Malcolm Bunzli was born in Brisbane in 1933. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Queensland in 1959. He worked as an architect for the Commonwealth Works Department in Brisbane before moving to England, where he continued his career in architecture and studied for a Post Graduate Diploma in Landscape Design at Durham University. It was the only full-time landscape architecture course in the British Commonwealth of Nations at the time. While in England he married his wife, Dorothy Bunzli, with whom he had a daughter and two sons.

Malcolm returned to Australia in 1965, briefly worked as an architect and landscape designer at Conrad Gargett, then became the first Landscape Architect in the Queensland State Government. He was responsible for setting up and overseeing the Landscape Section in the State Works Department. While in this role he spearheaded efforts to secure official recognition for the professional designation 'Landscape Architect' across all government sectors in the state and advocated for salary scales equivalent to those of architects. Malcolm played a key role in establishing then coordinating and teaching the postgraduate landscape architecture course at the then Queensland Institute of Technology (now the Queensland University of Technology or QUT). Malcolm was a foundation member of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and served as National President from 1973 to 1975. He retired from active landscape architecture practice in 1993.

Ray Sumner, born Catherine Ray Martin on 21 March 1944, grew up in Townsville, Queensland. She attended the University College of Townsville (now James Cook University) on a partial scholarship from the Department of Education, designed to address a shortage of teachers. As part of the scholarship's terms, she spent a year at a teachers' training college in Brisbane before returning to Townsville to teach high school for at least two years. She taught German, geography, maths and English, saving her earnings to travel Europe for several years. Upon returning to Townsville, she completed her studies at night while teaching during the day, earning a degree in Geography in 1972 and a Master of Geography in 1975.

After working in various locations along Australia's east coast, including at the University of Newcastle, Sumner received a scholarship from the National Museum in Victoria to research German naturalist Amalie Dietrich. This research became the foundation of her PhD (1986) in the Department of History at The University of Queensland, under the supervision of John Moses.

As a geography professor, Sumner specialised in the social and environmental impacts of science and technology, as well as the built environment and history of tropical Queensland. She held a teaching and research position at the Queensland University of Technology before relocating to the United States when her engineer husband was offered a job at the California Institute of Technology. In the U.S., she held teaching and research positions in geography at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and Long Beach City College, where she worked for about twenty years. She was also involved with a local branch of the Society of Women Geographers and the California Geographical Society. Now retired, she continues to reside in the United States.

Born 6 February 1894 in Gisborne, New Zealand. Autobiographer, book publisher, poet, short story writer, lexicographer, soldier. Studied at the University of Queensland, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1921 followed by a Master of Arts in 1923. Graduated with first class honours. Awarded the university travelling scholarship with he took up at Oxford. Received an honorary D. Litt from the University of Queensland in the 1970s. Died on 1 June 1979.

Donald Robert (Don) Watson was born in Brisbane on 3 June 1945. The family home in which he grew up was a Queenslander house designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall. He had a keen interest in architecture from an early age; however, as the son of two doctors, it was assumed he would follow in their footsteps and his studies at the Church of England Grammar School were focussed towards medicine. Once he he had decided on an architecture career path, Watson enrolled in the Brisbane Central Technical College (now the Queensland University of Technology) to complete art classes that would equip him with technical drawing skills and other skills required for architecture studies. In 1963 he won the Open Scholarship to undertake the University of Queensland’s Bachelor of Architecture degree. While studying part-time he worked with Lund, Hutton, Black and Paulsen (1963 to 1964) and was employed by James Birrell and Partners (1967 to 1969). After graduating Watson worked for Hayes and Scott (Brisbane), 1970; AB Waters and Associates (London), 1971; and Geoffrey Pie and Associates (Brisbane), 1972 to 1974. After acquiring a house in South Brisbane in 1974, Watson developed an interest in local architectural history and began research for the book The Queensland House for the National Trust of Queensland. From 1975 to 1979 he practiced as an architectural consultant in Brisbane. From 1979 to 1989 Watson was employed in half- and full-time capacities as a lecturer in the University of Queensland's Department of Architecture.

Australian poetry editor, reviewer and publisher born on 22 August 1948. Educated at The University of Queensland, where he earned a Master of Literary Studies in 1976 and a PhD in 1988. Co-editor of Australian Literary Studies since 1982.

James Alfred Andrew Pollock was born on 1 July 1906. He attended Tolga State School and Toowoomba East State School before winning a scholarship in 1920 to attend Toowoomba Grammar School. He won the T.J. Byrnes Memorial Gold Medal for 1922. In 1924 he won an open scholarship to attend the University of Queensland, where he earned a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland in 1929. Pollock was awarded the Walter and Eliza Hall Engineering Fellowship in 1931. This Fellowship was awarded to distinguished University of Queensland engineering graduates to obtain experience abroad and subsequently to return the University's engineering school to share their learnings. As the fellow, Pollock travelled to Japan, the United States of America and the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1933 and taught at University of Queensland in 1934. In 1934 Pollock was awarded a Masters of Engineering from the University of Queensland under the supervision of Professor Roger Hawken. He died 30 April 1958 in Brisbane.

Pamela Lukin Watson was born on 23 July 1927. She worked as an anthropologist and anthropology tutor at the University of Queensland. She was awarded a pharmacy degree from the Brisbane Central Technical College (now Queensland University of Technology) in 1950. She married an American, Robert Watson, and moved to the United States for a brief period, where she worked as a tour guide of the headquarters of the United Nations. The couple returned to Australia when Robert fell ill. After his death, Watson returned to university studies as a mature-age student, completing a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Anthropology from the University of Queensland in 1980. She then earned an anthropology PhD from the University of Queensland in 1987. Her research predominately focused on ethnopharmacology in Australia and Papua New Guinea. In 1998, Watson published Frontier lands and pioneer legends: how pastoralists gained Karuwali land. The book was shortlisted for 'an outstanding contribution to Australian culture' at the 1998 Centre for Australian Cultural Studies awards.

Kay Elizabeth Bass Saunders AO was born in Brisbane on 19 August 1947. She attended the University of Queensland where she received a Bachelor of Arts in 1970 and a PhD in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1975. Throughout her academic career she worked at the University of Queensland. She was appointed Emeritus Professor, following her retirement in 2006. She is a distinguished national and international scholar in the areas of race and gender relations, cultural history, World War 2 and national security. Professor Saunders is the author of numerous books and articles, including Alien Justice: Internment in Twentieth Century North America and Australia and War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland 1938-1948, and co-author of Exclusion, Exploitation and Extermination: Race Relations in Colonial Queensland. For a period, she was married to Raymond Evans and went by the name Kay Elizabeth Evans. Together, they had a daughter.

In 1999, she was appointed a member of the Order of Australia, and promoted to Officer in the 2021 Australia Day Honours. In 2001 she was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She is also Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (London) and of the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). After leaving the University of Queensland Professor Saunders was appointed Executive Director of the Brisbane Institute.

Peter Cahill was born in 1935 on the island of Samarai, Papua New Guinea. Peter’s family was evacuated to Australia after the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea during World War II. The family returned to Port Moresby, and later Rabaul, after World War II. Cahill completed his high-school education at a boarding school in Australia. Peter returned to Papua New Guinea and worked in various government departments. During this time, Cahill completed a Bachelor of Arts degree externally through the University of Queensland. Cahill later completed a Master of Arts degree through the University of Pauapa New Guinea. In 1973, Cahill, and his young family, moved to Brisbane, Australia. After completing a Graduate Diploma in Library Science, Cahill worked at the University of Queensland Library until his retirement. During the 1980s, Cahill completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree through the University of Queensland. He wrote and published two books in 2012 and 2017 about the history of Chinese people in Rabaul. Cahill created a collection of documents, photos and other materials from the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia (PNGAA) as a research resource in the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland. Cahill passed away in 2022.

Gerard Lee is an Australian author, screenwriter and director. Born in Melbourne on 23 November 1951 and raised in Brisbane, Lee began writing for The Telegraph newspaper at 16 years of age. Lee studied at the University of Queensland and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). He met Jane Campion at AFTRS and they formed a long standing creative partnership. Lee co-wrote Campion’s feature film debut, Sweetie, which won Best Screenplay at the Australian Film Institute Awards and a Camera d’Or at Cannes.

Lee’s feature film, All Men Are Liars, opened the Sydney Film Festival in 1995 and won awards at the San Remo Film Festival and the Palm Springs Film Festival. Lee produced and wrote the screenplay for the film My Mistress (2014) and was the principal screenwriter on Breath (2018) adapted from the novel of the same name by Tim Winton.

As a television writer, Lee and Campion co-wrote the successful series Top of the Lake (2013), which garnered eight Emmy nominations for its first series. The second season, Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), was the first television project to be screened in its entirety at Cannes Film Festival.

As a prose writer, Lee has published Pieces for a glass piano, True love and how to get it, Troppo man and Eating dog: travel stories all with the University of Queensland Press between 1978 and 1993. His second novel, Troppo Man (1990), was shortlisted for the Vogel’s Award for Young Writers.