Summary

This photograph depicts a family group and perhaps a couple of workers posing outside a rough dwelling in the Australian outback. This photograph was taken in North Queensland but the exact location is unknown. A man and a woman are seated with the woman holding a baby while a small boy stands between the man's legs and an older boy stands between the man and woman. Behind the woman stands an older, bearded man holding a dog while to the right of the family group sits a man, perhaps wearing glasses, holding a newspaper. The men and the two boys wear battered felt hats while the woman and baby are bareheaded. The three men all wear short-sleeved shirts, thick work trousers, boots, and neckerchiefs. The two barefooted boys wear light-coloured long-sleeved shirts and to-the-knee shorts. The woman wears a light-coloured blouse with long sleeves gathered at the wrist, and a dark-coloured skirt, while the baby is dressed in a light-coloured smock.

The main dwelling consists of a central room with a flat roof, both constructed of corrugated-iron, with a timber slab door. Extending from this, in background of photograph, is a canvas tent erected using cut saplings. From the other side, behind where the group is posed, is a rough extension made of sapling poles with a roof of leafy branches, and semi-enclosed with sheets of hessian. Inside this extension can be seen a roughly built timber table and chairs, and a baby's crib of timber palings with a thick mattress inside. The crib is suspended from the roof by four ropes tied at its corners. To the right of this dwelling is a smaller, rough bark hut partially draped with a hessian bag. In the yard there is a length of pipe near the dwelling, a large iron pot sitting atop a small fire-pit, a stack of logs, a clothes line strung between trees with a dark-coloured undershirt pegged to it, and a couple of roughly constructed timber frames.

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.