agriculture

collection.maas.museum/object/321716 - the PHM also have a print of this pic... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163991150/16811180 - a photoshopped/composite version of this pic appeared in the Sydney Mail on 2nd March, 1904...in a pictorial feature article on farming in the Narromine district of Central Western NSW (see pic at bottom of 1st page of link)... The pic that appeared in the Sydney Mail, appears to be a composite, incorporating a second photo taken at a slightly earlier/late stage...as you can see, in the Sydney Mail pic, the chap on horseback has been photoshopped out...in the Sydney Mail pic he appears in the mid distance near the teams on the right...in addition, in the Sydney Mail pic the teams on the right don't quite match...they're in slightly different positions, etc... The Sydney Mail's caption: 'Ploughs at work at C. Rice's Narwonah. During the season Mr. Rice will use 12 of T. Robinson and Co.'s ploughs.' It's unclear when this pic was taken...one of the other pics in the Sydney Mail's feature article was evidently taken at the end of the 1903 harvest...my guess is these ploughing pics might have been taken on a later occasion... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/75311984 - the Dubbo Liberal, 8th July, 1911 - per this item, Charles Rice evidently sold Narwonah in 1911...he'd evidently been there some 25 years... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/144596730 - Wagga Daily Advertiser, 13th March, 1936...this brief obit for Charles Rice gives some bio details...I suspect Charles Rice might be the chap on horseback seen in the PHM pic... trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17341381 - SMH, 10th March, 1936...brief obit here also...

Upper Coomera is located in the Gold Coast region and was first explored in 1827 by Captain Patrick Logan. It was initial a prominent area for its farming of sugar and maize and timber-getting for red ceder. However, by the 1950’s half of the agriculturalists were dairy farmers and there were also a few banana and fruit farmers[i]. One of these Banana farmers was George Chester, also known as the ‘Banana Case Baron’. He claimed to be the largest single banana producer in the CommonwSource: ealth, growing up to 35 tons per week. He also owned a sawmill in Pimpanan, where he would manufacture the banana cases and use the surplus timber to build new homes, largely in the suburb of Mt. Gravatt. He would become the first Brisbane’s sub-divider and home building[ii].Many of his workers were Italian migrants, who lived in rent free homes and arracks that he built for them[iii Source: queenslandhistory.org/2019/02/george-chester-the-banana-c...

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164287965# - this pic appeared in a photographic montage in the Sydney Mail on 7th December, 1910. trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165395904 - a very similar pic...taken on the same occasion...appeared in the Sydney Mail on 15th April, 1908...the location appears to have been Haywood brothers' farm, 'Oaklands', near Pambula, on the NSW South coast.