Summary

This photograph depicts two men, one woman, one child and three horses posed in front of what appears to be a well-constructed homestead in North Queensland. The man standing on left holds the lead of one horse on which the young girl sits astride. He is dressed in long trousers, a light-coloured shirt buttoned up to the neck with sleeves rolled up, a felt hat, and a belt with leather pouch and fob chain. The young girl wears a simple long-sleeved dress, ankle boots and long socks, and a light-coloured bonnet strikingly adorned with voluminous frills. The woman upon a horse is in the background and largely obscured, but she can be seen to be wearing a decorated, boater-style hat covered with a full veil drawn in around her neck. The second man wears a pith helmet, light-coloured shirt with the collar open and sleeves rolled up, and has a pipe in his mouth. The horses look well cared for with good saddles and harness and clean, shod hooves. The house, set at ground level, has verandahs and a large hip roof of corrugated iron with capping and guttering.

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.