Summary

This photograph depicts the interior of the All Souls St Bartholomew Quetta Memorial Church, Thursday Island, Queensland, consecrated on 12 November 1893. Reverend Frederic Charles Hall was ordained as a priest in this church by the Right Reverend Gilbert White on 24 June 1906. The church is also known as Quetta Memorial Cathedral, All Souls and St Bartholomew Church. The church is named in memory of the 133 lives lost when a merchant ship, the RMS Quetta, was wrecked in the Torres Strait on 28 February 1890 as a result of an uncharted reef. The sanctuary can be seen beyond the empty chairs. Above the altar, a large stained glass lancet window is flanked by two smaller stained glass memorial lancet windows. A life ring from the RMS Quetta has been hung on the wall to the left of the sanctuary, above the pulpit.

A memorial plaque has been erected on the wall to the right of the sanctuary. It reads:

'And in memory of those who perished
during the hurricane off Cape Melville
5th March 1899

"Sagitta"
Alfred St John Outridge
Harold Arthur Outridge
Robert Brown Murray
Robert Cameron

"Silvery Wave"
Edward Jefferson
Edward Charles Atthow
John Henry Nicholas

[300] coloured men
73 vessels wrecked or foundered

"When thou passest through the waters,
I will be with thee; [Isaiah 43:2]"

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.