Summary

This photograph depicts two well-dressed young women or teenage girls, probably sisters, posing for a staged photograph. This photograph was taken in North Queensland but the exact location is unknown. They are standing in a corner with fabric-covered walls and a patterned carpet underfoot. Beside them at right is a potted plant. Both have their hair swept back and tied with a dark ribbon into a ponytail, and both wear a string of pearls, with the girl on left also wearing a three-strand string of seed-pearls. Both wear a brooch at their neckline, and the one on the left wears a bracelet, and the girl on the right wears spectacles. Both wear light-coloured dresses with frilled hems and lacy collars, with the collar on the left probably being stiffly starched. The girl on the left has full, gathered sleeves to the elbow and a waist sash, while the girl on the right has long, cuffed sleeves and a shiny metal belt. Both dresses appear to have been neatly ironed.

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.