Books by Jonathan Richards
Australian Historical Studies, 2023
In his 2021 book ‘Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement’, Henry Reynolds ca... more In his 2021 book ‘Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement’, Henry Reynolds called for an inquiry into the historical record of Samuel Walker Griffith, Federation ‘father’ and first Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. Reynolds’ iconoclasm targeted a historical figure whose name is memorialised in a Riverina town, a Canberra suburb and a Queensland university. Reynolds charged that Griffith was morally and politically responsible for the violence carried out by an agency of the Queensland government, the Native Police. This historically grounded allegation relates to Griffith's pre-Federation Queensland political career, 1874–93, when he served intermittently as Premier, Attorney-General and Colonial Secretary. In this article we consider the historical record of S.W. Griffith as law-maker and ministerial decision-maker, asking what elements of fact and context may be brought to the important work of reckoning with a violent colonial past and its memorialisation in the present.
Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Culture, 2021
Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the ... more Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Series Editor. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au
A history of Queensland's main mental health facility, published by the West Moreton Hospital and... more A history of Queensland's main mental health facility, published by the West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, 2017
Papers by Jonathan Richards
Deleted Journal, 2021
Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the ... more Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Series Editor. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au
Deleted Journal, 2021
Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the ... more Volume 12 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Series Editor. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au
Asia-Pacific economic history review, Feb 6, 2024
In the colonisation of Queensland, Australia it is commonly accepted that large numbers of Indige... more In the colonisation of Queensland, Australia it is commonly accepted that large numbers of Indigenous people were killed in the second half of the nineteenth century. Calculations of violent mortality have recently been revised radically upwards. We suggest that the methodology deployed in these new studies is unreliable, reflecting errors in counting and calculation, as well as underestimating the selection bias of the samples. We caution against projecting aggregate violent mortality where the underlying data is so imperfect and emphasise the value of more detailed local and regional studies to inform better understanding of colonisation's impact on First Peoples.
Australian Historical Studies, 2004
Australian Journal of Politics and History, Sep 1, 2014
Aboriginal History, 2015
Review(s) of: Warrior: A legendary leader's dramatic life and violent death on the Colonial F... more Review(s) of: Warrior: A legendary leader's dramatic life and violent death on the Colonial Frontier, by Libby Connors, xii + 268 pp., Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2015, ISBN 9781760110482 (pbk), $32.99.
Queensland Review, Jul 1, 2006
Queensland Review, 1999
Betty Cosgrove, Shoalwater Bay: Settlers in a Queensland Wilderness, Central Queensland Universit... more Betty Cosgrove, Shoalwater Bay: Settlers in a Queensland Wilderness, Central Queensland University Press, 1996, 108 pages - Ray Blackwood, The Whitsunday Islands: An Historical Dictionary, Central Queensland University Press, 1997, 283 pages
University of Toronto Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2008
Anything we can learn about murder-suicides that can aid comprehension of these rare occurrences ... more Anything we can learn about murder-suicides that can aid comprehension of these rare occurrences is worthwhile. As Rosemary Gartner and Bill McCarthy demonstrate in their contribution to this volume, abundant research initiatives have applied quantitative methods and assembled remarkable data sets to make sense of these disturbing cases, which so often involve attacks of men on women. There are certainly patterns in the gender of assailants and victims that remain consistent across a number of English-speaking jurisdictions. However, the act of forming data sets from scratch, in order to study a notoriously difficult topic such as murder-suicide, can lead· to scepticism about the depth of understanding that is achievable through quantification. Faith in numbers has had a good run, but we should occasionally look deeper and as Gartner and .McCarthy have done, read the documents and newspaper stories that supplied the numbers. When cases must be assigned to categories for analysis, problems intervene. Silences in the primary sources may frustrate efforts to reach understanding, although challenging too is the task of sorting through layers within a well-documented incident. With the complication·of multiplicity especially in mind, this probe of murder-suicides emphasizes the value of qualitative information and appeals for a decomposition of categories and more discussion of cases within quantified studies. This entreaty originates from a respectful understanding of quantification, since statistics have produced the subject's important core observations, some of which are repeated and affirmed in this account.
Australian Historical Studies, Jun 12, 2023
In his 2021 book ‘Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement’, Henry Reynolds ca... more In his 2021 book ‘Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement’, Henry Reynolds called for an inquiry into the historical record of Samuel Walker Griffith, Federation ‘father’ and first Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. Reynolds’ iconoclasm targeted a historical figure whose name is memorialised in a Riverina town, a Canberra suburb and a Queensland university. Reynolds charged that Griffith was morally and politically responsible for the violence carried out by an agency of the Queensland government, the Native Police. This historically grounded allegation relates to Griffith's pre-Federation Queensland political career, 1874–93, when he served intermittently as Premier, Attorney-General and Colonial Secretary. In this article we consider the historical record of S.W. Griffith as law-maker and ministerial decision-maker, asking what elements of fact and context may be brought to the important work of reckoning with a violent colonial past and its memorialisation in the present.
Queensland State Archives, 2023
Archives and libraries, the places which safely store historical documents and records, are great... more Archives and libraries, the places which safely store historical documents and records, are great sources of historical information about people, places and events. Different archives and libraries store different kinds of files and records, and the Queensland State Archives (QSA) at Runcorn, in Brisbane, is the main storage facility for official documents created by Queensland Government agencies and departments. There are no private records or letters at QSA.
The naming of China Camp in North Queensland intrigued me when I first researched and wrote on th... more The naming of China Camp in North Queensland intrigued me when I first researched and wrote on this topic in 1999. As I spent more time in the archives and libraries I better understood the part that Robert Baird played in the naming and development of this remote mining field. This is an update of my original paper, written for Baird family descendants and others.
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Books by Jonathan Richards
Papers by Jonathan Richards