This week's photo features King's Parade, the Carillon, the Post and Telegraph offices and the Court House in Bathurst.
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The photographic postcard has been hand-tinted, albeit a bit of a hit and miss affair. Ironically it has the details hand-written onto the bottom margin of the postcard.
At least 200 postcards exist of this area of Bathurst which were sold to the public. It was produced prior to the Second World War when sending postcards was a way of life with Bathurst residents.
The Carillon had been completed and opened in the same decade - on November 11, 1933, which was quite an achievement by the citizens of Bathurst with the world-wide depression taking place.
Just after Federation the Australian Post Office decided that they would divide the back of the postcard so that the address could be written on one half (usually the right side) and a short message on the other half.
This proved a real novelty and people began sending short messages such as 'pick me up from mail train Tuesday morning.'
This caused an explosion of a great number of series of photographic postcards firstly in black and white, then the hand tinted images and finally full colour.
From this time in 1902 until 1914 when World War One broke out is considered the "Golden Age" of the picture postcards. Postcards in private collections with cancellations from being posted at the Bathurst Post Office, then located in the East Wing of the Bathurst Court House, verifies this.
Being at a time when most people didn't have a home phone except for some businesses, doctors and the hospital and council, these picture postcards were cheap, quick and a convenient form of communication.
Many older Bathurst residents would have some old postcards tucked away where the family will come across them. One will soon realise the postcard publishers were competing with each other to attract the postcard buying public's attention.
All sorts of topics and themes flooded onto the postcard market with some including - cartoons, Aborigines, shipwrecks, accidents, floods, children, country sides, Royalty, streetscapes, historical spots, greeting cards, trains, towns and villages, aircraft, naval, general transport, painted cards, family occasions, artist drawn cards, stars of the stage and screen, circus freaks, fire engines, Father Christmas, sport, military, attractive ladies, activities and pastimes, paintings, and of course vistas such as King's Parade.
Most postcards appear to have been printed in Germany as it was the cheapest country to have large amounts of printing done.
This practice ended abruptly when war was declared in 1914 and Mr. Beavis, a Bathurst photographer' lost several of his orders when this happened. Ironically, Mr. Beavis's son was killed in Europe in World War One.
One postcard that came about from the war was the silk and embroidered postcard made by the ladies in France and Belgium. These were sold by the tens of thousands to the Allied soldiers, including many Australians who were on leave from the various battlefields.
By the time the diggers got home the warring nations had to pay for the war and all increased their postage rates. In Australia the Postmaster General's Department, which also controlled phones, made a concerted effort to increase the phone networks for private house phones and public phones.
These two factors probably more than anything else saw the decline for the 'message' postcard. World War Two saw a slight revival in postcards with its military, warships and aircraft images.
Postcards didn't totally stop but publishers and printers targeted the holiday market.
Commercial photographers attended the popular country towns such as Bathurst, Katoomba, Orange and the Blue Mountains. Scenic views were quite popular as full colour was introduced to the marketplace, but as more and more people bought their own cameras there were less postcards sold.