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| The theme photo for this week's Sepia Saturday |
A lady standing in a doorway to have her photo taken. That should be easy. I should have plenty of photos to match that theme. Huh, famous last words. I found people standing on steps, on verandahs and in front gardens. But doorways? Only two!
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| Naomi Wyllie nee Milgate |
My Grandfather's aunt, Naomi, was born in Jacobs Creek in South Australia. Her family moved to the Wimmera district of Victoria and it's there that she met William Thomas Wyllie, a farmer at Dunmunkle. They married in 1885 and had four daughters.
They moved to Melbourne and for a number of years lived in a house called 'Lilydare' in Burwood. There's a nameplate in the photo but it isn't quite clear enough for me to read it so I'm not sure if it's that house.
It looks like Naomi has been called out to have her photo taken and she hasn't even removed her apron, just like the lady in our theme photo.
Naomi died in 1945 at the age of 83.
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| Mabel Lydia Larkin nee Quick |
Mabel Lydia Quick was an English girl who met an Australian soldier during World War 1. She travelled out to Victoria after the war and married him in Melbourne. He took her up to the hot and dry mallee country in northern Victoria where he had a farm. She is the mother of my husband's uncle, Jack Larkin.
This photo is of Mabel Lydia standing in the door of their home. There was almost no water so gardens and lawns were almost impossible. Heat, drought, mice plagues, very cold winter nights, dust storms, lack of water, unreliable crop harvests - what a shock for an English lass!
Oh dear - if being on porches and steps don't count, maybe most of my photos don't qualify, but I like your two ladies in their simple unadulterated doorways.
ReplyDeleteLOL. There are no rules in SS. This was a self-imposed rule:)
DeleteI had only one doorway photo, myself. I'm still letting that name, "Dunmunkle" play across my tongue.
ReplyDeleteMabel must really have been in love to have stuck all that!
I have a copy of a History of the Dunmunkle Shire called "Don't Dare Say Dinkkeldoodledum" so there's another word for your tongue to play with
DeleteThat's good, clear writing. Easy to follow, understand and appreciate. It must have been a shock to a lot of the British women when they were introduced to the harsh conditions in parts of Australia.
ReplyDeletePerfect examples of someone coming by with a camera and bringing the unsuspecting and unprepared subject out onto the steps to have their likeness captured.
ReplyDeleteJacobs Creek means an Australian red wine to me - or it did when I was allowed to drink any. Naomi's picture was just what we were looking for. As for Lydia that photo shows the Quick and the dead.
ReplyDeleteThat's the spot, a fantastic wine-growing area now, and maybe even then because there were a lot of German-born vignerons in SA in the early days.
DeleteIs that a fire ring in front of Mabel's house? Are they burning whatever-it-is in the middle? Kat's right: she must love this guy to put up with such a miserable climate -- not to mention those infernal mice!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a tree stump Deb but I don't think it's burning.
DeleteTwo good photos, the first made me think of the international aspect of ladies aprons in that time...worn here in the US in the east too, protection for their dresses. I know my grandma always wore one as did her sisters, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat last paragraph reminds me of my time growing up in the Wimmera - in Dunmunkle shire!
ReplyDeleteI know some Quicks - from Noradjuha - good friends.
Drought, mice, dust, cold - what love!
ReplyDeleteHazel
And yet I bet if she returned to visit England she would have longed for the dryness of her new home.
ReplyDeleteBoth women look like they really cared for their homes --- tho it must have been a more difficult job in the mallee country. Very nice photos --- so on theme, and more, much more.
ReplyDeleteI think I could stand just about anything EXCEPT that mice plague!! YUCK
ReplyDeleteI imagine most women in those days LIVED in their aprons all day, so it probably never occurred to them to take the apron off for a picture. Maybe they forgot they were even wearing it.
Gee whiz just catching up on what I may have missed (I posted a day early for me) and my comment isn't here! Yikes. I did find your photos so delightful, great captures of what life was like.... great matching of our theme.
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