Description of Content
A group of eighteen (18) people standing and seated in front of the Derwent Hotel at Batesford. Three of the group are standing beside or astride early motor bikes, identified as being pre-World War I model Triumph motor cycles of single cylinder belt-driven type, with acetylene headlamps. The men are wearing hunting outfits and have motor cycle googles, and have rifles slung over their shoulders. Two also appear to have rabbit carcasses slung around their necks. Two of the motor cycles have registration plates bearing the numbers '16385' and '17879'. Three of the other men are crouching in hunting dogs. Other people depicted include two well dressed men seated at the far right-hand end, one dressed in a white suit seated on a cane chair and the other with smoking pipe in one hand and large metal tankard in the other is seated on the end of a wooden bench. Other people in the group look like local farm or itenerent workers, possibly a travelling salesman (carrying a sample bag) and probable hotel domestic staff and proprietors at the left-hand end. The forward projecting room at the left-hand end of the building has the words 'DERWENT HOTEL' painted on the gable-end and 'BAR" painted on the front window. The building has several brick chimneys. The Derwent Hotel situated on the Geelong-Ballarat Road (now known as the Midland Highway) was originally built during the 1850s to service gold miners and prospectors travelling between the Port of Geelong and the Ballarat diggings. It was rebuilt in 1910 as a simple single-storey weatherboard structure with corrugated-iron roof and front verandah as shown in this view.
More Information
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Collection Names
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Collecting Areas
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Acquisition Information
Copied from John McCarthy, 27 Jun 1988
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Place & Date Depicted
Derwent Hotel, Geelong-Ballarat Road, Batesford, Victoria, Australia, circa 1915
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Manufacturer of Item Depicted
Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd, Coventry, England, Great Britain, circa 1913
All three motor cylcles shown in the photograph appear to be 'Triumph' machines. -
Format
Negative, 35 mm, Black & White
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Brand Names
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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References
Record updated to reflect additoinal information identifying the motor cycle type recorded in a Collections Online comment posted by Leon Mitchell, 19 May 2015.
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Keywords
Chimneys, Dogs, Domestic Animals, Firearms, Hotels, Hunting, Motor Cycles, Rabbits, Rifles, Staff, Verandahs, Hotels