The Sunday porch: Ballarat, Victoria

Dear readers,
I’m currently in the process of moving from Stuttgart to Pennsylvania. I hope to be back with you soon.
— Cindy
Margaret Bryans standing on the verandah of a wooden house, Ballarat, Victoria, ca. 1935, via The Biggest Family Album in Australia, Museums Victoria Collections (under CC license).

The Sunday porch: Dubbo

“Portrait of four girls and a man on a verandah,” Dubbo area, New South Wales, ca. 1915, by Edward Challis Kempevia National Library of Australia Commons on flickr.

I wonder if those are scented geraniums in the planter on the left?

The Rev. E.C. Kempe was an amateur photographer and principal of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd at Dubbo from 1912 to 1915. The Good Shepherd was one of several “Bush Brotherhoods,” Anglican religious orders that sent traveling priests to thinly populated rural districts. “They were described as a ‘band of men’ who could ‘preach like Apostles’ and ‘ride like cowboys’,” according to Wikipedia. Kempe left behind an album of 157 photographs from his time in the bush.

The Sunday porch: sewing circle

mothers-verandah-2-1908-deseronto-archives-on-flickr

“House Verandah. Mother, Winifred, Helen & Mrs Kingsmill,” Deseronto, Ontario, July 1908, via Harold McMurrich Rathbun’s Negatives album, Deseronto Archives Commons on flickr.

The Rathbuns were a prominent family in Deseronto.  About the time of this photo, The Rathbun Company owned a local shipyard and saw mill and a number of other businesses. At least two of its men had served as mayor around the turn of the 20th century. However, markets changed, woods stock were depleted, and fires destroyed their docks and other property. “[The] core timber and minerals resource businesses were dead by 1916 . . . . The company surrendered its charter in 1923,” according to Wikipedia.

The Sunday porch: interiors

More well-furnished porches in Queensland, Australia. . .

5 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Verandah at The Hollow, near Mackay, Queensland, about 1875,” photographer unidentified (all photos here), via State Library of Queensland Commons on flickr (all photos here).

I love the office setup on this very deep porch with an adjoining fernery or bush-house. There is also a sewing machine on the table between the two women.

These photos are not very clear, but you can click any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger versions.  There are four additional pictures there too.

7 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Unidentified family on the verandah of a Cairns residence, ca. 1895.”

What a beautiful plant collection.

2 Queensland porch interior, late 19th c., StateLibraryQueensland“Furniture on the verandah of a Queenslander home, ca. 1925,” photographer unidentified.

The white chairs on the left with the extended armrests are “squatter’s chairs,” typical to Queensland porches. There are two more examples here.

Additional links:
Gracemere Homestead 1940 photo,  RockhamptonGracemere Homestead in 2001, GracemereHomestead history

W.C. Hume short biography, Brisbane, squatter’s chair

The KingsfordsCairns