Summary

This item is one of our 50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 years of James Cook University.

Sharon Bryan answers the question 'Why is this significant?'

Of the many personal items held in the Archives of the Library's Special Collections, perhaps the most unexpectedly 'unarchival' is a writing desk. This is a bureau of the secretaire style, with built-in shelving, cabinets, and a fold-down desktop which reveals sections for holding stationery and writing accoutrements. This desk has been decoratively carved by its owner and one carving, in particular, highlights the personal connection between the desk and the woman who owned it: Marjorie Green.

Marjorie was born in Charters Towers, but moved to Townsville as a young girl, where she spent most of her life. Her father was David Green, who worked on many north Queensland newspapers and eventually became the editor of the Townsville Bulletin. David, his wife Alberta, and their three daughters lived in Kardinia, a heritage-listed house on Stanton Hill. One of the grand old homes of Townsville that is still in situ, Kardinia is of great architectural and historical significance. Most famously, it served as the first Japanese consulate in Australia. As a girl, Marjorie attended the Melbourne Presbyterian Ladies College as a boarder, and it was during a visit home when she was 16 that she carved her school's crest and original motto ('Ohne Hast, Ohne Rast') into the front of her desk.

Included with the desk are various items that were once commonly used for writing and correspondence, including a monogrammed glass and silver desk set consisting of an inkwell, a nib tray, a paperweight and a blotter. All were kept by Marjorie for decades, until she donated them to the Delamothe Collection of North Queensland History and Literature in 1984, when Marjorie left her long-standing home in her 80s.

The desk and its accessories are only part of the Marjorie Green Archive, which also holds some correspondence from her time as the secretary of the Church of England Funding Committee, memorabilia from the Cathedral School of St Anne and St James (of which the Green family were valued patrons), souvenirs from the family's holidays, and a notebook with hand-written recipes. Many of these items were, no doubt, stored in the desk at some point.

Writing desks have a strange habit of being simultaneously peripheral and central. They sit, shoved in corners or placed against walls in out-of-the-way rooms, and hold onto the bits and bobs of their owners' lives. And yet, simply by doing exactly that, they become highly personal and deeply significant. Marjorie Green's desk still holds a piece of her story, and will hold it well for years to come.