GLORIA GRANT’S indisputable qualification for being co-writer of Reflections on New Farm was that she was born in Upper Bowen Terrace, New Farm. She enjoyed a Buderim upbringing, a high school education at Nambour, teacher training at Kelvin Grove, eight teaching posts around Queensland including Ascot State School, followed by marriage, three children, and family printing works at Ross Street then Stratton Street, Newstead. She wrote Divining Wisdom (2002) before discovering that her great-great-great-grandmother, Hannah Nonmus, had her own story published in London in 1798. Sadly, Gloria passed away on 24 January 2011.
While GERARD BENJAMIN’S parents hailed from Rockhampton, he grew up in Brisbane, was educated at St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, and completed degrees at the universities of Queensland and Lancaster (UK). After teaching at Ipswich, Carlisle (UK) and McAuley College of Teacher Education in Brisbane, he discovered his niche with typesetting, editing and publishing. English was always his best subject – and with the discovery of his great-great-grandfather’s manuscript, he realized that all along he had enjoyed a genetic predisposition to the written word, just as Gloria had.
Gloria and Gerard have been regular contributors to New Farm Village News.
Gerard recently designed, typeset and arranged the publication of Ruth Delbridge’s 488pp book Mischief, Morse Code and Ministry (2011), which contains over 400 images, including maps and photos.
Gerard is editor of the New Farm and Districts Historical Society’s newsletter, and can occasionally be heard on Radio 4BC and ABC 612, talking history.
