27 January 2009

Old Canberran's Old Photos - Part 1 - From Red Hill Lookout in 1948

| johnboy
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[First filed: January 20, 2009 @ 10:06]

Last week we kicked off the series of photographs taken by Old Canberra. He received a Kodak Box Brownie camera for Christmas in 1948, took these photos immediately afterwards, and has just got to scanning them.

This is the first of the old ones and he explains it so:

    I have attached one I took from Red Hill lookout after riding and walking up the dirt road to get there. You can see Arthur Circle in the left foreground and Russell Hill where the offices now are. I think the population would have been around 8,000 in 1948

(You can click on the image for a larger version)

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old canberran8:21 pm 21 Jan 09

I have uploaded a larger version here:

http://www.users.on.net/~vk2ce/Red%20Hill%20lookout.gif

Please remember that these pics are only 3×2 inches or 8×5.5mm and taken with a box brownie 60 years ago so the resolution is not real fancy.
As a matter of interest I think the population of Canberra then was around 8,000. The outer suburbs were Ainslie, on the North and Griffith and Yarralumla on the South with Forrest in there as well. Civic consisted of the Sydney Building and the Eastern half of the Melbourne building. From East Row to St Pats in Donaldson Street there was nothing but long dry grass and a few wattle trees

GardeningGirl7:43 pm 21 Jan 09

Thanks for that link Innapropriate. That was great. So the office buildings on Civic Square (one of which is now home to the Legislative Assembly) were built in stages.

Inappropriate9:02 am 21 Jan 09

I found a person on Flickr who has old pics of Canberra – he’s an architecture buff.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canberrahouse/2839633456/

Yeh ill have to ask the in-laws to scan it in. watch this space i guess

Benjamin is actually my name, the L is the start of my surname. i have no imagination

…and Causeway features in this shot too (right side, mid-height), with the Powerhouse (the big white blot under the right of Mt Pleasant) nearby…

nice to see this…

I’d be happy to help out with scanning photos BenjaminL (Lost fan by any chance?), but I only have an A4 scanner…

Great stuff. Thank you.

Felix the Cat6:06 pm 20 Jan 09

I meant to comment on the original thread with the pics of the Old Hospital now Reseach School of Earth Sciences @ ANU. I used to work at ANU and one day I was cleaning out some old archived paperwork and I found a heap of old photos mainly of various ANU buildings being built. Unfortunately a supervisor type took the photos and said he would make a display with them but that never happened and the photos were never seen again.

One of the highlight photos was of the old race course which was located near Acton near the now Vice Chancellors house (near RSES/Old Hospital), now it’s under Lake Burley.

And while on the subject of ANU RSES it seems that “B Block” of the Old Hospital Building (off to the right, out of sight in the photo) is probably up for demolition later this year so a new “proper” front entrance to RSES can be made.

GardeningGirl4:57 pm 20 Jan 09

Fantastic. Yes, more please!
Benjamin, I hope you can find a way to put yours up too.

> The pictures look like very early Canberra, but alas, i actually have no scanner to share them 🙁

I’m sure someone can help you out….a friend or family member with a scanner? Or just take them to a copy shop, they’ll scan them for a reasonable fee.

I found them, they are actually 12 x 28cmx8cm panoramic copies of photos that have been printed out and laminated (Original source unknown) on 3 large sheets (4 photos each). There are some sticky labels with my late mothers handwriting such as :

Civic Centre,
Capitol Theatre Manuka,
Parliment House,
Hotel Ainslie,
Goverment House,
Hotel Canberra 1923-1927,
Institute of Anatomy,
House in Griffith,
Mount Stromlo,
St John’s Reid

There are even pictures of cars in some of them, they look really old, like Model T Ford old if that makes sense

The pictures look like very early Canberra, but alas, i actually have no scanner to share them 🙁

Awesome stuff. Looking forward to more 🙂

Love these old photos, thanks 🙂

Benjamin: Time to share with the rest of us then – break them out, scan them and post them somewhere – I’d love to see them.

Holden Caulfield11:27 am 20 Jan 09

Thanks oc, keep the photos coming.

I love your photos, Old Canberran! Gosh, it’s confusing without the lake isn’t it?

Hmmm, I have some really old shots of civic when the roads were still dirt, they are quite large (Like A4ish size). Laminated as well. Not sure of the time, but they have been up in my cupboard for years now rolled up.

This photo reminded me of them

Great shot…I love seeing pics of old Canberra. I wish I could see the larger version…I always just get a blank page when clicking on picasa links here, could be my work network/filters I guess.

Cool! More, please 🙂

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