Summary

This photograph depicts a group of people 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 on the far right, drinking tea, is wearing a dark suit with matching coat and trousers and a white collared shirt with necktie, as well as a felt hat. The boy sitting next to him appears to be wearing a "school-boy"-style uniform of dark-coloured short coat over a collared shirt and a hat. All four women are wearing high-collared lightweight dresses in light colours, a necessity in tropical climates, and ornate wide-brimmed hats decorated with flowers and ribbon accents. The man in the back appears to be wearing a lightweight suit, suitable for travelling, of light-coloured trousers and jacket over a light-coloured collared shirt and a pith helmet. He seems to be pouring something into one of the ladies' tea cups from a small bottle. Another pith helmet can be seen hanging from a tree. The picnic is set with proper china, as was the custom, and cakes and biscuits can be seen among the tea cups. The wicker baskets seen in the foreground were most likely used to transport their crockery and food.

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.