Jeff Lambert commenced his career in topographical and geodetic surveying, implementing survey control for Australian military mapping. A vocation demanding long periods away from home in days gone past, its initial travel attraction changed when he met Judith in a small country town in his travels. He entered the mining industry, firstly in underground surveying and later in management positions, until deciding to take up his own mining tenements.

Despite their interest in the above, itchy green thumbs saw Jeff and Judith buy into 86 acres in the Dulang Range at Traveston. Here they personally established and operated a fully automated hydroponic farm until they retired some years ago. Jeff has taken to history and writing and is the principal author and editor of 'The Traveston Story', successfully launched in Gympie in 2009.

Pathways to Gold
The Gympie Contribution and Associated History

It was in a wilderness area in the south east of the Colony of Queensland that a lone prospector panned his way up a small tributary of the Mary River and discovered a major gold field. It almost certainly saved the fledgling colony from embarrassing bankruptcy and employed thousands. It was a field that put dividends in the pockets of investors and bread and butter on the table for thousands of Queenslanders on a field enduring for sixty years. This fascinating history of the rush, how the people got there, is part of the history of the positioning of transport infrastructure  in the south east of the state, that prevails to this day.

Available on request. Contact Jeff.

The Traveston Story

Traveston had its links with the pastoral industry before the gold discovery at Gympie. After the discovery, its positioning around the southern accesses to the gold field, that is the Conondale Track, the Mooloolah Track, the Brisbane Road and the Noosa Road, attracted selections under the Crown Lands Alienation Acts, with Traveston district becoming important to the supply and service to the gold field. This book is about the developments, its growth and above all, about its pioneers.

No longer available ---- Sold Out.

Australia Day

Celebrating Australia's First Prison? OR Commemorating the Foundation Day of Nationhood?

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Involuntary Pioneers

Ann Forbes Journey to and Life in, the Great South Land.

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George

A document relating the past to the future.

"So I was able to tell George that he had just witnessed the beginnings of the space age; that there would be a lot more of ‘those things in the sky’ to come. I was also able to remind him that it was only slightly less than one hundred years ago that the first surveyor and astronomer to tread this part of the country, passed not far to the west of his property."

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A River Lost

The mystery of where and why John Carne Bidwill, the Crown Lands Commissioner for Wide Bay, disappeared into the  Mary Valley Scrub without food for 8 days, has long been a point of discussion with historians and interested public alike, ever since the event in 1851. The author suggests there were extenuating circumstances.

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Discovery, Possession and Terra nullius

The dilemma facing English possession of New Holland, or part thereof, lay in the doctrine of possession formalities claimable by prior discoveries of non - English explorers . How English possession was effected of a land where the rights of others, including the indigenous peoples, was supported by some elements and suppressed by others of the  generally accepted European doctrine of discovery and possession, is the subject of this document.

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The Lambert Plan

The El Nino ending in 2010, resulted in a water depleted south east Queensland.  Premier Peter Beattie, announced the State decision to construct the Traveston Crossing Dam. The dam was to serve the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane via a pipe line to be constructed between Noosa and the North Pine Dam distribution system. Additionally plans were mooted to increase the subsurface water extraction from North Stradbroke Island. Both plans met with considerable opposition and the Lambert Plan was submitted as an alternative to both.

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