The University of Queensland was established by an act of the Queensland parliament on 10 December 1909. The University's first home was Queensland's original Government House at Gardens Point. Teaching commenced in 1911 with four professors, ten other teaching staff and an enrolment of 83 students, 23 of them women. The St Lucia site for the University of Queensland was purchased in 1927 with funds provided by Dr James O'Neill Mayne and his sister, Miss Mary Emelia Mayne. The title to the land was presented to the Chancellor in 1930, and in 1935 the Queensland Premier, the Hon W. Forgan Smith, announced that the State Government had decided to build a new university on the land at St Lucia. A joint committee of government and university representatives was appointed to investigate the site, draw up plans and report to the government Its members were Dr Melbourne (University representative and chairman), Dr Bradfield (government representative and deputy chairman), J.D. Story (Public Service Commissioner), A.B. Leven (Chief Architect, Department of Public Works) and T.L.Jones (Chairman of the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board). Six plans were presented, by Professor Hawken, Mr Leven, Dr Bradfield and Professor Robinson. All the plans used a topography of the site in a similar manner to A.B. Wilson's original plans of 1926 In 1936 the government appointed the architectural firm of Hennessy Hennessy & Co. Construction of the new campus began in 1937 but war intervened and the site was turned over to the military. The move to St Lucia began in earnest in 1946 and was fully completed by 1972.

Ella Lilian Pedersen (née Glover), better known as Lilian Pedersen, was born in England in 1898. After completing a Diploma of Arts and Crafts at the Manchester College of Arts in 1918, she married Australian pastoralist Andrew Pedersen, moving to Australia in 1921. Pedersen worked with a variety of media throughout her career, including textiles, weavings, pottery, embroidery and paintings in oil and watercolour, as well the calligraphy, illumination and leather work. She was a founding member of the Half Dozen Group of Artists in 1940, regularly exhibiting in their annual exhibitions for the rest of her career.