agriculture

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.

Bananas are Australia’s largest horticultural industry and its bestselling supermarket item. Over ninety percent of Australia’s banana crop is produced in North Queensland. Banana plants were introduced to Australia in the early to mid-nineteenth century, with the first recorded cultivation taking place in Western Australia. At this point, Australia did not produce a commercial crop, with bananas intended for sale being imported from Fiji. Banana plants were probably first introduced to North Queensland in the 1870s by Chinese immigrants and Polynesians employed in the sugar industry. During the 1880s, Chinese immigrants began to cultivate fruit crops (including bananas) in the areas around Port Douglas, Cooktown, Cairns, and Innisfail. They became not only a regional success but a national one, with the Chinese community remaining the dominant force in Australia’s banana trade (both cultivation and importation) until the 1930s. The reasons for the Chinese community’s decline in influence after this point were multi-faceted, although discriminatory policies played a significant role. Shortly after federation, the Commonwealth Government passed the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), limiting ‘non-white’ immigration. Serving as the basis for the White Australia Policy, it particularly targeted Asian (especially Chinese) immigrants. Allowing immigration officers to administer a dictation test to prospective migrants in any European language (or, after 1905, any prescribed language), it facilitated indirect exclusion on racial grounds. The Queensland government also introduced legislation restricting the participation of non-European individuals in banana and sugarcane cultivation. In the tradition of the Immigration Restriction Act (1901), Queensland’s Banana Industry Preservation Act (1921) required ‘coloured’ labourers to pass a dictation test. North Queensland’s banana industry was also impacted by the return of older banana growers to China, a shift towards sugarcane cultivation among younger growers, and the difficulties posed by a combination of fruit fly contamination, cyclones, competition from Fijian imports, and transportation difficulties. The First World War had an especially devastating impact, with wartime shipping restrictions coinciding with disease outbreaks. The twentieth century was also defined by constant efforts to control the spread of bunchy top disease, an incurable viral infection, which prevents banana plants from producing fruit. (Thankfully, bunchy top has been prevented from gaining a foothold in North Queensland.) Nevertheless, banana growing only came back into its own in North Queensland following the Second World War. Source: queenslandhistory.org/2019/10/from-the-archives-early-ban...

This exposition was held at Wembley, London, England. Henry Mobsby designed the Queensland Court and travelled as State representative to London to supervise the construction of the layout, design trophies, and formulate a colour scheme. He travelled with his wife and daughter on the ‘Ormuz’ arriving in London on 8 March 1908. While in England, he exhibited Queensland products at Newcastle, Lincolnshire, and Gloucestershire and also at Aberdeen in Scotland and Dublin in Ireland. He and his family returned to Australia on the 'Ophir' in October 1909. Source: picryl.com/media/australian-pavilion-franco-british-expos...

The announcement regarding the staff to be sent from Queensland to work at the exhibition was made in December 1907 and under the leadership of John Campbell, Henry Mobsby was appointed as the display officer and asked to design the state’s Court in the Australian Palace. In area, Queensland secured the second-largest court within the pavilion and it was located in a prime position. The Mobsby family, together with the other exhibition staff and their families, traveled in a second-class cabin according to the ship’s passenger list. The Ormuz sailed from Pinkenba wharf traveling south to the Australian ports of Sydney, Melbourne, and Fremantle before crossing the Atlantic for England. Onboard the ship were 120 cases of Queensland exhibits, 152 of which contained bottled wine. Unfortunately, pilfering went on during the voyage because the wine cases ended up being 57 bottles short and it was also noted that both Henry’s luggage and that of another staff member, had been opened and articles extracted. Altogether Queensland sent over 1,593 boxes of exhibits to display at the fair, including 380 boxes of pamphlets, 30 boxes of pictures and albums, and 27 boxes of postcards, 155 the majority of which would have been produced from Henry’s photographs taken during his travels around the state. These pamphlets and postcards proved to be a very useful tool for attracting visitors to the Queensland Court, and one which the other states lacked. Henry designed the Great Pagoda, the centerpiece for the Queensland Court, and it was made up of sixteen varieties of native timbers and built by the Ipswich Railway Workshops. The different product displays (known as trophies) were Henry’s design and this was the first time Queensland had used the skills of a professional artist in this regard. The trophies were distinctly original and based on the principle that they should be formed out of the various exhibits, rather than elaborately designed structures upon which exhibits were placed. They received much praise from everyone. The first and foremost section of the Court was devoted to agricultural and pastoral exhibits. Source: HENRY WILLIAM MOBSBY (1860 – 1933) “....a most valuable officer” Published – January 2017 By the Author Kaye Mobsby espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_418596/HenryWMobsby_biog...