Lydia Egunnike and Christine Ianna have been recognised as Queensland Disaster Heroes at a recent ceremony in Brisbane. Lydia was honoured for her work to help restore items from the flood damaged collection of Ipswich photographer and photographic historian Sandy Barrie. Christine was recognised for her ongoing work with Q-DIS, Queensland’s Disaster Information Network.
Sandy Barrie’s collection had been estimated to include 60,000 historic glass and sheet film negatives (including some from notable nineteenth and early twentieth century Queensland photographers), carte-de-visites, steroviews, lantern slides and postcards, and an extensive collection of photographic journals, reference books and ephemera. The collection also contained approximately 2,500 cameras. Lydia provided her expert advice to a team of volunteers who helped salvage, store and save as much of the collection as they could. Lydia was presented with a Queensland Disaster Heroes medallion and certificate at a ceremony in Ipswich on Saturday 11 June.
In December 2010 Christine initiated Q-DIS, an online Queensland Disaster Information Network for Queensland’s collections sector. Throughout the floods and Tropical Cyclone Yasi, Christine was a tireless volunteer for Q-DIS, connecting colleagues state-wide, providing updates on people and collections and expert practical advice on disaster preparedness, planning and recovery. Christine’s advice via Q-DIS and the media assisted many to salvage collection items and personal treasures.
This text is drawn from “Source” Volume 7 Number 2, published by Queensland Museum & Gallery Services. (PDF document)
See video and images of the award ceremony at the wotwedid blog.