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Mr Mick Busuttin coming down Coconut Palm head-first, Brampton Island, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Barrier Miner
Sat 28 Jan 1933

Tourists to Great Barrier Reef
Dr Macgillivray Relates His Experiences

[…] Mr Busuttin, a Maltese, has two married sons who are very hardy specimens, especially Mick, the elder. Mick was engaged at one time in capturing crocodiles for the various zoological gardens in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. It is nothing for him to defend himself single handed against a shark and kill it with a knife.

He knows all passages and the islands intimately and ran with consumate ease barefooted over the sharp rocks and stone and coral reef. He is stall, strong, and wiry and climbs a coconut tree with his hands and feet and can come down head first. Some little time ago an airman who was engaged in an aerial survey on the Barrier Reef tried to emulate him. He climbed the tree all right, but came down head first

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Messrs Davidson and Deering proceeding to view Turtle Spearing Demonstration near Lindeman Island, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The first European to explore the area was Captain James Cook who travelled through the area on his journey up the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. He passed through Whitsunday passage, a narrow channel which lies between the mainland coast, South Molle and Daydream Islands to the west and Dent, Whitsunday, Hook and Hayman Islands to the east, on Sunday 4 June which happened to be Whit Sunday (the seventh Sunday after easter) – hence the name of the area.

Cook probably sighted Lindeman but he certainly didn’t name it. It wasn’t until the 1870s that Captain Bedwell, charting the Whitsunday waters in the Royal Navy HMS Virago, named the island after his sub-lieutenant, George Sidney Lindeman. Although other islands in the Whitsundays were settled during the 19th century, Lindeman remained unsettled because the local Aborigines saw it as a vital part of their fishing

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Preparing fish to photograph, Goldsmith Island, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Goldsmith is the largest island in a group of continental islands off Mackay. Goldsmith has 674 hectares of National Park, low open woodlands and eucalypt forest, with brush box, wattles and grass trees form a backdrop to the rocky coastline. There are long sandy beaches on the northern and western side of the island lined with casuarinas and pandanus.

Queensland State Archives Image ID 933

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Queen Street, Brisbane c1985

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Extract courtesy of The Fashion Archives

“George Arthur Bayard (1866–1933) was a drapery salesman who became a prominent businessman, creating the Bayards department store chain. In his later years, he was member of the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce and Queensland Chamber of Manufacturers, and at one stage, a Stephens Shire Councillor. His four sons were all involved in running the business, and took the reins of Bayards after George Bayard died in the 1930s. They passed on the responsibilities to the next generation of Bayards, with three grandsons of George Bayard carrying on the business up until it closed.”

Queensland State Archives Item ID 436356

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