Kristina Olsson

Robyn has written about writers
centres in the book she and I
edited—Paper Empires: A History of
the Book in Australia 1946–2005.
‘From the beginning,’ says Robyn,
‘there was confusion about the
purpose of writers centres… Their
brief was to run courses and
provide writers with information.
‘There was [however] much
discussion about how writers would
actually use a centre’s physical
space.’
I recall visiting the early South
Australian centre which had desks
set up so writers could work, well
away from household distractions.
This aspect was something our
early steering committee spent a
lot of time discussing, yet as writers
centres evolved, in Brisbane and
then other cities, ‘hot desking’
ceased to be such a priority.
In her chapter, Robyn charts the
development of centres as they
moved from supporting nonprofessional
and emerging writers
to embracing professionals as
well. Over more than two decades,
the number of centres has
mushroomed.
In NSW, for example, regional
writers centres are now dotted all
over the state from Broken Hill
to Armidale—most on university
campuses. The very successful
Byron Bay Writers Festival was
originally hosted by the local writers
centre, and in WA, there was even
a Broome branch office of the main
centre in Perth.
Our original steering committee
reflected the writing groups and
genres we collectively represented.
I was a biographer and literary
historian, but there were also poets,
novelists, screenwriters and my
playwright friend Errol O’Neill.
As a postgrad student during the
early 1980s, my English Department
office had adjoined that of Errol’s
brother: the brilliant lecturer, orator
and radical activist Dan O’Neill.
Over that eventful
quarter-century, the
literary landscape
has become
extraordinarily
diverse …
When QBuild decided to eject QWC
from William Street and renovate
the space for someone else, they
found us another disused building.
This one was larger: a two-storey
former medical laboratory on upper
Wickham Terrace, near Brisbane
Grammar School. Robyn, however,
was disappointed that the only
room suitable for meetings was
lined on four sides with wide timber
laboratory benches. Heavens knows
what gruesome experiments had
once taken place there!
So, one weekend—in Clint Eastwood
mode—Errol and I brought in
our heaviest hammers and steel
crowbars. Like a pair of Russian
anarchists with a mutual delight
in demolition, we pounded and
jemmied all this shelving off the
walls to create a spacious, well-lit
meeting place.
Robyn and her QWC team had
helped organise the hugely
successful Writers Train from
Brisbane to Charleville, and
she framed a series of writer
photographs—including scribes
Hugh Lunn and Thea Astley, Tom
Keneally and Rodney Hall—to adorn
the walls of that reinvigorated
space.
Largely due to the dedication and
creativity of successive directors
and staff, the Queensland Writers
Centre has become one of the most
respected in the country. Among
its many important initiatives is a
nationwide bestseller: Australian
Writers Marketplace, the must-have
directory for every serious writer.
As a QWC member for 25 years, I
could not have developed my own
skills and contacts as a writer,
editor and publisher without this
dynamic centre which has few peers
in Australia or internationally.
Over that eventful quarter-century,
the literary landscape has become
extraordinarily diverse—with writing
genres to suit every taste. The
timing of QWC’s establishment
could not have been more
propitious, as the 1980s had been
a boom time for Australian writing
and publishing.
Queensland Writers Centre grew
rapidly to maturity during the
communications revolution of the
1990s—with the globe-shrinking
internet and the instant gratification
of emails and mobile phones.
Twenty-five years ago, in the old
analogue world, I’d cruised at
walking pace in my university Ford
Falcon around the streets and byways
of South Brisbane. Though
I searched high and low, I never
found what I was looking for.
Tonight, snug in QWC’s State Library
embrace, I feel I’ve come home at
last to the place of my dreams.
Craig Munro is an award-winning
biographer and QWC’s founding Chair.
As UQP fiction editor, he launched
the careers of both Peter Carey and
David Malouf. Craig has twice won the
Barbara Ramsden Award for Editing.
His memoir Under Cover: Adventures in
the Art of Editing was published to wide
acclaim in 2015. His other books include
Wild Man of Letters and Paper Empires:
A History of the Book in Australia 1946-
2005, co-edited with Robyn Sheahan-
Bright.
WWW.WRITINGQUEENSLAND.COM.AU 21