Photographs of Norfolk Island and Solomon Islands, ca. 1930-ca. 1939 / by Alban Hunt, Mr Parton and unknown photographers

PXE 1769

fonds

ca. 1930-ca. 1939

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Ephemera

9638075

92 photographic prints, 1 envelope and 1 card (1 folder) - gelatin silver

Alban Hunt a second-year architectural student was laid off during the depression. In August 1930 he travelled to Norfolk Island to work with A E (Gussie) Martin at his shop in Taylor's Road. Here Alban appears to have learnt photography from a local photographer Mr Parton. He and Parton produced numerous photographs which were used for promotion of Norfolk Island in New Zealand.
Sometime after July 1932 a chance remark to a visiting Burns Philp inspector saw Hunt take up a position in the company’s Solomon Islands branch at Gizo. This branch was the centre of European activity in the Solomon Islands.

Source:
Library correspondence file.

Daughter, Fran Powell, states photographs were collected by her father while resident on Norfolk Island and an employee of Burns Philp & Co.

A collection of photographs depicting Norfolk Island and the Solomon Islands during the 1930s mostly by Alban Hunt, who for some time was an employee of Burns Philip & Co.

Images show shipping and commercial activities of Burns Philip, Hunt's living quarters at 'Torrie Glen', cargo loading at Kingston Pier, Bounty Day 6 June 1932 and shops and residences around Norfolk Island. Hunt also started the second local newspaper the ‘Norfolk Times’ in which all the advertisements were illustrated by Hunt.

Hunt’s employee was the agent for ‘Plume Motor Oil’ and as such was given advanced notice of the arrival of Francis Chichester in his De Havilland Gypsy Moth “Mme Elijah’ in 1931. As there was no airfield on Norfolk Island Chichester had to modify his plane, adding floats to enable him to land at Kingston pier. The photographs in Hunt’s collection record this event. Photographs also include visits to local plantations, trade schooners at work, indigenous ceremonies, work around the store in Gizo, Solomon Islands, and the recreational activities of the local European population.

There are also 1 envelope addressed to “Alban Hunt, Burns Philp, Gizo” and 1 golf club card from Norfolk Island, July 1932.

Out of copyright: Created before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales