Summary

This photograph depicts a large group of smiling men, women, and children posing with the adults standing in several rows behind several rows of seated children. Several babies are being held by adults. The group of approximately seventy people of all ages is posed under a stand of trees in a fenced yard. All are well-dressed with the men wearing suits, waistcoats, ties and hats, as are many of the boys, though some wear sailor-style suits. Nearly all of the boys wear or hold straw boaters while one wears a beret and another holds a straw hat. The women and girls all wear fancy decorated hats and lacy dresses or skirts and blouses, while the babies and toddlers wear lacy smocks and pinafores. This group is most likely from St. Margaret's Church in Croydon, having gathered together for a Sunday School picnic. This photograph was taken in North Queensland but the exact location is unknown.

Due to the isolation experienced by most of the residents in the Normanton and Croydon areas, bush picnics, organized by social clubs and church groups, were a popular outing. These picnics were often for men, women, and children, but sometimes a women's church group would organize a ladies' tea out in the bush. While the events themselves were somewhat informal and social, everyone would wear their "Sunday best". While social etiquette required arms, shoulders and legs to be covered, especially for women, the fabrics used would have been lightweight and durable, such as cotton and thin wool, in deference to the climate.

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.