Summary

This photograph depicts three women posing on boulders that are lodged between two large rock formations while, behind them, a man is seated in a tree with a dog upon his lap, while on a bush picnic. 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 women are well-dressed and all wear decorated broad-brimmed hats. The two women seated on the rocks are in light-coloured dresses belted at the waist, with high collars and long sleeves. The younger woman seated on the lower rock holds an umbrella. The woman standing against the rock wall wears a blouse with full, gathered sleeves and a dark-coloured skirt. She is holding a small, leafy twig. The man perched in the tree wears a dark felt hat, dark jacket with light-coloured shirt underneath, trousers and boots while the dog he holds wears a thin lead. Nestled among the rocks nearer the ground are a woven basket and other unidentifiable items.

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.