Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1895?-1917 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
3 items ; 34 cm.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Queensland newspaper editor, explorer and amateur ethnologist who had a lifetime interest in Aboriginal culture and the languages of the indigenous people, Meston spent his childhood on a farm near Ulmarra in the Clarence River district of New South Wales but most of his adult life in Queensland. From 1878 to 1883 he represented Rosewood in State Parliament. Following editorial appointments with the Ipswich Observer, the Toowoomba Chronicle and the Townsville Herald, he came to Cairns early in 1882 as editor of the Cairns Chronicle. This was the beginning of a six-year tropical interlude in which he sought to further his career through regional politics and investments in the sugar industry, then undergoing its major expansion in the north. Meston's public life in Cairns began promisingly when he led the lobbying to secure the rail connection to the Tableland for the Barron Valley route and was elected Chairman of the Divisional Board. However he did not succeed in reactivating his career in politics. Between 1889 and 1904 he led four expeditions into the Bellenden Ker Ranges. Meston's "Report on the Aboriginals of Queensland" was the basis of the Aboriginal Protection Act of 1897, the law which regulated Queensland's indigenous people into the 1970s. As Southern Protector until 1903 he helped to establish the system of reserves provided for by the Act. His actions as Protector, especially in respect of the Fraser Island Reserve, were controversial. With an interval in Sydney from 1909 as Director of the Queensland Intelligence and Tourist Bureau, Meston continued in Brisbane as Government consultant and free-lance journalist until his death from tetanus on 11 March 1924. Meston's many publications over his fifty-year career as a journalist helped to shape attitudes to Queensland and its indigenous people, both within and outside the State.
Repository
Archival history
Previously titled: Papers, [1895?-1904?]
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This file has three items:
- Carbon copy typescript, 4 leaves, of a letter to the editor [of The Daily Mail] by Archibald Meston where he comments on Randolph Bedford being on the Queensland Legislative Council, dated 16 May 1917.
- Typescript of two leaves, of an extract from Archibald Meston's book 'Geographic history of Queensland - page 175', titled 'Charles Fraser'. The book was published in 1895. This extract described the activities of Charles Fraser, a botanist who was sent to Brisbane in 1828. [This material contains culturally sensitive depictions of Indigenous people.]
- Poem by Archibald Meston When Murphy comes : Advance of Kuropatkin Murphy to the relief of Port Arthur Morgan, 2 leaves handwritten, signed and 2 leaves typescript, both have footer Daily Mail, 1904 June 14.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright expired.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Material in this collection may contain culturally sensitive words or descriptions of Indigenous people.
Note
This was previously housed as F437A, F437B and F437C.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Meston, Archibald, 1851-1924 (Subject)
- Morgan, Arthur, Sir, 1856-1916 (Subject)
- Fraser, Charles, 1889-1959 (Subject)
- Bedford, Randolph, 1868-1941 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised, Linda Justo, 18-Aug-2022. Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.