Hector Holthouse

Remembering Hector Holthouse

and the former Hector Holthouse Room, Bribie Library
by Lynne Hooper

Hector Holthouse

After more than 20 years living on Bribie Island, prolific and popular historian and writer, Hector Le Gay Holthouse, died on 16th November 1991.  He was 76. 

While working as a Sugar Chemist in North Queensland, Hector started contributing stories to magazines, including the Sydney Bulletin, the Queenslander and other Australian journals. After war service he joined the staff of the Brisbane Telegraph, later becoming a lecturer in journalism at the University of Queensland. 

In 1967 Hector’s first book was published River of Gold: The Story of the Palmer River Gold Rush. In 1969 he gave up journalism and concentrated on historical writing.

Remembering Hector Holthouse
now displayed at Bribie Library
Source: Lynne Hooper 

In 1973 Holthouse was awarded a half-fellowship by the literature board of the Australian Council for the Arts.  His most popular book appeared that year: S’pose I Die: The Story of Evelyn Maunsell. 

Hector authored more than 30 books focusing on Queensland, many written while living with his wife, Sybil, in the house that he largely built himself in Hill Street, Bongaree. 

Hector donated his books to the Bribie Island Library and in the 1990s he was honoured at the Library with the naming of the “Hector Holthouse Room”.

Books by Hector Holthouse
1967 River of Gold: the story of the Palmer River Gold Rush
1969 Cannibal Cargoes
1970 Up Rode the Squatter
1971 Cyclone: a century of Australian cyclonic destruction
1973 Gympie Gold: a dramatic story of Queensland
1973 S’pose I Die: the story of Evelyn Maunsell
1975 Looking Back: the first 150 years of Queensland Schools
1978 Illustrated History of Queensland
1982 Illustrated History of the Sunshine Coast
1988 White Headhunter
1991 Cape York



REFERENCES:
Geoffrey A. C. Ginn, 'Holthouse, Hector Le Gay (1915–1991)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2014.

Could you store four tons of flour? by Jean Bruce
[article has photo of Mrs Evelyn Maunsell with author Hector Holthouse]. 
The Australian Women's Weekly Wed 19 Dec 1973, p. 15