Australia Other Places
This page includes my grandfather's postcards from other parts of Australia.
Herries Street Toowoomba
The unused postcard from the 'Shell' series by an unknown publisher shows Herries Street in Toowoomba - a town about 100 miles inland of Brisbane. I have no idea why my grandfather would have purchased it as it is most unlikely that he visited the area. The postcard shows a long tree-lined avenue of private houses with a single horse-drawn cart in the very centre of the image. Herries Street is 2.7 miles long and crosses the town from West to East. The street is now a mixture of dwellings and commercial properties.
Negretta Falls
The unused postcard below, one in the 'Sunny Australia' series by an unknown publisher and printed in Saxony, shows a popular waterfall located about halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide. It was previously known as the Upper Wannon Falls and the name has been spelt incorrectly as Negretti on the postcard.
Victor Harbor
The unused monochrome postcard below, printed in England for Rigby Ltd of Adelaide, shows a view of Victor Harbor, from Granite Island - a peninsular connected by a short causeway which once hosted a colony of penguins. Victor Harbor is to the south of Adelaide. The location is unusual in having an American rather than British spelling. In 1802, Victor Harbor was visited by Captain Matthew Flinders during his circumnavigation of Australia.
The Pioneer
The unused postcard below, unusual in the collection as it was printed in Australia, is entitled 'The Pioneer' and appears to have been taken from a painting by James Robert Hutchings (1872-1962). If I have identified him correctly, he was born on the Isle of Wight, England and arrived at Hobart in 1883. Initially he worked as a scenery painter at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney and went on to become a prolific artist painting Australian and New Zealand landscapes and rural scenes. His paintings don't appear to be particularly valuable.
The postcard has a little rhyme printed on the back:
The Old Folks at Home
Sweet memories ever keep clinging
Round our hearts as the wide world we roam
Recalling dear faces and bringing
Fond thoughts of the old folk at home.
The Fossickers
The unused postcard below, also printed in Australia, is entitled 'The Fossickers'. In Australia, New Zealand and Cornwall, fossicking is prospecting, especially when carried out as a recreational activity. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. This postcard is also taken from a painting and shows two men panning for gold. I am less certain of the artist in this case but think it may well be Walter Withers (1854-1914) who did several paintings on the subject of panning for gold with some of his paintings being auctioned in 2021 with an estimated price of between £10k and £20k. Withers was English and first went to Australia in 1883 - the same year as Hutchings. After completing art classes in Europe, he was offered a job as an illustrator and moved to Melbourne in 1888.
The postcard has a little rhyme printed on the back:
The Breath of the Bush
In the city, as daylight's a-dying,
And wearily homeward I push,
My heart is for ever a-sighing,
For the wonderful breath of the bush.
Australian Fern Bower
The unused postcard below, one in the 'Sunny Australia' series by an unknown publisher and printed in Saxony. There is no indication as to where in Australia it is supposed to be. A bower is defined as 'a shelter (as in a garden) made with tree boughs or vines twisted together'. I can't see any indication of a bower in the image myself; perhaps you are just supposed to shelter under the ferns?
Click on the link below to go to the page with postcards from New Zealand.