Summary

This photograph is believed to depict a Mr. and Mrs. Murray and family taking shelter under a tent fly in the North Queensland outback. This exact location of this photograph is unknown but it may have been taken near Burketown. A large canvas is spread on the ground under the tent and a hessian bag is at the entry. Asleep on the canvas are a small boy with his shoes off, an older woman wearing a dark-coloured dress, and a man wearing a light-coloured shirt, trousers and braces, and slippers. His battered hat is beside him and his boots are beside the hessian bag. A small girl in a sleeveless, light-coloured dress is concentrating on something she is holding in her hands while a young girl in a long-sleeved, light-coloured dress sits at the edge of the canvas and tent behind the sleeping trio. Seated on the ground at the back of the tent and smiling directly at the camera is a woman with a long-sleeved, light-coloured dress. At far left of photograph is a box, partially obscured, with "Mr J D Murr[ay]..." visible.

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.