What would Henry Treloar do?

[Extract] From March onwards it is “autumn” in Townsville. New pea sprouts rupture through the soil in two neat rows while cucumbers climb the trellis nearby. Ever faithful to this time of year, corn stands to attention as it extends it arms towards the sky, while tomatoes protest to the restraint of wooden garden stakes by finding new ways to ramble and spread out in any direction they find. This is my garden in the traditional working class suburb of Railway Estate. It is a utopia of production, which fulfils an unrequited requirement to feed the household in an age where mass food production undercuts seasonal eating and sparks rebellion through the slow food movement. Every night as the hose sprinkles over my aspirational feast, I ask myself what would Henry Treloar do

North Queensland's Chinese family landscape: 1860-1920

This thesis outlines the Chinese Family Landscape, which developed across North Queensland in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It specifically focuses on women and the role that women and family played in the Chinese Diaspora, and the contribution they made to longevity and renewal of settlements such as Chinatowns, precincts and String Communities. This thesis is set within the framework of the historical pattern of settlement across the colony of Queensland, with a focus on North Queensland. It is firmly embedded in the broader global Chinese Diaspora, and confirms the importance of established links between destination countries and the ancestral village, China. By statistically and geographically mapping the presence of women as wives, lovers and friends of Chinese men across North Queensland, new understandings and interpretations of Queensland's Chinese experience have emerged. This indicates that a gender integrated approach to Chinese settlement patterns is important as a means to understand urban and social development of colonial Chinese settlements. A female presence in the Chinese settlement experience led to generational renewal of Chinatown's, and establishment of an Australian born, intergenerational Chinese presence within the Australian community. The politics of the private sphere, highlighted by a female approach to domestic affairs emerged through the application of "soft economics", which played out from an increase in male status due to the presence of a wife, to the strategic formation of companies via the marriage of Australian born sons and daughters. The presence of women in the community enabled the network of translocal and transnational kinship and family linkages to establish and grow but more importantly, enabled a Chinese presence to take root and prosper in a foreign land. The river of money and ideas, which flowed back to the village in China, from families moving between the two worlds, impacted on those who remained in the ancestral village in ways which are only just beginning to be understood in Queensland. Woman's participation in community formation, renewal and longevity emerges as an essential element in the North Queensland Chinese settlement experience and challenges the long held popular narrative of a single male gold-seeking sojourner, who was confined to the Palmer River Goldfields. A holistic approach to a gender integrated narrative should be included in future investigations with North Queensland's Chinese Family Landscape providing a starting point for this process

Extreme beginnings: the effect of cyclones on the development of Innisfail Far North Queensland

From the earliest days of white settlement in North Queensland, cyclones have shaped the way settlers have responded to living with destructive winds, torrential rains, storm surges and flooding. These extreme events have inflicted a heavy toll on the built environment and brought about structural changes in many towns to counter the effects of nature. This paper explores the development of the Innisfail area in an extreme tropical environment. By following the relationships between cyclones and the evolution of construction methods, a more enduring built environment has emerged. In particular these structural changes have come under scrutiny provided by the recent severe Cyclone Larry. The destructive impact on significant heritage places is high and appropriate conservation remains a challenge for those charged with protecting it

Your stories, our history: 150 years of mixed marriage and war brides in Townsville

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Early life stress and macaque annygdala hypertrophy: preliminary evidence for a role for the serotonin transporter gene

Background: Children exposed to early life stress (ELS) exhibit enlarged amygdala volume in comparison to controls. the primary goal of this study was to examine amygdala volumes in bonnet macaques subjected to maternal variable foraging demand (VFD) rearing, a well-established model of ELS. Preliminary analyses examined the interaction of ELS and the serotonin transporter gene on amygdala volume. Secondary analyses were conducted to examine the association between amygdala volume and other stress-related variables previously found to distinguish VFD and non-VFD reared animals.Methods: Twelve VFD-reared and nine normally reared monkeys completed MRI scans on a 3T system (mean age = 5.2 years).Results: Left amygdala volume was larger in VFD vs. control macaques. Larger amygdala volume was associated with: high cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of corticotropin releasing-factor (CRF) determined when the animals were in adolescence (mean age = 2.7 years); reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) of the anterior limb of the internal capsule (ALIC) during young adulthood (mean age = 5.2 years) and timid anxiety-like responses to an intruder during full adulthood (mean age = 8.4 years). Right amygdala volume varied inversely with left hippocampal neurogenesis assessed in late adulthood (mean age = 8.7 years). Exploratory analyses also showed a gene-by-environment effect, with VFD-reared macaques with a single short allele of the serotonin transporter gene exhibiting larger amygdala volume compared to VFD-reared subjects with only the long allele and normally reared controls.Conclusion: These data suggest that the left amygdala exhibits hypertrophy after ELS, particularly in association with the serotonin transporter gene, and that amygdala volume variation occurs in concert with other key stress-related behavioral and neurobiological parameters observed across the lifecycle. Future research is required to understand the mechanisms underlying these diverse and persistent changes associated with ELS and amygdala volume.National Institute for Mental HealthNIMHNARSAD Mid-investigator AwardSuny Downstate Med Ctr, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Brooklyn, NY 11203 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psiquiatria, São Paulo, BrazilMt Sinai Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, New York, NY USAMt Sinai Sch Med, Dept Neurosci, New York, NY USAMt Sinai Sch Med, Dept Radiol, New York, NY USANew York State Psychiat Inst & Hosp, New York, NY 10032 USAMichael E Debakey VA Med Ctr, Mental Hlth Care Line, Houston, TX USABaylor Coll Med, Menninger Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Houston, TX 77030 USAYale Univ, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, New Haven, CT USANatl Ctr PTSD, Clin Neurosci Div, West Haven, CT USANew York State Psychiat Inst & Hosp, Dept Mol Imaging & Neuropathol, New York, NY 10032 USAColumbia Univ, Coll Phys & Surg, Dept Psychiat, New York, NY USAColumbia Univ, Coll Phys & Surg, Dept Pathol & Cell Biol, New York, NY USAComprehensive NeuroSci Corp, Westchester, NY USAUniv Miami Hlth Sytems, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Miami, FL USAEmory Univ, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Emory, GA USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psiquiatria, São Paulo, BrazilNational Institute for Mental Health: R01MH65519-01National Institute for Mental Health: R01MH098073NIMH: R21MH066748NIMH: R01MH59990AWeb of Scienc

Mar and Mar: a tale of two Chinese gardeners at Winton

The last operating, Chinese market garden was established at \Vinton in 1927 and ceased in 2000. It was worked by two generations of Chinese owners, father and son, both known as Willie Mar. Well patronised and subject to the harsh, western Queensland conditions, Willie Mar's market garden and shop became well-known and highly regarded for its produce and unique, pond-watering system. Hard working and humble by nature, both owners were locally popular, leaving an indelible impression on the community. The death of the younger Willie Mar in 2007 ended 124 years of Chinese activity as cooks, gardeners, shepherds and labourers in this locality. The story of the lives of Mar and Mar reveals a tale of endurance, separation, hardship and a commitment to etching out a life in a small, western Queensland town. Commencing in 1897 with the arrival of the father and ending with the somewhat recent death of the son, this tale contains adventure, creating one's own source of income and managing 'family' relations from afar. Today, the fonner market garden, dwelling and shop site is a significant, tangible expression of their lives, and also serves as a reminder of the broader contribution Chinese cooks and market gardeners made to the pastoral districts and towns of Queensland's central north¬west

Daughters of the Flowery Land: Chinese Women in Queensland, 1860–1920

Until recently, little was known about the experiences of young Chinese women who migrated to Queensland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, journeying to join their husbands alone or accompanied by a servant. This article investigates the changing Chinese cultural family landscape against a backdrop of an expanding colonial Queensland. It explores the impact of arrival, conditions women faced, and the transformation of male-dominated settlements into communities after their arrival. Most of all it shines a light on a little known area of history, highlighting Chinese women’s lives negotiated across the Queensland colonial environment

Myths, lies and invisible lives: European women and Chinese men in North Queensland 1870-1900

From 1872, not long after the discovery of gold, North Queensland began to emerge as a leading region for Chinese and European immigration. Communities such as Cooktown and the Palmer Goldfield attracted men and women to the boom economies that gold created. In the hope of securing a better future, young women emigrated from Europe to North Queensland and often married soon after arrival. Some married Chinese men and in doing so, altered forever their participation in colonial society. While initially most women helped and protected each other in the rough and makeshift communities that sprung up on the goldfields, it was soon apparent that conditions were harsher for those who lived on the fringes of that society, including the wives and families of non-white Australian men. European women who married Chinese men were deemed outside respectable social circles. They were subjected to gossip and innuendo from European women and violence from European men. As a result, they formed their own support groups and developed strategies to best survive the social and political pressures thrust upon them. There was a marked decline in European-Chinese marriages as the century closed and mixed heritage daughters reached marriageable age, becoming wives themselves in the Chinese community

Chinese in the sugar: a case study of Ingham and Halifax in the Lower Herbert District

There has been little work on the history of Chinese in Queensland's sugar industry. Their involvement was substantial and in the case of the lower Herbert district, resulted in a thriving Chinese community in the 19th century. Racist legislation designed to produce a 'White Australia' in the early 20th century was successful in this district, with the Chinese community declining after the 1920s. By the post-World War II period only a few families were left

Casting seeds to the wind: my journey to North Queensland

Dr Joe Leong, recounts his personal experience growing up in Hong Kong and China in a family where his father was absent for most of his childhood. Living in North Queensland but supporting his wife and family via remittances back to Hong Kong, this forced separation and lack of presence, impacted on the relationship which later developed between father and son. While many attempts were made by his father to reunite the family to North Queensland, this information was not made available until after his father's death. This is a story of reflection