Peter’s Archives

Many years before his death in April 2022, Peter MacFie started placing his research material, interviews, photos, maps etc. with the Tasmanian Archives under the collection title of “Peter MacFie (Historian)”. He included the caveat that it would only become publicly available after his death. In addition, when ill-health overtook him, retired archivist, Ms Bryant, with Peter’s guidance, sorted and packed another 130 boxes of his research materials to add to the collection.

The following message has been received from the Tasmanian Archives.

“Letting you know the catalogue descriptions of Peter’s work are now viewable online here

https://stors.tas.gov.au/AI/NG3784.

Thank you to you and your family for making these works available to the archives and to interested researchers, it is very much appreciated.”

Note that at this stage the collection is not available online, but items can be ordered to view in person in the History Room at 91 Murray St, Hobart, Tasmania.

Popular Music Culture in Southern Tasmania 1950-1985

Peter MacFie had an abiding interest in the music of Tasmania of all eras. In 2008 he was funded to begin a special collection for the State Library of Tasmania on Popular Music Culture (especially Rock Music as a place to start) for the era 1950-1985. He presented a summary of this work to the Australian Institute of Music Librarians, Conference, Hobart, 2008 and it is now available for download at Popular Music Culture in Southern Tasmania 1950-1985.

“Military Pensioners of Richmond” available for download

Download available for Military Pensioners of Richmond

With the death of Peter MacFie, it has been decided to provide pdf documents of the completed works that Peter had not got around to publishing. He approved this project and has left a list of particular studies he wanted put online (and provided with an index if not yet included).

The first of these dates from 2004 and is available today. Those interested are welcome to download it though do note that it is 61 pages. There is an index that is included in the main document or separately on the webpage. The intention is to try to add one every few weeks.

“See No Evil” Published

Long before his death, Peter MacFie wrote of his early life on The Glebe in Hobart. However, he had trouble deciding when to call it completed. His brother Rob then encouraged him to ‘set it free’ by helping select family photos and Peter was able to approve a draft print before it was too late. Here, Peter tells how the war’s aftermath was not always happy for his parents, but gave himself the freedom for a (mostly) magic childhood running wild on The Domain in Hobart. He was also particularly proud of his assorted convict ancestry and concludes with a family tree.

Read more about this book on the See No Evil page, or buy it from the Shop.

Burial

By his request, Peter was interred in an eco burial in the bush area ‘up the back’ of Kingston Cemetery on 9 May 2022 following a service led by Rev. Dennis Cousens at Grahams Family Funerals, New Town. Of course there was music, including of songs Peter had composed and recorded when he sang them with friends, such as ‘Lean Too’ and ‘Everyone Is Dancing At The Forcett Hall’. Family and friends shared stories of life with Peter throughout his life, as a musician, as a teacher, as a ‘farmer’ and as a historian and author. It was a fine farewell but we would rather he had been well enough to share his knowledge and skills with us for longer.