26 March 2012

Captivating personal memoirs of ship journeys to Australia, will be on display at Maryborough Library during April.

From Ship to Shore is a travelling exhibition of stories from shipboard diaries, dating back to the 1800s, from the State Library of Queensland’s John Oxley Library collection.

State Library Executive Manager, Queensland Memory, Louise Denoon said the diaries selected for this exhibition are among the most intriguing in the collection.

“People have always felt the need to record the events in their lives, and never more so than when travelling to a destination not yet known to them,” Ms Denoon said.

“Four of the diaries describe 19th century immigration, another is from a post-World War II immigration voyage.”

Library Officer Niomi Gilby said this display would bring back memories for many residents, who have either migrated from other countries, or are descendants of those who have.

“These stories allow us to follow the lives and activities of men and women of different backgrounds, occupations and classes, and get a glimpse of life above and below deck from the beginning of the Age of Sail to the influx into Australia of post-World War II migrants,” she said.

The scanned originals of all of the diaries chosen for From Ship to Shore are on State Library’s One Search catalogue at www.slq.gov.au, along with photographs of hundreds of passenger ships.

From Ship to Shore is a State Library of Queensland travelling exhibition and was originally developed to showcase the Manuscripts Queensland project, which was supported by the State Government through its Online Public Access in Libraries (OPAL) initiative.

The exhibition at the Maryborough Library, Bazaar Street, closes on Wednesday 11 April.