Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- ca.1923-1924. (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
2 folders ; 32 cm. and smaller.
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.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Repository
Archival history
Originally identified in library card catalogue as F438-F439.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Cuttings of articles by Archibald Meston on various subjects, in different newspapers. Also : obituary articles about Meston, including one typescript article (6 leaves, unidentified); typescript poem, 'When Murphy comes : advance of Kuropatkin Murphy to the relief of Port Arthur Morgan' (2 leaves); handwritten letter about Meston, to W.J. Gall from Thomas J. Barker, 1924 Apr. 24 (5 leaves); one leaf handwritten note, about Aboriginal language.
Content advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are warned that this resource may contain images, transcripts or names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased. It may also contain historically and culturally sensitive words, terms, and descriptions.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
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
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Gall, William James, 1867-1938 (Subject)
- Meston, Archibald, 1851-1924 (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, SJB, 18-Nov-2022.
Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.