Old Canberran’s Old Photos - Part 9 - The original Canberra High

old canberran always looking foward to your little expo’s. By the way I have a
six-20 model C
six-20 model D (with flash attachments)
No. 2A model C me thinks US market only
AK8 Hanimex hand held wind up movie camera (I know not a Brownie but still interesting).

Great photo of a lovely building.

Frank Hurley took a nice selection of shots of this building in the late-1930s which can be found on the National Library website.

I love those old cameras. And I’m so enjoying your photos Old Canberran.
One of my relatives attended Canberra High at the time it moved to Belconnen.

Unfortunately I don’t have it any more. We have moved house 5 times in the past 20 years and we have lightened our load each time we moved. Our old cameras were donated to the Canberra Photographic Society when we left Canberra as my wife was a member and a good amateur photographer.
There have been a lot of Box Brownies and mine was a 620C which has a close-up portrait slide over the lens. I found a photo on the net of one the same:-

http://www.users.on.net/~vk2ce/box_brownie_C.JPG

They were an amazing bit of gear with a fixed lens which had a huge depth of field. The shutter was also fixed at an optimum speed which I think was 1/60th of a second. The film was on a roll and had 12 exposures in black and white. The prints are 2.25 by 3.25 inches and even after 60 years they have not faded as you can see from the scanned copies here.

To Old Canberran:

Could we please see your Kodak Box Brownie that you used to take these pictures (if it still exists)? I know one can find a picture of it on the internet (such as Wikipedia) but just want to see what yours looks like.

I was a member of Old Canberrans when we wore cotton hockey socks!

Couldn’t pick it till I read the blurb. The space around the building really changes its dynamics for me.

Thanks for sharing.

Ricci, it was partly due to the hockey club name that made me decide on my user name. I used to play for St Pats and I had some good friends in the Old Canberrans club. Coincidentally I used to ride my bike from Braddon to the Boys Grammar 5 days a week. Winter was the worst time as I used to get chillblains on my ears. Kept me fit though.

Ok, that’s pretty cool.

Thanks for the photos Old Canberran (I used to be in the hockey club called that). Canberra High stopped being a selective high school soon after I started there. Maybe there was a connection. That would mean the selective system finished in the late 1950’s.

Going to Canberra High meant riding a pushbike each school day from Red Hill, opposite the Boys Grammar School, in rain, sun, frost or snow. I could have walked to Telopea Park School as I did in Primary School! My younger brothers and sister went to Telopea. We all completed university education and the different schools we went to did not seem to affect our relative performances. If anything my siblings did better than me.