Sepia Saturday says ‘Some times you just need to be alone. You need space , space to think, space to breathe, space to contemplate your place in the great scheme of things’ Well there’s plenty of space in this photo which involves a visit to the river to escape the relentless heat.
This boat is on the slowly moving Murrumbidgee River at Hay in south-western New South Wales. In 2013 Hay recorded a maximum temperature of 47.7 °C (117.9 °F) but the average temperature for January, the hot month, is 33.0 °C (91.4 °F). This family album photo was taken in 1924 and the people, protecting themselves from the sun with hats or scarves or towels aren’t identified but it could possibly be the two Rawnsley children with their parents But whoever they are they are connected with Tom Tansey, the town-hopping bandmaster who brought a book on Shakespeare with him when he came from England in 1888.
Think of concentric circles. At the centre we have this drifting boat. The first circle is the Murumbidgee River, the second circle is the small town of Hay and the third circle covers the agricultural district near Hay and the wide open plains of the Riverina. It’s quite a long way from the bigger cities of Australia.
It is 1924, the year after Tom Tansey left Hay to move to Castlemaine. The First World War has been over for a few years but its effect is still felt in this district.
My interest in the photo comes from the fact that these people are living in a town which has had a town brass band since 1897 , and the unique place the town held in World War I in Australia. They had one of the highest losses in any community in Australia – from the 641 men who enlisted for service one sixth of them were killed, over 100 young men missing from the post-war community.
This is shown in this brief film clip from Australian Screen, made in 1993. I know that the big award-winning brass bands are beautiful to listen to. But I just love the small town brass bands, the mixture of young and old players, the variety of skills, the pleasure that they give to their listeners. The film clip then takes you back to the band farewelling the volunteers in 1914, sending them off in a train which doesn’t look as though it is usually used for passengers, taking them off to fight a war on the other side of the world.
Enjoy Hay’s band in its wide brown space.
We will have music wherever we go.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
– Dorothea MacKellar, c1907
Bound for Australia 
The photograph of the boat looks quite peaceful.
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It looks hot to me, which can make you very lethargic and relaxed.
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My great great grandfather was in a brass band at Long Gully, near Bendigo, not too far from Castlemaine. A good reminder to me to write about him.
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That sounds like a good idea. The bands were such an important part of the community in those days.
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I like the circular way you constructed this post from that peaceful first image through to the poignant clip of the town band.
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The boat looks awfully low in the water. I enjoyed the video.
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Great photo. I forget sometimes how hot the summers can be in Australia. I love the poem as well.
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A very evocative picture of the Murrumbidgee with the high banks – definitely a hot day and it would be nice to be in the river
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A splendid photograph to kick off this post.
I was amused indeed by the diversity of players in the current band,
but that look back to those off for WW1,
knowing that one in six would not return…
How sad…
Nicely put together my dear!!
🙂
HUGZ
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The peaceful photo is such a contrast with what happened in that town.
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A wonderful photo, but the heat is palpable – it actually looks like a haze rising from the river in the foreground. The occupants of the boat are doing their best to keep cool, except for the girl at the end who doesn’t even have a hat. Surprising that they would take a small child with them or such a day, but perhaps there was no other option. The film clip is great too. There is a very good Australian guitarist called Bruce Mathiske who plays a very evocative piece called Toward Horizons on one of his albums, and in the intro he mentions the Hay Plains. It’s almost enough to make me want to drive out there accompanied by his music, but not quite – it’s a long way!
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