A 'riot' of a meeting at BMM

Our club meeting on Thursday 2 April 2026 was a ‘riot’, not in the sense of it being hilarious, more in the sense that the focus was firmly on protests marches in Queensland. Not surprising for a meeting held on the eve of the Easter holidays and a home game for the Brisbane Lions, the meeting attracted only about a dozen members.

SEQEB Ten documentary - John Harrison, former ABC journalist and university lecturer, put forward a proposal for a documentary on the trial of what became known as the “SEQEB Ten”. In 1985, 1007 employees of the State Government owned SEQEB (forerunner of Energex) went on strike over plans to replace them with contract workers. In addition to massive power outages over ten days, several hundred striking workers and supporters were arrested, among them were ten members of an econumenical Christian social justice collective. Although the Queensland Government ultimately won the dispute, the case against the members of the collective was thrown out the Magistrates Court and when the Queensland Government appealed to the Supreme Court it was unanimously thrown out again. John plans to make a documentary based on transcripts of the trials, and has asked BMM members to assist in the production, initially in a script writing capacity. It’s going to be a monumental effort but an important and fascinating part of Queensland’s history and a great opportunity for club members to be involved.

Bread and Blood documentary - Our second ‘riot’ was delivered by Lachlan,who has a passion for bringing to life fascinating stories from Queensland's rich history.

Lachlan has uploaded his video “Bread and Blood” riot. to his popular YouTube channel.

1866, some 500 unemployed workers stormed the Government Stores (Commissariat) because they were unable to find work in the rural communities or in Brisbane and their families were starving.

Lachlan draws a strong link for the riot with what he calls the fraudulant claims by the Queensland Government to attract desperate workers from Europe to Queensland with false claims of a ‘utopia‘. It was compounded by a devastating drought impacting the pastoral community in southern Queensland and the collapse of the British banking system which literally sent the Queensland Government broke. The resulting unemployment and desperation led the unemployed workers to march on the Government stores armed with rocks demanding food and work, and the now infamous catchcry “bread or blood”.

At the end of the screening, Lachlan asked BMM members for any advice they could give to help him advance his story telling and production skills. Although it meant the meeting went well over time, members gave Lachlan numerous tips and tricks to assist both his story telling and production techniques. This is a great example of how BMM members can help each other in developing their skills. You only have to ask.

Quiet Achievers Glenn revealed he has 67 minutes of content in the can for the series of short stories. He is expecting one more story to be included which will take the total running time to about 90 minutes. He is hoping to organise screening by the end of May.

Silent auction - To round out the night, the club held a silent auction for a 48 inch monitor generously donated by former member George Leon. Glenn submitted the winning bid and, with some muscle from Noel, staggered out of the meeting with his newly acquired prized monitor.

The meeting wrapped up at about 9.50pm.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 16 April. Keep across the club’s website for details.