Summary

This photograph depicts four men at a crudely constructed open-air sawmill working a timber-cutting blade and a steam-powered engine. Three of the men are under a rough-hewn timber and corrugated iron shelter while the fourth is seated on the ground in the background. The shelter has been erected in a shallow excavation and houses a table-mounted saw, and belts and pulleys attached to the steam engine. Scattered around the site are saw-horses, a few pieces of milled timber, and a trayless wheelbarrow. The sawmill was operated by a Mr. Simpson.

Timber tended to be in high demand in mining camps, as it was needed in the construction of the camp, construction on the goldfield, as fuel in the camp and at batteries and mills.

The photographs in this collection were taken by the Reverend Frederic Charles Hall (1878-1926) during the period 1902-1909 when he was the Anglican Curate appointed to Georgetown in North Queensland. Hall's foremost hobby was photography. He used both a half-plate camera with tripod made by J. Lancaster & Son, Birmingham and a quarter-plate Austral No. 3 made by the Australian company, Baker & Rouse. Glass negatives from Ilford and Austral were used; developing was done by the photographer himself and printing by exposure to sunlight.