Summary

This photograph depicts a group of four women picnicking on rocks at a waterhole. Three women are seated at a cloth spread out on the rocks upon which are set teacups, plates with food, and some bottles. Nearby is an open cane bag sitting upon some cloth items, while to right foreground are hats, an umbrella, and other items. In centre foreground is a small campfire from which a woman is lifting a boiling billy by means of a long sapling. This woman is wearing a dress with a full skirt, made of light-coloured material, with long sleeves gathered below the elbow. The three seated women all wear light-coloured long-sleeved blouses and dark-coloured skirts. Looking out to the waterhole is a dog.

The rock formations are 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 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.