This photo was one of seven recently donated to Fryer Library, each depicting railway related history from Queensland. The elephants belonged to Wirths' Circus, which travelled Australia by train from the earliest days of the railways in the 1880s up until the circus' demise in 1963.

Established in the late 1800s, the depression of the 1890s sent the company overseas for seven years, touring South Africa, South America, India and the United Kingdom. On the way back to Australia in 1900, Wirths' picked up the first of their many elephants.

In addition to providing entertainment in the ring, the elephants served a practical purpose. Up until the 1950s, they were also used for loading and unloading the circus wagons (pictured in the centre of this photo) from the train, and hauling them to the site where the circus would set up. The train shown at far right is likely the circus train; the carriage on the back of the train resembles photos held elsewhere showing the specially modified carriage the elephants travelled in.

This photo is believed to date from around 1917, and was taken somewhere on the North Coast Line. The matt surrounding the photo is labeled 'Acme Studio, Nambour', and a scribbled caption on the back reads 'Nambour (before 1913)', but the photo does not appear to show Nambour station. The State Library of New South Wales holds a similar photo, probably taken a few minutes after ours.

If you know anything further about this photo, or can identify where it was taken, we would love to hear from you. You can email fryer@library.uq.edu.au, or telephone 07 3365 6236.

Further information on the history of Wirths', the elephants and the circus trains can be found in Circus: the Australian story and Jim Fogarty presents the wonder of Wirths.

-- Penny Whiteway

The Fryer Library congratulates UQ alumnus and Brisbane resident Kate Morton for taking out the 2013 People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year with her third novel The Secret Keeper. A mystery, set in London and shifting between past and present, it has already received high praise and topped bestseller lists across the globe.

Rising out of the ashes of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards were founded by members of the local writing and publishing community including University of Queensland creative writing lecturer Dr Stuart Glover.

Queenslanders have fared particularly well this year considering that all categories, apart from the People's Choice Award and Emerging Queensland Author, are open to any work by writers resident across Australia. Another Brisbane resident, Kris Olsson, won the Non-Fiction Book Award for her family memoir Boy, Lost and Brisbane born and raised Melissa Lucashenko won the Fiction Book Award for her novel Mullumbimby, beating out literary heavyweights Murray Bail and Christopher Koch for the honour.

You can view all the categories, shortlists and winners and learn more about the Queensland Literary Awards online.

-- Darren Williams.

The Fryer Library has a new website and we want to know what you think about the changes.

The new website aims to make it much easier to find information about visiting Fryer, the collections, and our community.

The blue menu bar, on the bottom of each page, provides an overview of the whole site. A list of quick links and contact details on the right side of each page provide easy access to the most visited pages.

New pages include:

• Frequently Asked Questions about Fryer
• An overview of what we collect as the special collections branch of UQ Library
• Staff profiles, including librarians for specific subject areas who can help with special collections research

We will continue to refine the website in the coming months, and would appreciate your comments and feedback:

• Email us at fryer@library.uq.edu.au; or
• UQ staff and students can complete the feedback form online at www.library.uq.edu.au/feedback/add.

Before & After

Fryer Library's collections provide many opportunities to examine the Queensland sugar industry's labour issues and to catch an arresting glimpse into the lives of South Sea Islanders at home and in Australia. 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the first arrival of South Sea Islanders in Queensland to provide low paid, indentured labour for the new state's fledgling primary industries, notably sugar and cotton. Between 1863 and 1904, some of the 62 000 men, women and children brought to Queensland from over eighty islands were persuaded, through various degrees of coercion, into undertaking the journey. A number were kidnapped ('blackbirded') by unscrupulous traders.

From its early days to the present, many aspects of the trade in South Sea Islander labour have been subject to debate. Controversy surrounded the proportion of Islanders to be legally recruited or physically forced to leave their homes to travel to Queensland. The humanitarian concerns of anti-slavery supporters were balanced against the desire of some crop growers to reap the benefits of a labour force whose wages were much cheaper than those of white labourers and who could be forced to return to their homes at the end of their contracts (up to three years). Opposing arguments published in Australia and abroad make sometimes uncomfortable reading, but reflect commonly held opinions of the day.

L-R: 'Native canoe, Kandavu, Fiji' (1) ; 'Fijian chief (Rewa) (2)' ; 'Hoeing weeds in young cane' (3)
Background: Excerpt from 'Thynne, AJ 1901, 'Alien immigration'

Fryer Library holds the only catalogued printed copy in pamphlet form of Alien Immigration - the Truth about Queensland and coloured races - Sugar Growing in the Tropics written by Hon Andrew J Thynne, solicitor, member of the Queensland Legislative Council, and later University of Queensland Chancellor. Thynne strenuously opposed Edmund Barton's proposal to curtail the Pacific Islander labour trade (the 'Maitland manifesto') in the same article of the same name, published over February 1 and 2, 1901 in the Brisbane Courier. His defence of Queensland's position towards South Sea Islanders included the views:

• that 'Queensland has certainly done her best to guard the rights of the simple child of nature who comes to her shores' through its 'stringent and strictly enforced' state laws,
• that the Pacific Islander presented a 'less obnoxious' alternative to British-Indian 'coolies' ('Which of these two classes of coloured labour do the people of Australia, and especially of Queensland, dislike most?'),
• that 'Queensland has for many years given the closest attention to the question of preserving "Australia for the white man".'

L-R: 'Tongan girls' (4); 'Samoan princess' (5) ; 'Kanaka women working in sugar cane' (6)
Background: Excerpt from Molesworth, BH 1917, 'The history of kanaka labour in Queensland'.

Some writers of the period professed an intention to present a balanced view of the labour question, including University of Queensland student Bevil Hugh Molesworth, who later achieved success as an educationalist and radio broadcaster. In his 1917 MA (Honours) thesis, 'The History of Kanaka Labour in Queensland', held in Fryer Library's collection, Molesworth lamented:

A subject, torn as this has been by opposing parties in two hemispheres, inevitably suffers the misrepresentation of its every feature, each party naturally exaggerating those facts which tend to support its own ideas and suppressing the others.

The Pacific Island Labourers Act was passed by the first elected Commonwealth Government in December 1901 as part of the White Australia Policy. It allowed for the mass deportation of most South Sea Islander labourers from Queensland and northern New South Wales after 1906 and the restriction of entry to Pacific Islanders after 1904. The only exemptions allowed were for Pacific Islanders brought to Queensland before 1 September 1879, ships crews, or those granted Certificates of Exemption under the Immigration Restriction Act. Of the relatively few Pacific Islander labourers allowed to remain, many endured continuing prejudice and ill-treatment.

In 1994 the Commonwealth Government formally recognised Australian South Sea Islanders as a distinct cultural group, followed by the Queensland Government in 2000.

Fryer Library acknowledges the great contribution of South Sea Islanders to Queensland over 150 years.

-- Robyn Clare

Images sources

1.Henry King, 'Native canoe, Kandavu, Fiji' (Photograph) Item 998, Album H6, Hayes Collection, UQFL2, Fryer Library University of Queensland Library.
2. 'Fijian chief', (Photograph) 1880s, Item 168, Album H5, Hayes collection, UQFL2, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library .
3. 'Hoeing weeds in young cane', (Photograph) Views of Cairns-Herberton Railways Queensland (189-)?, F3462, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.
4. 'Tongan girls' (Photograph) Item 186, Album H5, Hayes collection, UQFL2, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.
5. Henry King, 'Samoan princess' (Photograph) Item 984, Album H6, Hayes collection, UQFL2, Fryer Library, University of Queensland.
6.'Kanaka women working in sugar cane', (Photograph), Views of Cairns-Herberton Railways Queensland (189-)?, F3462, Fryer Library, University of Queensland Library.