New BRGHS website is go!

The last Boggo Blog discussed the launch of the Queensland Historical Atlas website, and this one covers the launch - or at least a major revamp - of another website. We have spent several weeks developing a new site for the Boggo Road Gaol Historical Society and it went live last night. The site has been designed with a 'one-screen' look, with less scrolling down long pages. We will be spending the next few weeks ironing out any glitches in the site (there are always glitches!), and there are still a couple of pages 'under construction' that will be finalised.

One of those pages under construction is an exciting new new section called 'The Vault'. We can't give too much away yet, but The Vault will bring together a whole range of dynamic content about Boggo Road that will hopefully encourage the creation of new material about the prison. 

For now, take a look and explore the new-look site, and any feedback is always appreciated.

Queensland Historical Atlas is Go!

Last night I attended the launch of the online Queensland Historical Atlas at the Customs House in Brisbane. This website has been a long time in the works and is part of an overall grant project of $1M overseen by the University of Queensland and the Queensland Museum.

The QHAtlas combines history, environmental studies, archaeology, anthropology and cultural geography to explore ‘themes in the landscape’, and is intended to "re-comprehend Queensland’s history on a grand scale – spanning historical eras, cultural perspectives and diverse human activities."

I was invited to take part in this project back in 2008, and contributed the page on prison history called 'Stone walls do a prison make'. There are about 100 contributors overall, and the website looks great, containing many articles and thousands of images and maps.

If I had one issue it would be the use of 'conceptual themes' to lay the information out, which I know has caused a couple of non-academic friends to scratch their heads when first looking at the site, but if you just use the in-site 'search' facility you should be able to find a number of links to whatever subject you are after. This little quibble aside, this website is a great new tool for people looking into Queensland history.