Summary

This photograph depicts a man upon a horse inside a post-and-rail fenced yard, with house in background. The exact North Queensland location is unknown but this photograph may have been taken near Georgetown. The man has a pipe in his mouth and wears a broad-brimmed felt hat, a light-coloured shirt with open collar and sleeves rolled up, dark-coloured trousers, and boots. The single gable house is of timber construction with a corrugated-iron roof and wide, open verandahs. It is set upon stumps with ant-caps, and there is a set of stairs at front. There are curtains on the window, and canvas chairs at far side of verandah.

Early twentieth century houses in North Queensland mining towns frequently consisted of two rooms, often with balustraded verandahs front and back, and outbuildings such as kitchen, bathroom and toilet. Due to the high cost of transport and labour, the houses were commonly constructed by erecting a timber frame with belt-rails and braces, set upon timber stumps, with corrugated-iron gabled roofs, and cladding of corrugated-iron and perhaps timber. These simple constructions were often extended and added to over time.

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.