Summary

This photograph depicts a man and three ladies having a bush picnic. The setting is most likely somewhere in the Newcastle Range, a 150km volcanics group that runs north-south roughly 50km east of Georgetown. As Reverend Hall was appointed as Curate (and later Curate-in-Charge) of the Georgetown parish, the Newcastle Range may have served as an excellent option for day trips as it is not an unreasonable distance to travel by carriage from the townships of Georgetown, Forsayth and Mount Surprise. The man appears to be wearing a lightweight suit, suitable for travelling, of dark trousers, a thin jacket over a matching waistcoat and a light-coloured collared shirt. The lady sitting furthest to the left is the most ornately dressed, in a lightweight white long-sleeved dress, belted at the waist and with ruffles on the bodice. The other two women are also well-dressed, in a high-collared lightweight patterned dress, also long-sleeved and belted at the waist, and a slightly darker long-sleeved dress, pleated at the shoulders with a button-down bodice and a bow at the neck. Their headwear can be seen scattered with parasols and picnic gear on the rocks. The picnic is set with proper china, as was the custom, though it is mismatched, and some cakes can be seen among the tea cups.

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.