Australian life in photos, early 1900s to about 1945.

[reynardo]

The Powerhouse Museum has a great collection of photos that are mainly from glass plates (with a few snuck in from later - I don't think they had WWII aeroplanes in the early 1900s). They show tourist-type views such as Coogee Beach (warning - naked ankles showing) and occasional shots like the miner's camp. It's not a bad way to get a feeling for

Comments

[tabaqui]

Ooooh, cool. Thank you!

[randomstasis]

Great resource, thanks!
btw, I looked at the miners camp photo-any idea what that totem looking pole think is, just above the camp and a little to the right?

[reynardo]

I think it's a chimney extension - if a chimney is too short you'll often get the wind blowing the smoke back down it, but making the chimney a little taller helps. Also, it cools the smoke and cinders a little more so that any cinders flying out are less likely to set fire to your roof.

Mind you, the fence to the side of him has me wondering now, though. I wonder if he's a miner, or just a hobo who has set himself up on a track somewhere.

[randomstasis]

Huh, you might be right- looked like it was set up and back away from the cabin, but that rock might not be as long as I thought.

Yeah, that's more than a platform he's got there, looks more like part of a cut and fill road-that one treeroot in the looks like the tree is part of the fill:). the fence up top seems pointless too- but he's got way too much equipment for a hobo- and, I've no idea what he'd have been mining there, but that might be a sluice or chute going off to the right near the bottom, just below the washtub.

[randomstasis]

He's an actor. Considering how much effort goes into setting up a glass plate camera, I doubt they'd have used a real miner, or even a real mine. The entire thing is likely to have been staged.