Dear Members,

June and July were very busy months at RGSQ. The end of the financial year always brings extra work for our Treasurer and our Business Manager. Many thanks to both Chris Spriggs and Lilia Darii for their excellent efforts and many hours of work to complete all the necessary procedures and paperwork for our financial systems in preparation for meetings with our auditors.

On Thursday July 18th we were pleased to be able welcome His Excellency the Hon. Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Queensland and Patron of RGSQ to officially open Gregory Place, the Society’s new home. His Excellency was particularly interested in the Society’s long history, some of our archival materials, maps and the library. We presented His Excellency with a copy of “A Dream in Trust”, a history of the Society by Peter Griggs, for the Government House library. Thanks to all who helped to prepare the displays for the evening and assisted with information as the Governor toured around the premises. Among the invited special guests who attended were the Hon. Trevor Evans, Federal Member for Brisbane, the Reverend Dr. Richard Martin (a life member of RGSQ), from All Saints Church, Spring Hill, Mr. Geoff Edwards, President, Royal Society of Queensland, Mr. Stephen Sheaffe, President, The Royal Historical Society of Queensland, several past presidents of RGSQ, Associate Professor Patrick Moss and Dr. David Wadley from the University of Queensland School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and some 25 current RGSQ members. It was great to see you all there. Thanks to our Society photographer Kay Rees, for taking photos of the event – see some later in this Bulletin.

In July we installed a new public address and associated audio-visual system. Many thanks to Ian Francis and the Property committee, for all their work over several months in sorting out what was appropriate for our premises, purchasing equipment and overseeing the installation. We now have a professionally-appointed lecture space which will enable easy listening at our lecture evenings. Both the Society board room and the lecture space can now be hired out for meetings by other societies and organisations.

In early August Ralph and I will be exploring around the Pilbara region of Western Australia. We expect to see lots of red earth and iron ore mines, stunning landscapes and gorge country, famous Aboriginal rock art and we will be very careful of driving with the road-trains !

Iraphne Childs, RGSQ President