Summary

This photograph depicts one and three ladies climbing rocks while on a bush picnic. The setting is 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 man appears to be wearing a lightweight suit, suitable for travelling, of dark-coloured trousers and jacket over a light-coloured collared shirt and a pith helmet. The three ladies are wearing high-collared long-sleeved lightweight dresses mostly in light colours, a necessity in tropical climates, and wide-brimmed hats decorated with flowers and ribbon accents.

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.