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.

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.

Campbell (Cam) Royston Scott was born in Corinda, Brisbane, on 4 May 1921. He attended Coorparoo State School, Guildford Grammar School (in England), and Brisbane Central Technical College, now known as the Queensland University of Technology. He graduated from the College with a Diploma of Architecture in 1942 and was officially recognised as an architect in Queensland in 1944. In 1946, he co-founded Hayes and Scott with Edwin Hayes. A mentor to many, Scott taught architecture at The University of Queensland from 1954 and shaped future talents such as Robin Gibson. Scott retired in 1985, following the retirement of his partner, Hayes, in 1984. Scott died in Brisbane on 7 January 2007.

Michael Richard Gourlay was born 19 December 1933. He was a teaching member of the University of Queensland Department of Civil Engineering from 1960 to 1997. He received a Masters of Engineering in 1964 from the University of Queensland, then his PhD in 1978. He taught, researched and consulted in the field of coastal engineering, hydraulics, harbours and rivers. He was involved in the construction and operation of scale models built to examine the effects of water movement on various locations and engineering projects. He also undertook contract work for the State on projects such as the Brisbane Airport and Cleveland jetty, among others.

Anthropologist David Samuel Trigger was born on 8 November 1953 and grew up in a small Jewish community in Brisbane, Australia. Initially considering a career in building construction, he pursued a cadetship with a building firm while studying at what was then known as the Queensland Institute of Technology. However, after realising he was more interested in the humanities, he enrolled in anthropology and sociology courses at The University of Queensland (UQ). During study breaks, Trigger worked as a surveyor's assistant, where he learned how to spatially map locations. He graduated from UQ with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (First Class Honours) in 1976.

After a brief period working as an assistant lecturer at the Darwin Community College in the Northern Territory, he secured a position as a site recorder for a UQ anthropological research project in the Gulf Country region. During this time he developed an interest in the remote Aboriginal community of Doomadgee, which became the focus of his doctorate. Trigger earned his PhD from UQ in 1985. The Gulf Country and the relationship between land and cultural identity continued to be major research interests for him throughout his career.

From 1986, Trigger held various academic positions in Anthropology and Sociology at The University of Western Australia before returning to UQ in 2007, where he was appointed Professor in the School of Social Science. He served as Head of School from 2011 to 2013. Since 2019, he has held the title of Emeritus Professor.

Lindsey Page Winterbotham was born on 14 April 1887 in North Adelaide, South Australia. He studied medicine, graduating from University of Melbourne in 1908. He worked as a medical practitioner in Brisbane. Winterbotham lectured in medical ethics at the University of Queensland from the 1920s to 1957, and was patron of the university's medical society from 1943 to 1944.

In 1938 Winterbotham began collecting anthropological, ethnological and archaeological objects. In 1948 Winterbotham, H.J. Wilkinson and F. S. Coliver established the Anthropological Society of Queensland. Winterbotham was the Society's first honorary secretary, a vice -president, and president.

In early 1948 he donated his collection of nearly 1000 artefacts to the University of Queensland (UQ). UQ took nearly a year and a half to decide to accept Winterbotham's collection and then was faced with the problems of housing and curation. Until mid-1957 most of the collection was placed into Winterbotham's suburban home. The entire collection was finally housed at the St Lucia campus and an Ethnology (later Anthropology) Museum was established in 1959, with him as honorary curator.

He died on 26 February 1960 in South Brisbane.

Historian John Anthony Moses was born in Atherton, Queensland, on 10 June 1930. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree (1960) and Master of Arts degree (1963) at the University of Queensland before moving to Germany where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy (1965) at the University of Erlangen. After returning to Australia he was appointed as a Tutor in the Department of History at the University of Queensland, where he remained for three decades. He held numerous positions, including Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader. He served as Head of the Department of History from 1986 to 1989. He retired in 1995, though was an Honorary Research Consultant in the Department of History until 1997. He published works on German and trade union history and was editor of The Australian journal of politics and history. John Moses died on 30 May 2024.

Lilla Watson (Gangulu), visual artist, activist and educator, was born in 1940 and grew up on the Dawson River in Queensland. In 1979 she became the first Aboriginal person to be appointed as a tutor by the University of Queensland. Watson also worked for UQ as a lecturer in Aboriginal Welfare Studies and later served as an appointed member of the University Senate. She was the Inaugural President of the Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency, a founding member of the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association and Vice President of the Aboriginal and Islander Independent School Board, Acacia Ridge. She has acted as a consultant and a member of working groups, panels and selection committees for many Government and non-Government organisations.