We were awarded Department of Veterans Affairs funding for this exhibition,
called From Swords to Plough Shares, and it's a really innovative project.
I'm delighted that Cathy O'Toole's office awarded us this funding through
the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's an interesting project because we're
looking at the soldiers who returned and got on with their lives and that's quite
unusual in commemoration around Armistice Day. People tend to be looking
at soldiers who died on the battlefield. We're looking at the people who came
back and who set about building a just peace. My favourite person in this
project is Harold Stuart Thorley. Now he's not the most famous person in the
exhibition but he's the one who I find has the most interesting story from a
personal level. He was a Customs Clerk and he went off to the war and when he
came back he was very involved in the Townsville Choral Society and other musical
organisations and I think that's what people are going to get out of this
exhibition. That, you know, 'Hey they're not just soldiers, they had a strong
interest in developing the community after the war. I got involved in this
project through the BA 3000 class where they were offering an internship and
it's been really challenging and interesting and I've learned heaps of new
things. One of the other researchers were looking at women in the war and I
thought 'what other minority groups are sort of forgotten when we look at Anzacs'
and so I focused on an Indigenous soldier. His name's Hurtle Patterson and he
arrived on the beach in Gallipoli in the first couple of hours of the invasion
and was injured not long after so he couldn't go back. He lost his sight in
one eye but then he was on the campaign trail for Queensland. We received support
with this project from the one 1RAR Museum, Townsville City Libraries' local
history collection has been fantastic to us and has found some great objects and
items for us to borrow. Also the Townsville Museum and Historical Society
has been wonderful. The JCU Library Special Collections have not only given us
display space but have helped us go through and find the treasures that are
in their collections as well and are irrelevant to this project.
Special Collections is always very happy to work with JCU History, both academics and
students. We get to show new material from the Special Collections through the
displays and also new research and new commentary on veterans of war through
the JCU Library news blog. So there's a regular series running through news
blog at the moment. It's also been great working with Trisha Fielding who is a
professional historian and she's written a number of books on Townsville history and
together we've produced some interesting snapshots of soldiers, nurses and other
people who have made a difference to Townsville society in war and peace.