Connect with library special collections through lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and tours

Detail of wildflower by Kathleen McArthur (Fryer Library collection)
Detail of wildflower by Kathleen McArthur (Fryer Library collection)

Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature

The annual Fryer Lecture is the premier event in the Friends of the Library program. The Lecture celebrates Australian literature and the important role of the Fryer Library in collecting and preserving our literary heritage. Included in its holdings are the manuscripts of prominent Australian writers such as David Malouf, Peter Carey, Thea Astley, Frank Moorhouse, Olga Masters, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal. Its collections also include plans, drawings and records of key Queensland-based architects, the University of Queensland Press Archive, rare books, and other unique material documenting Australian cultural history. These collections are a valuable resource for teaching and research at The University of Queensland, and attract scholars from across Australia and internationally.

On 8 September 2023, John Arnold explores the extraordinary cohort who attended The University of Queensland after the First World War. The group from St John's College included Eric Partridge, Jack Lindsay and P. R. Stephensen who, separately and together, made their mark.

Past events and photos

2022

In the Moorhouse Archives (audio)

2021

UQP and the generation of '68 (video, audio)

2020

  • In times like these, what would Oodgeroo do? (audio)

2019

  • Kathleen McArthur: Wild/flower Woman (photos, audio)
  • UQ Alumni Rare Book Auction
  • Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature: Language, literacy and Aboriginal voices in Australian Literature, presented by Professor Anita Heiss (photos)

2018

2017

  • Beyond the Rockton Window: remembering author and painter Helen Haenke (Photos, Audio)
  • An Editor Regrets: R. G. Campbell and the Australian Journal (Photos)
  • Voices in the Archive (Photos, Audio)
  • An event to celebrate the life and legacy of Professor Dorothy Hill (Online Exhibition, Audio)
  • In conversation: Min Jin Lee (Audio)
  • Fifty Years of Friendship with Alumni Friends of UQ (Audio)
  • 2017 Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature: Crime Fiction in Australia (Photos, Audio)
  • 2017 Library Awards and Acquistions Evening (Photos, Audio

2016

  • Wikipedia turns 15
  • Shakespeare & Co: The Bard and his Peers in the Digital Age (photos, Audio file)
  • Nick Earls launches 'Wisdom Tree' (photos, Audio file)
  • Hidden in plain sight: walking tour of the Great Court (event information)
  • BWF at UQ: In Conversation with Tom and Meg Keneally (Audio file)
  • Vesalius' Fabrica of the Human Body - A Medical Milestone (photos)
  • Belvedere Woman (photos)
  • 2016 Fryer Lecture in Australian Literature: Thea Astley (photos)
  • Res Gestae - Things Done (Audio)
  • 2016 Library Awards and Acquisitions Evening (Photos

2012