members

Nine family members at Wyandotte presenting men's, women's, and children's clothing from the early 20th century.

Vesna Verencevic I found more information on this photograph in the library catalogue. TELL5443 Photo of John Parker and his family taken on the steps of the Wyandotte Telegraph Station, NQ. He was based there for 30 years. In Feb,1908 he committed suicide, his wife and family were in Charters Towers for schooling purposes. John's grave is on the banks of Wyandotte Creek. C Marsterson, 20 August 2020. (LP 24/8/2020) Available online at hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/194004

Thank you. Very interesting. I tried to find more info but was not sure if it is related. Thank you.

Jonathan Raymond Wright and Elizabeth Jane Daley are my great grandparents.

Brief history Tobacco growing commenced during Australia's early years of settlement. Governor Macquarie experimented with plantings at Emu Plains in New South Wales in 1818, and by the 1820s tobacco was cultivated by farmers in the Hunter Valley. During the 1850s growing extended to Victoria and Queensland. It is likely that some proportion of the early crop was intended to supply the colony with the makings of pesticide for use in ridding sheep of parasites.9 Growing reached its peak in the early 1970s, when nearly 16 000 tonnes of leaf were sold annually,10 but by 2006 the crop yielded under 4000 tonnes.11 Prior to deregulation of the market, most Australian leaf was purchased by local manufacturers.12 Major influences contributing to the downturn in local tobacco growing included declining tobacco consumption in the Australian population, and successive reductions in the protective tariff on Australian leaf during the 1990s, which permitted manufacturers to purchase leaf more cheaply on the international market (see below).12 This led to an increase in diversion of Australian leaf into the illegal tobacco trade12 (see also Chapter 13, Section 13.7). Commercial tobacco farming no longer occurs in Australia. The industry began to wind down during the mid-1990s, with successive announcements at state and federal level for government-financed restructuring grants (exit grants) to tobacco farmers to assist them in leaving the industry. Source: www.tobaccoinaustralia.org.au/chapter-10-tobacco-industry...

The Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) was formed in March 1941 after considerable lobbying by women keen to serve and by the Chief of the Air Staff who wanted to release male personnel serving in Australia for service overseas. The WAAAF was the first and largest of the World War II Australian Women's Services. It was disbanded in December 1947. During the early years of World War II the necessity to make use of women in many new avenues of employment became apparent. Despite resistance from some members of the War Cabinet, bureaucrats and the Service, in February 1941 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) received approval to create the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). Wireless telegraphists were urgently needed to assist in meeting a temporary deficiency of male wireless telegraphists. Airwomen were accepted into 73 different musterings (trades), including highly skilled technical employment on aircraft. In addition to telegraphists, women became armament workers, electricians, fitters, flight mechanics, fabricworkers, instrument makers and meteorological assistants, besides using skills in many clerical, medical, transport, catering, equipment, signals and radar fields of employment. Over 700 women held commissioned rank and like airwomen, worked in a great variety of administrative, technical and professional tasks. A number commanded units in operations rooms, at General Douglas MacArthur's Headquarters in Brisbane dealing with intelligence matters, at Operational Units, in RAAF Hospitals, Aircraft Depots, Radar Stations, RAAF Bases – wherever they were needed, they served. Airwomen were paid two-thirds of RAAF male pay for equivalent positions. The officers were paid a good deal less than male officers of equal rank. The value of the work and the skills of the WAAAF during a period when thousands of men needed to be released for operational duty overseas and Australia itself was at risk, encouraged the formation of the Women's Royal Australian Air Force (WRAAF) in 1951. This branch of the RAAF was disbanded in 1977 when its members became an integral part of the RAAF. Source: www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0400b.htm