Australian Boys' Clothes: Activities--Hunting


Figure 1.--This family snapshot shows these Australian boys with their dog their rifles and a bicycle that does not seem to have rubber tires. Boys this age except for the wealthy would not have had rifles in Englnd. The boys do not look very affluent, but the bike suggests that were living in comfortable circustances. The photo was taken in Bowraville, New South Wales during the 1920s.

We think that hunting was common in colonial Australia, although we have few details. Hunting was not very common in England, except for the uppler class. Gun ownership was not widespread. This changed with the colonists in Australia. We believe that hunting in colonial Australia, like colonial America, was an important source of sustiunace for the family. This meant that boys got involved at a fairly young age. The major differences were that the Australian colonists did not face a native population that was a ignificamnt physical threat. And of course the wildlife species were very different. Hunting continued into early-20th century Austrlia. Hunting and racing were the two favorite pursuits of the colonial gentry in Australia, but both were pursued by a much larger portion of the population, in part the gentry did not own much of the land as was the case in England. Hunting in Australia seems quite similar to early-20th century America. I am less sure just what developed in the 20th century. I think the rapid urbanization of Australia affected the popularity of hunting. Despite its Out Back image, Australia is one of the most heavily urbanized country in the world. A reader writes about theimage here, "What a huge bike for the boy holding it. The cross bar is at arm pit level. It would be quite a mounting feat. Has the photo been revearsed? The boys jackets and the smaller boy's shirt button the wrong way. I can't see the larger boy's shirt buttons. I know that double breasted jackets were ambidextrous to cover up spill marks, but not single breasted ones."









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Crerated: 12:08 AM 5/14/2010
Last updated: 4:38 PM 5/14/2010