development as a writer, and his influential role in the tourism and conservation of the Great Barrier Reef.
The 2005 John Oxley Library Fellowship was awarded to ABC journalist Ian Townsend. Ian received the award to write The Devil's eye: a novel , the story of more than 300 people who drowned in the deadliest natural disaster in Australian history. He drew on sources from the State Library's John Oxley Library collection, including diaries, ships' logs, reports from the Queensland Native Mounted Police, newspaper articles, original meteorological reports, and the account of the Torres Strait postmaster of the time. These resources helped Ian craft a powerful narrative around this tragic event in Australian history.
Video: The 1899 pearling fleet disaster, Ian Townsend, 2007, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
The winner of the inaugural John Oxley Library Fellowship was Dr Venero Armanno.
One of Queensland's most prominent writers, Dr Armanno, was awarded the John Oxley Library Fellowship in 2005 to research and document part of the State's history.
Dr Armanno has written several novels, including the award-winning The Volcano, Firehead, Strange Rain, and My Beautiful Friend. He has also written three novels for young adults, short stories for various anthologies, screenplays, and a play that was short-listed for the Queensland Theatre Company's George Landen Dann Award. His fellowship project furthered his contributions to Queensland's literary and historical landscape.