VIS220: archival research so far

This research project has been interesting and fun so far. I started off googling and stumbled on the Qld State Archives Flickr album then found the Qld State Library Flickr album I then emailed all the historical societies on the Sunshine Coast to see if they had any housing estate maps from the early days. I contacted the Caloundra Historical Society, Bli and Bli and Maroochy Historical Society, the Noosa and Cooroy Genealogical and Historical Society, the Noosa Museum, the Nambour Historical Society, the Buderim Historical Society, the Maleny Historical Society, the Tewantin Historical Society, the Sunshine Coast Heritage Library and History Queensland. I also connected with the Qld State Library and the State Archives to find out more about what else they might have that's not yet digitised.

I went on a trip to the Qld State Archives yesterday - had no idea any of this existed before this project and it's super cool... such a peaceful and quiet place with everyone speaking in hushed tones. They have open days where you can see behind the scenes of how the archival items are stored and processed, tours and bus loads of people arriving, mornings for people with dementia to watch videos of days gone by and displays that highlight a particular aspect of the archive (the current one was St Helena Island convict settlement). After a frustrating morning of trying a thousand and one search terms, I ordered up a few batch boxes of papers I thought might be helpful to find out information around local Sunshine Coast sawmills and early housing estate developments. SO MUCH STUFF. Old crinkled, brown and yellowed papers tied with string... beautifully handwritten reports and invoices... carbon copies and typed pages... not quite what I was looking for so I eventually got the archivist on duty to help me out and managed to get my hands on a few of the original housing estate promotional posters from the early 1900s. They brought out a special table for me and laid the maps out on them, protected and wrapped in plastic. The only downside was the lighting was terrible for photographs so I paid to have one of the original posters scanned and emailed to me.

Driving home, I noticed that every single freeway billboard between the Northlakes and Marchooydore exit was promoting a new housing development on the Sunshine Coast. Every single one.

Below is all of the Sunshine Coast old estate maps I've been able to find so far from the early 1900s and a digital archive of my visit to the Qld State Archives.