The rolls of architects from the Queensland Government Gazette from 1930 to 1980 are now available online. This digitisation project was made possible through a $2500 gift from the Board of Architects of Queensland and the support of dedicated volunteers.
What are the rolls of architects?
The rolls of architects record the careers of architects registered in Queensland, providing an insight into the state's architectural history.
Digitising the rolls
The rolls were printed each year in the Queensland Government Gazette. By digitising these records they can be accessed in their entirety.
As part of the digitisation process, an automated optical character recognition software was run over the data to ensure the document was key word searchable. The data is open and available to all to use via The University of Queensland's repository UQ eSpace.
Now researchers and students can quickly locate an architect and track their career.
Adjunct Professor Don Watson (Bachelor of Architecture 1970, Doctor of Letters honoris causa 2013) from UQ's School of Architecture supported the digitisation process by flagging relevant content.
Adjunct Professor Watson said he devoted his time to the project after realising what an invaluable asset the records would be for historians and researchers.
Digitisation of the rolls will facilitate a better understanding of architects’ careers and save researchers a significant amount of time
It will make it possible for researchers all over the world to quickly establish whether an architect whose career was primarily elsewhere, ever registered in Queensland. Until now, this wasn’t a possibility.”
Even while scanning the rolls, digitisation assistant Rebecca Randall was intrigued to discover the careers of Queensland female architects in the 1930s.
Through the project I followed the career of Eunice Faith Slaughter, who was one of two female architects registered when the act came into effect in 1929. Browsing Trove, I was able to discover the details of her wedding to another architect and realized that she continued working as an architect and was now registered as Eunice Faith Ayre.
View the digitised rolls of architects in UQ eSpace.
