queensland history

A statement praising ‘conscientious honest lawyers’ was published in a Brisbane newspaper in 1874. At that time, the public image of lawyers—barristers, as well as solicitors—was poor. For decades Queensland Parliaments were inclined to agree. The creation of the incorporated Queensland Law Society was seen as an important step in improving the reputation of lawyers.

In this lecture, historian Helen Gregory presents the challenges which needed to be addressed, and how government was persuaded to pass the necessary legislation, taking into account the expectations of solicitors, Parliament and the public.

The lecture is opened by the Hon Justice Williams (Supreme Court of Queensland). The Queensland Law Society Vice President, Rebecca Fogerty, also gave a short speech before the lecture and officially open the new SCLQ and QLS exhibition, A force for good: past, present and future.

Learn more about the exhibition here.

About the speaker
Helen Gregory was born in Brisbane and is a historian specialising in Queensland's history and cultural heritage. She has taught in the Department of History at the University of Queensland, the School of Built Environment at the Queensland University of Technology and was Director of Cultural Heritage at the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.

Read the paper.
View the lecture.

From pegs in the ground and spider web catchers, to Queensland's master clock and  pencil extenders - we uncover the tools and techniques that have shaped our understanding of the landscape around us. 

In this episode, we chat with Museum of Lands, Mapping & Surveying curator Kaye Nardella, who charts our course through the museum's interesting collection. 

Discover how maps have the power to tell compelling stories, like the surprising existence of pineapple farms and vineyards in Brisbane's past.

Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/roadshow-and-tell/id1666756225

Follow us on Instagram to see photos of stuff mentioned in this episode: @roadshowandtellpodcast

Sir Samuel Griffith’s Brisbane home was a grand riverfront estate in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm. It was lavishly furnished with Chippendale furniture and Italian objets d’art and even included a high-ceilinged ballroom at its centre in which Sir Samuel and Lady Julia Griffith held their many official and social engagements. 

Brisbane architect Richard Kirk explores Griffith’s life through the lens of his New Farm home, and tells Merthyr House’s story—emblematic of the evolution of Brisbane, from colonial outpost to its emergence today as a future Olympic city.  

Richard Kirk is an architect and masterplanner, born in 1967 in Roma, Queensland. He founded his practice Kirk architects in 1995, which has since grown to multiple studios across Australia and South-East Asia. His practice primarily works within the institutional and community sector, focusing on advancing sustainable design through each project.

Watch the lecture.

Sir Samuel Griffith was undoubtedly the instigator of some of the greatest law reform moments in Queensland history. This lecture attempts to capture the most significant pieces of law reform for which he was singularly responsible for more than a quarter of a century.  

The range of subjects include both civil and criminal law, substantive law and procedural law with a view to identifying what was innovative and, at times, audacious. 

About the speaker:
The Hon Justice David Jackson began his career in law when he was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1977. In 1990 his Honour was appointed Queen’s Counsel. Justice Jackson previously served as a member of the Supreme Court Library Committee and chaired the Queensland Law Reform Commission between 2014 and 2020. His Honour has been a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland since 2012.

Read the paper.
View the lecture.

In the early hours of a cold Brisbane morning in 1968, David Bertram Brooks entered the unlocked front door of Queensland’s historic Supreme Court. Resentful of the police and the justice system for his frequent arrests, Brooks made his way to the judges’ chambers and set the building alight. 

In the days following the fire, judges, their associates, members of the legal profession and law students from The University of Queensland diligently searched through the charred rooms to salvage books, court records, artworks and personal effects.  

Speaker the Hon Richard Chesterman AO RFD QC was a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland (1998–2008) and Queensland Court of Appeal (2008–2012). He also served on the Mental Health Tribunal (1998–2002) and as a Commercial List judge (2002–08). In September 1968 he was a final year law student and associate to the Hon Justice Wanstall, (later Chief Justice).

Read the lecture.
View the lecture.  

Lord Atkin's first encounter with a doctor was in 1867, when Dr Kevin O'Doherty attended his birth in Brisbane. Twenty years earlier O'Doherty had been transported to Tasmania for his advocacy of Irish nationalism. By 1867 he was a leading surgeon in Brisbane, and, like his friend Robert Atkin, an advocate of liberal democracy. He was one of the first presidents of the Queensland Medical Society and carried out extensive honorary work at Catholic hospitals. As an MP he introduced Queensland's first Public Health Act, championed the improvement of public health and as an opponent of the traffic in Kanakas sponsored the bill to stop their recruitment. He was a member of Queensland's Parliament until 1886 when he returned to Ireland and was elected to the House of Commons in that country. Soon after that, political differences in Dublin led him to return to Brisbane.

Learn more about this lecture on the Supreme Court Library Queensland website, https://legalheritage.sclqld.org.au/2018-lecture-three