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Bananas are Australia’s largest horticultural industry and its bestselling supermarket item. Over ninety percent of Australia’s banana crop is produced in North Queensland. Banana plants were introduced to Australia in the early to mid-nineteenth century, with the first recorded cultivation taking place in Western Australia. At this point, Australia did not produce a commercial crop, with bananas intended for sale being imported from Fiji. Banana plants were probably first introduced to North Queensland in the 1870s by Chinese immigrants and Polynesians employed in the sugar industry. During the 1880s, Chinese immigrants began to cultivate fruit crops (including bananas) in the areas around Port Douglas, Cooktown, Cairns, and Innisfail. They became not only a regional success but a national one, with the Chinese community remaining the dominant force in Australia’s banana trade (both cultivation and importation) until the 1930s. The reasons for the Chinese community’s decline in influence after this point were multi-faceted, although discriminatory policies played a significant role. Shortly after federation, the Commonwealth Government passed the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), limiting ‘non-white’ immigration. Serving as the basis for the White Australia Policy, it particularly targeted Asian (especially Chinese) immigrants. Allowing immigration officers to administer a dictation test to prospective migrants in any European language (or, after 1905, any prescribed language), it facilitated indirect exclusion on racial grounds. The Queensland government also introduced legislation restricting the participation of non-European individuals in banana and sugarcane cultivation. In the tradition of the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), Queensland’s Banana Industry Preservation Act (1921) required ‘coloured’ labourers to pass a dictation test. North Queensland’s banana industry was also impacted by the return of older banana growers to China, a shift towards sugarcane cultivation among younger growers, and the difficulties posed by a combination of fruit fly contamination, cyclones, competition from Fijian imports, and transportation difficulties. The First World War had an especially devastating impact, with wartime shipping restrictions coinciding with disease outbreaks. The twentieth century was also defined by constant efforts to control the spread of bunchy top disease, an incurable viral infection, which prevents banana plants from producing fruit. (Thankfully, bunchy top has been prevented from gaining a foothold in North Queensland.) Nevertheless, banana growing only came back into its own in North Queensland following the Second World War. Source: queenslandhistory.org/2019/10/from-the-archives-early-ban...

Frequent media reports regarding conductresses underlined both their efficiency and decorative appearance, especially the smartness of their uniforms, emphasizing their femininity. This approach defused accusations of masculinization of women, which was thought to be a characteristic of Communist ideology. This was particularly important, as influential conservative elements had an extreme fear of a Communist uprising. As a result, they were intensely suspicious of any initiative that was not aligned with their conceptions of civil society. One of the best examples of the media coverage was the photographic essay published in The Australasian of 26 September 1942 entitled “Tram girls are doing a vital war job”, covering the transition of Miss Charl Round from her previous occupation as a nurse in a mental hospital to becoming a full-fledged M&MTB conductress working from Hawthorn Depot. The physical attractiveness of Miss Round added to the strength of the message. This strategy was so successful that the role women played as tram conductresses were held up as an example to society, showing that women had a true and valid right to participate in the general workforce, in occupations that had previously been forbidden to them – and that the total war effort was dependent on their participation, across industries as varied as abattoirs and the post office, munitions and aircraft factories, and as skilled technicians in laboratories. In the services, women were even trained in the combat role of manning anti-aircraft guns, as well as in the intelligence services as radio intercept operators and code breakers. Source: www.trammuseum.org.au/papers/conductressww2.htm

Tiger Moth aircraft was the first aeroplane used for spreading superphosphate in Australia, undertaken by EastWest Airlines at AS Nivison’s Mirani property in February 1950. Prior to that it was used in 1947 to spread 600 acres of linseed at Walcha. The aircraft was built in Sydney in 1940 for the RAAF and was used by the RAAF for pilot training at Narromine, Narrandera, Bundaberg and Lowood between 1940 and 1943. Then used at the Air Gunner School at West Sale, Victoria. It was sold by the Federal Government at the end of the Second World War to Edward Macarthur-Onslow who used it at his Flying and Gliding School at Camden. At one stage it was fitted with a spray tank and boom and used to spray tobacco crops at Dalby, Queensland. It was donated to the Society in 1965 by Mr Tom Watson, managing director of Aerial Agriculture Pty Ltd. The hangar was erected by the Rotary Club of Walcha. Source: walchansw.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WDHS-Brochure...