Digitising Queensland’s historic photographs at Queensland University of Technology

Part of our Partner Projects

11 August 2023, James Gaunt.

As part of Wikimedia Australia’s Partner Projects, Jill Rogers, Digital Collections

Librarian, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been leading a project to upload and describe historic photographic material relating to rural Queensland.

QUT Digital Collections began in 2012 and includes photographs taken in Australia and across the world, donated by QUT Alumni and others.

As part of the project with Wikimedia Australia, QUT has been adding images to Wikimedia Commons, the media file repository making freely licensed images available to everyone.

So far, Jill and her team have uploaded 446 images that are now available under an open licence so they can be included on relevant Wikipedia articles and elsewhere.

These images have a focus on rural and regional Queensland, such as Cathedral Hill at Alexandra Headland, Seal Park in Buderim, and the Big Pineapple tourist train in Woombye.

To do this, they are using Pattypan, a tool to upload multiple files to Commons at once along with their metadata, with the guidance of Kerry Raymond who has provided invaluable assistance along the way.

One of the additional outcomes of this project will be documenting their process of digitising collections, and the many steps included before they’re available on Wikimedia Commons.

This has included removing dust and mould for slides, scanning images, restoring them with minor edits in Photoshop, and adding metadata, before they are ready to be added to the digital collections.

The project is due to be completed later this year, and we look forward to sharing the full outcomes from the fantastic work being done by Jill and the team at QUT’s Digital Collections.

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  Green Island Underwater Observatory 1964

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  Mulgrave Valley From Gillies Highway 1964

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  Tinaroo Dam Discharge 1964

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  Spence Street, Cairns 1964

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  Mt Coonowrin, Glasshouse Mountains, Queensland 1972

External links

• QUT Digital Collections
• QUT Project Dashboard
• Explore Queensland’s history through the QUT Digital Collections (June 2022)