Summary

This photograph depicts a well-dressed man and four well-dressed women, two of whom are seated in a one-horse buggy, posing outside a high-set house. A dog stands at left. The moustachioed man wears a dark suit and vest with a light-coloured shirt, tie, handkerchief in his breast-pocket, a beret, and is smoking a pipe. Two of the women wear light-coloured long-sleeved blouses with plain skirts and belts while the others wear long-sleeved dresses, one of which is striped and the other dark-coloured. Both women in the carriage wear fancy hats. The house, set on high stumps with ant caps, is neat and well-constructed, having a corrugated-iron roof with guttering, verandah semi-enclosed with lattice, double front doors, and is concreted and semi-enclosed underneath. A chicken wire fence encloses a well-kept garden which features a mango tree and painted stones delineating paths and garden beds.

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. This photograph was taken in North Queensland but the exact location is unknown.

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.