The Queensland Women's Historical Association is a

historical society A historical society is non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting the history of a particular place, group of people, or topic. They play a crucial role in promoting historical awareness and understan ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia which studies the history and heritage of Queensland, including its pioneer families and the contribution made by women. The Association is headquartered at the heritage-listed house Miegunyah in

Bowen Hills Bowen Hills is an inner north-eastern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bowen Hills had a population of 4,898 people. Geography Bowen Hills is by road from the Brisbane centr ...

History

The association was established in Brisbane in April 1950 as the Women's Historical Association. Its headquarters were at the heritage-listed

Newstead House Newstead House is Brisbane's oldest surviving residence and is located on the Breakfast Creek, Queensland, Breakfast Creek bank of the Brisbane River, in the northern Brisbane suburb of Newstead, Queensland, Newstead, in Queensland, Australia.T ...

. In 1957 it was renamed the Queensland Women's Historical Association. From 1960 to 1983 the Association placed plaques to commemorate historic sites associated with Queensland's history. In 1966, Newstead House was to be converted into a museum so the Association required new headquarters. At the same time, a nearby historic house Miegunyah (then called Beverley Wood) in

was about to be demolished. Through an appeal to members, the Association raised the funds for a deposit to buy Miegunyah to restore it to its former glory, and to fulfil the goal to have a Folk Museum dedicated to the pioneer women of Queensland and to display their collection of Queensland artefacts.

Current activities

The Association continues to restore and maintain Miegunyah, which is open to the public as a museum and a venue for talks, exhibitions and social events. The Association maintains a library and archive and publishes books.

Plaques

Some of the plaques placed by the QWHA include: * the monument at

Lake Moogerah The Moogerah Dam is a concrete, mass concrete arch dam, double curvature arch dam with an Spillway#Types, un-gated spillway across Reynolds Creek in South East Queensland, South East Queensland, Australia, now within the Suburbs and localities (A ...

to the women of the Fassifern District * the Cactoblastis Memorial beside

Myall Creek The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of at least 28 unarmed Aboriginal people in the Colony of New South Wales by eight colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek in the north of the colony. Seven perpetrators were convicted of murder a ...

, Dalby commemorating the introduction of the

Cactoblastis ''Cactoblastis'' is a genus of snout moths. It was described by Émile Louis Ragonot in 1901 and is known from Argentina, Peru, and Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is ...

insect that helped eradicate the highly invasive prickly pear from Queensland farmland

Collection policy

In the absence of a well-defined collection policy, over the years the Association acquired via donations a number of items in its collection that did not fit its primary mission to collect and preserve women's history, often to save precious artefacts which might otherwise have been lost in the absence of other collecting organisations. Following the establishment of a collection policy and a review of the collection in 2016, it was decided some original items should be donated to more appropriate collections. In 1964, Roma Browne, granddaughter of the first

Queensland Governor The governor of Queensland is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in the state of Queensland. In an analogous way to the governor-general at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial func ...

George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen ( zh, 寶雲; 2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899), was an Anglo-Irish author and colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and H ...

, donated a silver spade to the QWHA. Bowen had used this spade to turn the first sod of the Queensland Northern Railway at

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

on 27 September 1865 and had been presented with the spade as a souvenir of the occasion. In 2018, the Association donated it to the

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

. Also in 1964, Mrs Vernon Alford donated a parian ware vase to the Association. It is believed to be a favourite wedding present of Mrs

Louis Hope Louis Hope (19 October 1817 – 15 August 1894) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early years Hope was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1817 to John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, a ...

of Ormiston House. In 2018, it was donated to the Ormiston House Museum.

Published works

Published works of the Association include: * * * * *

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.miegunyah.org/ Historical societies of Queensland 1950 establishments in Australia History of Queensland Organizations established in 1950 Women's organisations based in Australia Organisations based in Queensland