Bonnets on Empire Day 1907

The facts as I know them

A procession on empire day 1907

 

The story as I imagine it

 

This photo was found among the few possessions of Katherine Duggan who died at the Mullumbimby hospital earlier this week. We believe Katherine is one of the two young ladies leading the procession. Perhaps with her sister Margaret.

 

John Tanner, whose father was in the marching band during that time remembers the Duggans well and his first thought on seeing this photograph was of the hardship it would have been for Katherine’s mother to turn her two daughters out in the white dresses and straw bonnets that all the young girls wore on Sundays and holidays.

 

The family worked on a dairy farm in Yankee Creek, but the father left shortly after this photo was taken. Mrs Duggan continued on in the farm, doing domestic work and taking in extra washing, but Katherine was forced to leave school. Perhaps she kept this photo in memory of possibilities that existed for her on Empire Day but died soon after when she had to take her place as a breadwinner for her younger brothers.

 

By

 

 

This Now and Then photo and story was created in an ABC Open NSW North Coast workshop (abc.net.au/open) in partnership with the Brunswick Valley Historical Society and the Northern Rivers Writers' Centre (NRWC). Courtesy of the NRWC workshop participants were guided through the writing task by author Alan Close who invited the group to imagine themselves into their Then photos. The result is this creative collection of Now and Then "the story as I imagine...."

Done