Photos from the forties

[cobber]

Photos from the forties.

On the last day of Reddo’s East Coast Spring Tour 2006 as we were leaving “Swansea Gardens Holiday Park” (top spot, highly recommended) the convoy pulled up at the office.
KB1 & 2 drew my attention to this collection of original old photos stuck to the wall of the office with sticky tape. I got highly excited and asked the owner if there was any chance of him posting them on our forum site.He said he was thinking of
giving them to me (pays to get highly excited...sometimes).
We came to an arrangement whereby I cut ‘em off the wall with a knife..borrow ‘em...do whatever with ‘em... and return ‘em to him...nice bloke..
So here they are:-

“Afternoon tea on the road between Greenvale (I think) & Charters Towers”.


“In the main street at Clermont”


“Gogango Ranges”

So you can see they were travelling along what is now known as the “Gregory Development Road”...pretty rough going in the 40’s.

I thought they could be a group of workers but this looks like a family eh?

Could this be the “back up” truck following the vans?



“Waltzing Matilda”




The only one with a date on it “Mc Evoys Caravan @ Tuncurry Park Jan 1943” (written in a different hand to the captions on the back of the other photos and this van was not shown in any of the other photos.)


Nor was this one. (note the dog pinching some of the horse’s feed)


And here are the ones I just found recently....22 April 2007 .
The camp stove is a bit on the bulky side, hence the need for a truck in the convoy to
carry such equipment.

Bush camping in the forties.
Note the young lady in the hat, washing the dishes?
Also in the background is the toilet block


Cobber.

[Deleted]

Hi Cobber.
Great stuff mate. you have done well with reproducing the photos.
Makes you wander "where are they now" ... No not the photos ... The old vans. A 1940s spring tour... Cooool.
I can see similaritys between the vans in the photos,,, your old van and the 1930s pop top that was posted here last week.

Lantern roofs ..... and whats this.... a " Waltzing Matilda"
I wander if she is a direct descendant of the other "matilda" that chased me all over NSW the other week.

Are you going to post them back to the C/V Park?? Would like to get hold of the pictures and give them to the printers here at work to get them enlarged and enhanced. They would make really great prints for A4 frames..... Reddo..... thinking raffle prizes again.

Great stuff Cobber.
Reddo

[Deleted]

Help me please ....I'm still on that trip and haven't returned home yet ......I'm lost .....and can't find my way home ......
I live in Widgiemooltha ........does anybody know where that was ......I mean is

[Deleted]

Hi Mark
No way we are swallowing your bait... even with the old 'black and white photo " treatment we can see a HD wagon behind the van .

Love the "swagwagon" would love a couple of insiude shots of it.

Also noticed the 2 blokes bent down near the front of one of the trucks in "back up truck " pictures. i wander if they had Sutcac do the wheel bearings for them before they left home ;D

JBJ i reckon you are on the money with around 1946- 48.
The V8 henry would have been chaffing at the bit having to hangback with the jailbar truck. 40 to 45mph max with or without van attached . Only time the occupants of the JB would be able to talk is when the truck stops.


So cobber what are you doing with the prints . Do you trust me with them or not? ?? May be able to get an extra set ran off at the printers for your album.... grovel, crawl, grovel..

After all ya did get em from my local van park


Reddo

[cobber]

Pleased you all like those photos...like the old caravans themselves, there must be plenty of old caravan photos laying around in family albums--- unappreciated.
The bloke at the Swansea park was surprised that anyone could find them so interesting.

Thanks for picking through the detail JBJ, I reckon you are right on all counts. Do you think that is a “meat safe” on the table in the family group photo, ice would have been hard to come by in that neck of the woods back then...and now too I suspect.

The “afternoon tea stop” could actually be a petrol stop. I have zoomed in on the building on the left of the photo and that could be a petrol pump out front of the building.

That was a bad boo-boo on your part Pooh-Bah.. leaving a tiny bit of HD in the picture...you should know what some blokes on this forum are like.

OK Reddo, really laying it on the line aren’t you?
Do I trust you with these never to be repeated, original ....unique ..historical photos that were entrusted into my personal care because I have an honest face?
What other answer could there be but yes......... or no?

They will be a challenge to enlarge...the “Durex tape” (good stuff) that was used to stick them to the wall is still on the photos...and hard to remove...and then leaves a sticky substance behind if you manage to get the tape off. The tape becomes more obvious with enlargement.
Having said that young mate....I’ll send ‘em up to you...registered mail.

And here’s one for JBJ, taken on the 21/10/1948


Cobber.