toddlers

It seems that Charles Nutley lived for only a short time after this photograph was taken. From a newspaper article in the Brisbane Courier from 13 December 1913: TERRIBLE ACCIDENT AT HARRISVILLE. A man named Charles Nutley, a resident of Normanby, met with a terrible death this morning. He had brought his dray into Harrisville loaded with chaff. While waiting there his horses were startled by something, and when the man tried to stop them the leader trod on his foot. This caused Nutley to fall or be dragged, to the ground, and a wheel passed over his head, crush- ing it almost to a pulp. The unfortunate man was hastily attended to, but he died within 15 or 20 minutes after the accident. He was 40 years of age and leaves a wife and three children. You can read the article here: nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19918791

Romanies arrived in Australia with the first fleet in 1788 from England. Very few were actually identified as Romanies as they travelled under the nationality of the country they came from. Centuries of persecution had made them very cautious and secretive about their true cultural identity. It’s highly likely that this family in the photo from Queensland, which was taken around the turn of the last century, was from the Machwaya group. This group came to Australia from Serbia via Greece and travelled the country in horse drawn vans looking for seasonal work such as fruit picking, farm work, cane cutting, mining, laboring, blacksmithing, horse handling, leather work, metal work, timber mill work and tree felling. Source including the same photo: www.oocities.org/romani_life_society/indexpics/MagApr08.pdf

nothing fancy for this photographers backdrop. no fancy lighting either A great rememberance of what kids used to get around on in the old days.

Now thats a hipster bike...

Of course, it's the other kid, on the left, that makes the image.

Wouldn't it be nice if the child in the picture could be found! Then he'd finally get the picture his father payed for after all these years!

Ti ringrazio per la partecipazione!!