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German Missionaries in Queensland

A web-directory of intercultural encounters

The contact history of indigenous people in Queensland is strongly shaped by missions and reserves, the breaking up of families and removals of children from their parents. Missionaries played a prominent role in modelling and managing such regimes so that the history of missions is highly contested.

German Lutheran and Moravian missionaries established the first and also the longest surviving Aboriginal missions in Queensland. Until World War I practically half of the missions were staffed with German speakers. Their encounters with indigenous people are integral to the telling of Queensland’s multicultural and indigenous history.

This web-directory gives detailed insight into their backgrounds, their aspirations and frustrations. It provides materials from private collections and overseas archives and frames these in their wider historical context. 

Read more: Introduction