Glass negative, quarter plate, Palmer's Mystery Hike No. 2, Tom Lennon, Sydney, Australia, 10 July 1932

In 1932 five mystery hikes around Sydney were organised by the railways, with the department store F.J. Palmer and Sons as the commercial sponsor. Hikers purchased a two-shilling train ticket and joined a train from Central Station to a mystery destination. The hikes, held on Sundays, were enormously popular. The third Mystery Hike from Cowan Station to the Hawkesbury River on 24 July 1932 used 12 trains to carry almost 8,000 participants.

Mystery Hike No. 2 was from Valley Heights in the lower Blue Mountains to Penrith on 10 July 1932. Four trains conveyed approximately 2,000 hikers. This photo shows a hikers walking along a dirt road. The man on the right wears an armband on his blazer sleeve, possibly indicating that he is a hike marshal. (References: Melissa Harper. The Ways of the bushwalker: on foot in Australia. Sydney, UNSW Press, 2007 pp. 179-192 and Canberra Times, 11 July 1932 p.3]

Photographer: Lennon, Tom; Sydney; 1932

This negative was stored in a box inscribed in pencil 'PALMERS HIKE / NO2 Sunday 10th July 32'.

94/63/1-48/10

1932

81 mm

105 mm