Hector and Sybil Holthouse collection

Hector Holthouse was born in Toowoomba in 1915. He trained as a sugar chemist at the Central Technical College, Brisbane, from 1934-1937 and worked at sugar mills in North Queensland. He began writing in his spare time and contributing historical studies and journalistic pieces to newspapers and magazines and by late 1930 was employed with The Telegraph, Brisbane. He left to serve in the Citizen Military Forces late 1938-1945 during World War 2. He then returned to The Telegraph before leaving to become a freelance journalist and author of over 30 historical and travel books. Hector’s historical books were engaging and were about Queensland and Pacific Island exploration and history and were well known to Queensland reading audiences from the 1960s-1980s. Holthouse’s best known works include popular classics such as River of Gold: The Story of the Palmer River Gold Rush (1967), Cannibal cargoes : the story of the Australian blackbirders (1969), Up rode the squatter : the savage beginnings of Queensland's west (1970), Gympie Gold : a dramatic story of Queensland gold (1973), S’pose I Die: The Story of Evelyn Maunsell (1973) and his Illustrated History of Queensland (1978). He was a keen photographer, selling his photographs to magazines, and using many in his works. Sybil Holthouse (nee Shiach) worked as a journalist for The Telegraph where she began as a secretary before becoming a journalist herself. Sybil co-authored some of Hector’s later published works and was known to Queensland readers through her newspaper column. Sybil and Hector Holthouse met through working at The Telegraph (newspaper). They built a home together on Bribie Island, starting around 1959, eventually moving here after they married in 1976. Hector Holthouse died in 1991, Sybil in 2020. (Information taken from: Australian Dictionary of Biography and Bribie Island Historical Society, viewed 6 August 2024)