Meta Frances Hurley

  Research Notes:

Jim Truscott notes:
Obituary from the Queensland Fryer Library

Meta Frances Truscott, née Hurley, was born in Toowoomba to Dominic James and Frances Catherine (née Dunne) Hurley, the second of four children. The family moved to Eagle Junction when Meta was three, when her father entered into partnership as a real estate agent. Meta attended St Joseph's Convent School at Nundah, where she also completed a business course, before commencing full-time employment in the office of furniture manufacturer WL Keenan at the age of 15. For Christmas 1933, Meta received from her uncle Christopher Dunne the gift of a black leather-bound diary with attached pencil. On 1 January 1934, Meta began her diary, recording her life and activities, along with the news of the day; she was to continue writing a daily diary entry for the rest of her life.

That very first diary records the death of her father in September, the result of a workplace accident some weeks before; Meta wrote `Received an awful shock. Just like a bad dream.' After his death, Meta's mother purchased a house at Ashgrove, and Meta was to live in the suburb until her move to the Mary crest Hostel at Kangaroo Point in 2008. From the first, Meta pasted into the diary various bits and pieces. For example, the newspaper report of her debutante ball in 1936, with a description of the dress worn by each debutante, is included. It's possible to track which movies she attended through these inclusions, and the accompanying diary entry always mentions with whom she attended.

Cuttings large and small are included for the war years, accompanying entries which give some idea of the effect of the war on those back home. Both Meta's brothers served, and younger brother Kevin was in Darwin when it was bombed; the 1946 diary shows it was nearly two weeks before they heard from him by letter. In 1945, while attending Saturday
evening service at Glen Lyon Chapel, attached to the Marist Fathers' monastery in Ashgrove, family friends introduced her to future husband Allan Truscott. Eight extra pages have been inserted into the diary for her wedding day on 15 November 1947, filled with both an extra-long diary entry and notes from well-wishers, cuttings, etc. The couple purchased a home in Yoke Road, Ashgrove, and all three of their children, Stephen, James and Maria, would be born and raised in the suburb.

In 1999, when the Ashgrove/The Gap Heritage Association formed, Meta was a founding member. It was a forerunner of the Ashgrove Historical Society, of which she was copatron. Meta was a popular local historian of the area, authoring or co-authoring several books, and giving talks in the local community. In early 2004, the first 157 diaries covering the period 1934 to 2003 were handed over to the Fryer Library; her family would later recall that the purchase of the diaries helped to fund the painting of the family home at Ashgrove. University Librarian Janine Schmidt wrote to Meta: We consider that the diaries would be a wonderful resource for researchers or writers wishing to achieve accuracy and the authentic 'feel' of Brisbane (as well as facts and attitudes about family life, wages, prevailing prices, history, social conditions and major news events) for the period covered.

Diaries continued to arrive in the following years. After Meta's death in November 2014, her oldest son Stephen and daughter Maria, along with their cousin Carmel, travelled to the Fryer Library to hand over Meta's final diary. The last entry was a loving letter from Stephen talking of the fulfilment of her wish that all the diaries would be housed together in the Fryer collection. 184 diaries, spanning eighty years, form the Meta Truscott collection, and are open for research to all.

Meta married Allan Truscott, son of Sidney Austin (Wardie) Truscott and Julia Gertrude Musgrave, on 15 Nov 1947.³⁷¹ (Allan Truscott was born on 18 Jun 1903 in Billy Goat Flat, Emmaville, NSW Australia,³⁷¹ died on 22 Apr 1989 in Brisbane, Queensland Australia and was buried on 26 Apr 1989 in Pinaroo Cemetery, Apsley, Brisbane, Queensland Australia.)