Natural Queensland

Roy R. Ross colour slides 1960-1970

This collection of over 300 coloured slides showcases different Queensland locations, iconic buildings, landmarks and places of interest photographed over a decade during the 1960s. A small selection is digitised. Access them on the catalogue One Search. You may recognise popular Queensland destinations. 

The Brisbane Bushwalker 

Since 1952 Brisbane’s biggest walking club has produced a monthly newsletter. In 2017 the club agreed to have the print editions legally deposited to the John Oxley Library digitised through State Library of Queensland’s Community Heritage Digitisation Offer. Researchers can access the digitised copies (1952 – 2017) online. 

The Great Barrier Reef of Australia: its products and potentialities / by W. Saville-Kent (1845-1908) London: W.H. Allen; 1893

In the notes Saville-Kent describes the content as 'Containing an account, with copious coloured and photographic illustrations (the latter here produced for the first time), of the corals and coral reefs, pearl and pearl-shell, beche-de-mer, other fishing industries, and the marine fauna of the Australian Great Barrier region'. A copy of the complete work is digitised and available on the catalogue One Search.

Sylvia Brown Films, 1948

Among the Brown family film collection is a home movie showing footage of a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Palm Island in 1948. 

The film shows extensive scenes of reef life including underwater footage.

The last 5 mins includes footage of Palm Island - the community, beach scenes, children, climbing palm trees and picking coconuts, basket making, weaving and dance.

Amanda Gearing Queensland Flood Collection, 2011

This collection of 86 oral history recordings, photographs, hand drawn maps, videos and speech notes relate to the major flood event that occurred in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley on 10 January 2011. Described an 'inland tsunami' by all who experienced it, the flood was responsible for the loss of twenty-one human lives. The collection speaks to the individual stories of resilience, rebuilding of lives, lessons learnt and recommendations to avoid a future disaster.

Queensland Floods and Cyclone Yasi footage, 2011

Following the devastation and horrendous floods in the south-east of Queensland and cyclone Yasi in the Tully and Cardwell districts of North Queensland in January 2011, the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Queensland Government were granted permission to produce two short videos using news footage created by Seven Network Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.