2024 AGM & Clem Lack Oration

The Royal Historical Society's Annual General Meeting, followed by the Clem Lack Oration 'On The Other Side of the Fence: New Perspectives on Queensland History' presented by Thom Blake.

Registration: 5:00pm

AGM start time: 5:30pm

Clem Lack Oration: after AGM has concluded

Some light refreshments provided.

About the Speaker:

Thom Blake is a Brisbane based professional historian and heritage consultant and member of the Professional Historians Association. He has researched and written about a wide range of topics relating to Queensland history and also researched the history of numerous heritage places throughout the state.

His publication, A Dumping Ground: a history of the Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement won the NSW Premiers History award in 2002. He recently co-authored the publication Yalanya: the life and story of Pastor Don Kawanji Brady.

On the other side of the fence: new perspectives on Queensland history

Having been involved as a historian researching and writing about cultural heritage places in Queensland, I have been challenged to explore a wide range of themes associated with Queensland's history. This research has often revealed little known or unknown insights into Queensland's past. I proposed to present case studies to illustrate these insights including: the towns that escaped the 1930s depression; innovation in the most unexpected places, religion in 19th century Queensland; female property ownership in early 20th century Queensland; Queensland as a railway state; the importance of the dairy industry: the deforestation of the Queensland landscape; the remarkable story of Indigenous resistance on the Palmer goldfields; and a unusual and unexpected footnote to Queensland’s history.

Host or Publisher The Royal Historical Society of Queensland