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Brian Vrepont (1882-1955) Late flowering modernistBrian Vrepont (SLQ image 197063) Brian Vrepont (SLQ image 197063) Brian Vrepont is probably the most interesting of the poets featured on this website, as a poet. But his life was pretty interesting, too. The most famous poem in Beyond the Claw, at least at the time of publication, was The Miracle, which won the CJ Dennis Memorial Prize for Poetry in 1939. It is an allegorical poem about overgrazing the earth that has parallels with the current climate change debate: ‘But Earth, that nothing pities, And nothing answers for, Fired the first and deadly shot Against her enemy…’ Source: www.oldqldpoetry.com/brian-vrepont

Benevolent asylums were established in all the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century. In NSW and Victoria, they were established as religious charities. In Queensland, however, the state took responsibility, and the Queensland Benevolent Asylum Act of 1861 funded hospitals to have ‘asylum wards’. In 1865 the Colonial Government proposed that an asylum ward for the sick and poor be established at the new general hospital site at Herston. Under ‘public pressure’ the colony government decided in 1866 to relocate the asylum on a ‘temporary basis to the Dunwich Quarantine Station. It started with 80–90 inmates, confusing funding, and a drunk as Director. Source: stradbrokemuseum.com.au/dunwich-benevolent-asylum/

Dunwich ‘Bohemia’ An exhibition exploring the artistic and literary works of three generations of the Agnew family is currently on display at the Museum . The exhibition —a collaboration with the Redland Museum — features artworks and writings, as well as a series of photographs taken in Dunwich by Philip Agnew. The Agnew family lived and worked in Dunwich for many years and were active in the cultural life of the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum. The exhibition continues over the summer. Source: stradbrokemuseum.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Museum...

Four fiddlers

Jefferies married Arena Mary Massie, a harpist, at Trinity Church of England, Marylebone, on 3 June 1871 and they sailed for Brisbane soon after. He farmed briefly and unsuccessfully near Gatton and made his first professional appearance as a violinist in Brisbane on 1 February 1872 with Henrietta Mallalieu as accompanist. The two later started the long-lived Monday Popular Concerts which introduced new music to Brisbane. In 1876 Jefferies formed a string quartet and, when his children grew up, a family quartet. With James Brunton Stephens he published an Australian national anthem which won some acceptance. Source: adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jefferies-richard-thomas-6830