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Category: History

Collection spotlight: Brisbane City Hall

Brisbane City Hall is now open again, after three years of restoration work. The Museum of Brisbane has opened several new exhibitions on Level 3 of the building, and guided tours and rides to the top of the clock tower are once again possible.

City Hall was originally constructed between 1925 and 1930, at a cost of £1,000,000. The Fryer Library holds an album of photographs taken by Bertha Mobsby which beautifully charts the building's progress. We've compiled the photos into a short video, so you can literally watch the building grow:

Bertha Mobsby was the daughter of photographer Henry William Mobsby, and was one of Queensland's early female photographers and cinematographers. Her album is part of the Daphne Mayo Collection (UQFL119). Mayo was a sculptor who created many works art located around Brisbane, including the tympanum and concert hall frieze in Brisbane City Hall.

To consult any of the Fryer's research collections, simply contact fryer@library.uq.edu.au or visit the Fryer reading room on the fourth floor of the Duhig Tower (building 2), St Lucia Campus.

Celebrating International Women's Day: March 1945 Queenslands First Female Juror

From the State Library of Queensland Blog

On 1 March 1945 Queensland's first female juror was empanelled at Brisbane's Supreme Court. Nellie Bishop, a housewife from Kelvin Grove who had never before been inside a courtroom, was thrust into the media spotlight. "I was scared stiff" she told a reporter from The Courier Mail

Newspaper articles about Nellie are available on Trove.

View a selection of Fryer collections online

By viewing the Fryer Library community on UQ's institutional repository UQ eSpace, you can browse a selection of the Fryer's digitized collections. Currently, these include:

If you are interested in copies of material from the Fryer collection, you may like to check out our recent post on Copying FAQs.

Mobsby, Bertha, ‘Photograph of construction of Brisbane City Hall January 1929’, Photograph album of construction of Brisbane City Hall, UQFL 119:1, image 9, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.

Max Klose, ‘View from Wickham Terrace, Brisbane 1876’ Views of Brisbane 1876-1888, F3451 image 6, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.

You can keep up to date with new digital collections at the Fryer by subscribing through our blog's RSS feed or contacting us at fryer@library.uq.edu.au.

School history Queensland State Archives

Queensland State Archives holds many resources within its collection to assist researchers interested in school history:

• locating their own school admission details
• organising a school reunion
• compiling information on the history of a school
• finding teacher records.