The last three years have seen a journey across Central Queensland that I never quite imagined – full of dirt roads, emus, scones, brilliant sunsets, fantastic archives and collections, plenty of tea and coffee, hard yakka and heavy lifting, and many, many laughs, with so many wonderful communities.
As I wrap up my time as Senior Museum Development Officer and move on from the wonderful team of MDOs, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on some of the experiences I’ve had in the last few years.
Most emu’s seen: Barcaldine (literally wandering the streets)
Best pub feed: A tie between the Commercial Hotel in Clermont and the Eimeo Pacific Hotel outside Mackay
Favourite coffee spot: The Lost Poet, Winton
Best sunset: Yeppoon! Closely followed by literally every other sunset I’ve seen. I’m not fussy.
Favourite object: An even way tie between the lace making machine at Mackay Museum, the iconic Mobo Horse at Clermont Museum, Daph’s fruit cake at Barcaldine Museum, Gladstone Maritime Museum’s insane shell collections, or the array of amazing theatre equipment at Winton’s Royal Open-Air Theatre.
Silliest object: I won’t name names, but there’s a collection out there with a stick in a jar – no context, no provenance, but registered and catalogued. Iconic.
Types of projects completed: Significance assessments, new exhibitions, collection management plans, oral history interviews, inventory and rationalisation projects, workshops and professional development, strategic planning, disaster recovery, structural conservation management, policy and procedure development – you name it, we’ve likely done it.
Best mannequin: Nothing can beat hand-drawn eyelashes, the horror-movie mask, the couple having a midday yarn, or the queen of outback modelling…
Furthest location reached: Tambo – which from Townsville, takes a whopping 899km to drive to. Closely followed by trips to Gladstone, Woorabinda and Baralaba.
Favourite part of the job: The people, of course.
Keep your eye on the wonderful work done by the rest of the MDO team across the state, while I head back into the land of curatorial and collections at Queensland Museum Tropics in my new role as Senior Curator, Anthropology. It’s been the biggest privilege being welcomed into communities by small museums, councils, historical societies, First Nations groups, and more, across regional Queensland.
Signing off as MDO for the last time,
Sophie (aka Roadrunner)
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