A View from the Harbours of ‘White-only’ Australia: Captured for the Commercial Travellers’ Association

Dina Hussein is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. Her thesis examines the indigenous working-class history of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria in the period between 1850 and 1919. 

Marine Drive and Harbour, Albany, Western Australia, 1933-1936
Image 1: Marine Drive and Harbour, Albany, Western Australia, 1933-1936. Commercial Travellers’ Association Collection, 1979.0162.03165

It is the 1930s in the southern coast of Western Australia, and a group of formally dressed men and women – travellers, settlers, white immigrants, or all the above – are looking out towards the ocean from the harbour. The unknown photographer captures them from behind, lined up facing the ocean next to a modern coach that is elegantly parked along the coast. We are looking at them, looking at the serene and scenic coastline unfolding into the horizon. But what do we actually see in this image? And how should we look at photographs capturing Australia’s colonial modernity?

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A Glimpse into Farming in New South Wales

Alhassan Shaibu is a PhD candidate in the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. His thesis focuses on the interpretation and application of Islamic legal texts: and the contributions of the Hanbali jurist Ibn Qudāmah (d.620/1223).

The Commercial Travellers Association (CTA) aimed to support the wellbeing of salesmen travelling across Australia, but alongside their business trips, the organisation kept accounts of rural and regional developments along their trading routes. This article discusses the state of agriculture in New South Wales (NSW) during the 1930s based on the collection of photograph commissioned by the Commercial Travellers Association of Australia that operated for about 134 years (1880-2014) (University of Melbourne Archives).

Mares and foals on a NSW farm, 1929
Figure 1: Mares and foals on a NSW farm, 1929. Commercial Travellers Association, 1979.0162.02383

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Erroneous Ambitions: A geo-temporal analysis of the colonial project

Timothy Williams is enrolled in the Creative Writing PhD program in the School of Culture and Communication at The University of Melbourne. His research is on video games and adaptive storytelling.

Not that the map itself is an explanation, of course: but at least, it offers a model of the narrative universe which rearranges its components in a non-trivial way, and may bring some hidden patterns to the surface. (Moretti 53–54)

My approach to the Commercial Traveller’s Association (CTA) digitised image collection at The University of Melbourne Archives was to search for the narrative of the collection. With inspiration from Franco Moretti I opted not for the instinctual close-reading but for the distant reading and a search for narrative through geography and time.

The CTA collection spans a period of forty-two years (1919-1961), with many photographs intended as tourism brochures for travelling sales-people. I waded into the greyscale depths and selected two years separated by twenty-five years of national progress: 1921 and 1946. A geo-temporal analysis of these two years shows how Australia’s international image underwent a shift from natural majesty towards industrial hub in documenting the nation with pictures.

This link provides access to a custom map I created to document this geo-temporal analysis.

Gordon River on the west coast of Tasmania. Commercial Travellers Association, 1979.0162.03141
One of the many forested waterways featured in 1921. This is the Gordon River on the west coast of Tasmania. Commercial Travellers Association, 1979.0162.03141

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‘Tourist Gaze’ and Society

Kiyomi Misaki is a PhD student in Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne, researching Japanese society and culture through fieldwork and Action Research.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, 1932
Figure 1: Two masterpieces of British Engineering – RMS “Strathnaver” and Sydney Harbour Bridge., 17 August 1932. Commercial Travellers’ Association, 1979.0162.02909

The collection of the Commercial Travellers’ Association (CTA) provides various images correspondent with historical events such as the Great Depression, the World War and the period after the war. Across the whole collection, beautiful scenery and leisure activities drew my attention and as an international student, an idea came into my mind: what do these images tell about society in Australia?

Competition of life savers, carnival Bondi Beach, 1933
Figure 2: Competition of life savers, carnival Bondi Beach, Sydney, NSW, 13 September 1933. Commercial Travellers’ Association, 1979.0162.02444

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An Inhabited Space: Helmut Newton’s Lovers

Richard Sowada is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s School of Culture and Communication. His thesis examines the relationship communities have with the screen industry through architecture, technology and places of reception and they way in which they can influence sector development.

The images described in this post are still in copyright and cannot be published. Researchers may access the originals in the Baillieu Library Reading Room. 

Many elements in the photographic collection of the Commercial Traveller’s Association share an eeriness. In their composition, there’s a sense of a crime scene without a crime. We see scenic locations without tourists. Restaurants without diners. Bars without drinkers. Kiosks without customers. Offices without clerks. Schools without pupils. Cities without people.

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