Lorna McDonald (OAM) | |
---|---|
Born | Portland, Victoria | 10 August 1916
Died | 25 June 2017 | (aged 100)
Nationality | Australian |
Education | University of Queensland |
Alma mater | Central Queensland University |
Spouse | Hugh McDonald |
Children | Donal, Roger, and Gavin |
Awards | Order of Australia, John Douglas Kerr Medal of Distinction |
Scientific career | |
Fields | History |
Thesis | (1985) |
Lorna Lorraine McDonald OAM (née Bucknall; 10 August 1916 – 25 June 2017) was an Australian historian and author.
McDonald was born at Portland, Victoria in 1916 and attended school at Mount Gambier, South Australia.[1]
She married Hugh Fraser McDonald (1909–81), a Presbyterian minister, at the Presbyterian Church in Drik Drik, Victoria in 1938.[2] They had three sons Donal, Roger and Gavin, all born and educated in NSW.[3] McDonald and her husband moved to Rockhampton, Queensland in 1963.[4]
Once McDonald moved to Rockhampton, she began studying externally, completing degrees from the University of Queensland.[5]
In 1975, McDonald gained a master's degree after publishing a thesis[6] on land settlement in the Port Curtis and Leichhardt districts of Queensland.[5] Ten years later, McDonald received a PhD for her thesis[7] on the history of the Central Queensland cattle industry.[5]
In 2000, McDonald was awarded Doctor of Letters from Central Queensland University.[4]
In 1981, McDonald released the first of more than twenty books which are all related to the history of Central Queensland with the first publication entitled Rockhampton: A history of city & district which explored in detail the history of the region.[5]
Her 2011 publication, Treasures in a Tea Tin was based on her discovery of an old tea tin that contained a collection of old letters, postcards, photos and artworks that were written to Joan Archer while she was away in England. McDonald found the tea tin in the 1990s while she was doing unrelated research about the Archer brothers.[8]
After celebrating her 100th birthday in 2016, McDonald relaunched The Moving Mind: The life of Henry Arthur Kellow (1881–1935)[9] a biography of Rockhampton Grammar School principal Henry Kellow, originally published in 1981.[10] At the relaunch of the book, McDonald admitted she wasn't interested in writing another book, but was reading books about geology and biology as she liked to read things about subjects that she had not yet studied.[9]
In 2009, McDonald openly questioned why various landmarks in Central Queensland had failed to be shortlisted for the "Queensland's Top 150 Icons" list, compiled as part of the Q150 sesquicentenary celebrations, after the Queensland Government invited the public to nominate their favourite Queensland landmarks for the list. McDonald said she was surprised that the Fitzroy River, Customs House and the Mount Morgan Mine didn't manage to secure a place amongst the other 300 landmarks that were shortlisted for the final Top 150 list.[11]