Series 1: Diaries (1873-1874)
Gustavus John Birch 1820-1883
Gustavus Birch was one of six children born to Augustus Birch and Rosa Manuela Zelling. The family moved to Australia in 1829 and the three sons Gustavus, Charles and John were educated at Sydney College and Kings School, Parramatta.
Gustavus Birch was first employed by the Sydney Banking Company and later the NSW Supreme Court before coming to Queensland where he was appointed Registrar of the Supreme Court in Brisbane. He returned to NSW briefly before returning to take up the position of Registrar of the District Court at Ipswich in 1856 (Limestone).
After retiring he moved to Pulan (Amity Point) on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). This sole surviving diary contains entries from January 1873 to February 1874, and is the earliest known existing personal account of life on the island.
In the diary Birch describes traditional methods of fishing and food gathering, living conditions on the island, relations between non-Indigenous settlers and the traditional owners of the island, the Quandamooka people.
Birch later returned to his family home in Sydney and died of cancer of the jaw in 1883.
Description
Access
Items in this series:
Diary (1873-1874)
This diary contains entries from January 1873 to February 1874, and is the earliest known existing personal account of life on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke island).
In the diary Birch describes traditional methods of fishing and food gathering, living conditions on the island, relations between non-Indigenous settlers and the traditional owners of the island, the Quandamooka people.
Birch was known as an educated and polite man, who spoke enthusiastically on his passion for local natural history and botany. He kept a menagerie of pets, including birds and reptiles and his entries contain many Aboriginal words that have been faithfully recorded.
This diary has been cited in several significant works, including
- Quandamooka Native Title Determination 4th of July 2011
- Folkmanova, Veronica (2016). The oil of the Dugong : towards a cross-cultural history of an Indigenous medicine (Doctoral dissertation, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia)
Note: Many entries contain notes which have been taken from 'A Dictionary of arts, manufacturing & mines' by Andrew Ure, 1840
Description
Transcript (1981)
Transcript and covering letter by Janet Finch, nee Gibbs, Birch's grand-niece. Finch has added explanatory foot notes at the end of the transcript.
Description
Series 2: Correspondence (1981-1985)
Two items of correspondence that relate to the transcription and loan of Gustavus Birch's diary.
Description
Items in this series:
Note (26 January 1981)
Biographical note signed by Birch's grand-niece Janet Finch describing her great-uncle.
Description
Letter (28 May 1985)
Letter from Jeanette Covacevich, Queensland Museum to Ian Finch thanking him for the loan of the diary which has been photocopied, and enclosing an enlargement of a photograph [Gustavus Birch].
Description
Series 3: Photographs (1830-1860)
Photographs of Gustavus Birch and his mother Rosa Manuella Birch nee Zelling.
Description
Items in this series:
Gustavus Birch (1850-1860)
Daguerreotype image of Gustavus Birch, as a young man, taken by his brother-in-law William Gibbes, solicitor and amateur photographer. It is mounted in a hinged leather case, which has been lined with red velvet, and the outer case has been delicately tooled.
Description
Gustavus Birch (1850-1860)
Black and white copy print, an enlargement of the daguerreotype image.
Description
Gustavus Birch (1870-1883)
Carte de viste studio portrait of an elderly Gustavus Birch.
Captioned on rear: Brother of John Anthony Birch, Rosa Pownall, Charlotte Lumsdaine, Dorothy Gibbes, Charles Weldon Birch. The latter & Gustavus did not marry. John died young but left issue.
Description
Rosa Birch (1830-1850)
Colour photocopy of an image of Rosa Manuella Birch, nee Zelling 1787-1854, mother to Gustavus Birch.