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Between 1842 and 1904, more than 55,000 people from more than 80 South Pacific islands were brought to Australia to work as slaves on sugar and cotton plantations in Queensland and northern NSW. Many had been coerced into fixed-term contracts or even kidnapped; a process known as 'blackbirding'. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people weren't immune either. From the 1860s to the 1970s, men and boys were taken from their homes and forced to work at cattle and sheep stations across Australia. And from the early 1900s, women and girls were forcibly removed from their families, placed in domestic training facilities and then, once they turned 15, dispatched to homes as domestic 'help'. According to NITV, their weekly income "had an approximate buying power at the time of [one] ice-cream cone or two apples." Between 1897 and 1972, Queensland law, for example, saw the wages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers held in government trust. It's estimated that $500 million has never been repaid. Particularly in the pastoral industry, where some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander laborers were bought and sold along with the land they'd been dispatched to work on. The pearling industry also has a dark past in this regard. Source: www.mamamia.com.au/australia-slavery/

Is the baby dressed in a christening gown?

From 1871 onwards, the Post and Telegraph services to the Lower Herbert valley have provided a vital communication link between Ingham and the rest of the world. In 1874, the first Telegraph line was erected by Henry Simmonds between Waterview and the Lower Herbert (later Ingham), at a cost of £900 (approx. $105,039.50). In 1900, a purpose-built Post and Telegraph office replaced the original small building. Constructed by E. Corbett of Ingham. It was a solid timber and tin building with an L -shaped design. The Post and Telegraph office consisted of a foyer and counter area with a mail sorting room behind with five private boxes installed with public access. A small battery room was located at the end of the veranda for the telegraph service. The accommodation was provided for the single male clerks. The house contained three bedrooms, a sitting room, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom and storeroom with a veranda wrapping around two sides for the men to catch the breeze of an afternoon. By 1923, substantial renovations to the Post office were required to cope with mail associated with growth in the region. The sorting room, exchange and battery room were doubled in size and a new bank of private postal boxes were installed along the entrance veranda. A Savings Bank was added to the business and a small timber building was provided for the linesman with a stable and the toilet nearby. Source: www.hinchinbrookway.com.au/things-to-do/culture-art-histo...