I am using this site to try and preserve a few old photos

The majority of these early photos were taken by my father,  Phil Holdsworth. The later ones were taken by me. Diane Holdsworth, when i got my first camera in 1956.

Someone someday might be interested in the few photos of an old country town .

Just a few random photos

Paul , Julie , Brian and myself…..by the side of the road after

we had been taken to see the flood waters. Not sure of what year that is.

.

The flood waters…. in which we swam beside the side of the road. along with leeches and

the occasional dead animal. Cars were packed with picnic food  for an evening meal

and we went as far as we could on the road and stopped for the kids to swim.

Obviously no one thought it was unhealthy……which is pretty amazing when u think of it.
us kids went to our parents to have them kill the leeches on our legs with their lit cigarettes

This is a photo I took sometime after 1956 from the top of the water tower.

We were allowed to climb there and look around so long as we were careful.

Wallanthry Weir which had a tiny bit of sandy beach

and was a favourite picnic spot on New Years day

 

The White Bridge……..now gone

someones truck making it along the Lake Cargellico Road

1956 I guess

Me hanging around on the the bridge. We did stuff like that

Old photos of the town

The movie theatre and the fire station, which later became “the old machinery shed”
where my father worked for a while after the power station was taken over my a new owner .
The right side is the wall  of Nall Jacksons….along with

the local fire brigade

What was a butcher shop but later became the paper shop.

 The office that was later “The Spectator” . Beside it is

the shop that later became the dry cleaning shop.

With fire engines and watchers

The Hillston Power Station

The first three of these  photos were taken by me with my Box Brownie that I  got for my 13th birthday. The last one was taken by my father Phil Holdsworth.

We grew up in the house next door to the power station with the sound of the engines  implanted in our ears day and night. This is a photo of the station from the front which shows the engine room at the back with someone standing at teh door

This was the the power station truck that was used to by the men to mend lines and put

in new light bulbs in the street lights

The back of the station looking from the railway line showing

one of the Gordon brothers standing there .

 The water cooling tower is clearly seen

Us kids climbed all over the truck and the cooling tower.

We lead charmed lives i guess

 

A view of the station looking towards what later became the

RSL club . it shows the main shed where offices were,

where my father’s car was kept

and where small electrical appliance were repaired.

A man called Freddie Apthorpe lived in a loft under the roof

for as long as i recall and helped out generally.

this is Varley Gordon.

Days at "Ace of Hearts"

a day out at Mt Hope for a picnic by the looks of it.

These photos seem to date from the late 1920s early 1930s

I cant identify the people in them, but have a few ideas.

 

i dont know who owns this house or quite remember where it is..

but i think as a child i was there

I dont know what this building is but it looks like a one teacher school somewhere

My father studied at Dookie Agricultural College and then went to Longerong where he taught and did some work with the late H.V Mackay who invented the harvester.

Whether some of that work is part of what is shown in these photos  I dont know for sure………I seem to recall being told they were

A young man, Charles MacFarlane, a student, was instrumental in having my father and his great friend Bill Gamble move to Hillston to share farm at “Ace of Hearts” which was owed by Charles’s father Thomas.  Sadly they did not succeed in beating  both drought and the great depression.

It looks like people knew how to work hard (dressed in a suit)and to enjoy a picnic and relax with some very ancient cars. .

These photos are various ones from the property and include a sort of caravan that i suppose

they must have lived in. All i recall is that my father said the times were hard with drought and also

the great depression

 

 

Longernong College

The College as the staging post for my fathers journey to Hillston, from Melbourne.
I wonder where all the young men went and where their descendants are.?
One friend i have believes, like me that, our fathers probably knew each other at this place.Another young man of the time was instrumental in having my father and his great friend Bill Gamble move to Hillston to share farm at “Ace of Hearts”…where they did not succeed to beat both drought and the great depression.

It looks like people knew how to work hard (dressed in a suit)and to enjoy a picnic and relax with some very ancient cars. As i recall it my father worked either at Longerong where he taught or at Dookie where he was a student, with the late HV Mackay who invented the harvester.
Whether some of that work is part of what is shown here I dont know for sure………i seem to recall being told they were……but i no longer trust my memory now