K’gari-Fraser Island Research Archive was established at UniSC in 2016. Since then, it has become a collection of fifty-eight archival boxes of documents, seven volumes of digitised photo albums, an unknown quantity of photographic slides, one film, and a source of primary references from the 1975 Fraser Island Environmental Inquiries. Today, less than 20% of the collection is fully catalogued and digitised.
Nineteen documents have been formally identified as pertaining to the Butchulla either through references to, cultural observations, or recorded voices. At least ten more documents mentioning the Butchulla have been identified by library staff and placed aside to be boxed separately along with other documents believed to be associated with Australian’s First Nations peoples. However, based on the thesis by Dr. Rose Barrowcliffe, all documents about K'gari are about the Butchulla, as country in this context is considered equal to the traditional custodians.
The poster demonstrates the importance of scanning the photos, as they provide a record of how various locations across K’gari have changed over time, especially since the early 1990s. There is also a sample of a faded facsimile before and after it is scanned then light adjusted.