This scrapbook contains photographs, postcards, maps, a luggage label, serviettes and itineraries relating to an Ansett Travel Services' Pioneer Highway Holidays' 9-day coach tour of the Kiewa Valley and the Victorian snowfields of Mt Buffalo from the 25th July to 22nd August, 1953.

The scrapbook reveals much about the social history of coach travel and tourism in Australia in the 1950s. It emphasises the novelty of skiing in Australia and visiting the snowfields, where "skiing, tobogganing and snowballing are only some of the exhilarating snow activities which can be indulged in at Mt Buffalo".

The maps and itineraries illustrate the graphic design of the early 1950s, while the photographs and hand-written captions reflect the formal gentility of the time in clothing and manners. An example of this is seen in the photographs of the tour group trying out skiing at Mt Buffalo on the Pig Run and Excelsior wearing street-wear overcoats, hats and slacks tucked into woollen socks. The tourists are seen making snow men and handing around biscuits. This is a far cry from the high-tech jackets, skis, goggles and helmets worn on the crowded Australian ski fields in an era of mass tourism over half a century later (in 2010).

This scrapbook is one of a collection of four which provide an insightful look into intra-State and interstate tourist travel in Australia in the 1950s. They illustrate a change in society over the last 50 years in terms of how people travelled, what they saw and where they stayed. The scrapbooks are significant because they illustrate changes in tourism, as well as the economic, social and transport history related to travel in the 1950s through the compilation of transport and travel ephemera.

Margaret Simpson
Curator, Transport
August 2010

The travel scrapbook is thought to have been compiled by a Miss Dorothy Palmer of Sydney, New South Wales, probably in 1953.

The scrapbook records a nine day Pioneer coach tour from the 25th July to 22nd August, 1953, from Sydney to the Kiewa Valley and the snowfields of Mount Buffalo in Victoria. The route travelled was via Goulburn, Gundagai and Albury in New South Wales, staying at Bright in Victoria for 4 days then back to Sydney via Victoria's hydro-electric scheme in the Kiewa Valley, then Canberra, Gundagai and Moss Vale.

For the downward journey through New South Wales the photographs, postcards and booklets illustrate: The Fireside Inn at Goulburn; The Royal Hotel, Rusconi's marble masterpiece and coloured postcards of Gundagai; and Ryan's Hotel and views overlooking Albury. In Victoria they illustrate: the Star Hotel, the Ovens River, and the Methodist Church, at Bright; the dredge at Harrietville; McKay's Lookout, Echo Point, and The Chalet, at Mount Buffalo. (At this time the Mt Buffalo Chalet, built in 1910, was still operated by the Victorian Railways.) Memorabilia of the visit to the Chalet includes an unused paper serviette and a Victorian Railways' lunch ticket. Small commercial photographs depict the Kiewa Valley hydro-electric tour including Mt Beauty, No. 3 Power Station, Bogong village and the Victorian high plains. On the return journey through New South Wales there are photographs of the Hume Weir and Albury as well as images of Canberra from Redhill and the Hotel Wellington (Canberra).

The scrapbook also includes a map of the eastern seaboard of Australia, provided by Pioneer Tours, with a space for all the "travelling companions' autographs". These have been filled out and comprise: Amy Dillon of Woy Woy, New South Wales; Margaret Perry of Summer Hill, New South Wales; Pauline Spence of Charleville, Queensland; Jeanette Slender of Dolls Point, New South Wales; Olga Bentley of Woollahra, New South Wales; Leslie William Bentley of Woollahra, New South Wales; Nell Richardson of Northwood; Marjorie Kavanagh of Sydney; Lois Carney of Brisbane; Elsie M. Ladner of Brisbane; Margaret Smith of Newcastle, New South Wales; Bonnie Lyons of Eastwood, New South Wales and T.V. Galligan of Newcastle, New South Wales. The coach driver, Jack McLellan Rees of Pioneer Tours, also signed the map.

An envelope is glued into the book which contains pieces of paper with the full names and addresses of some of the travel scrapbook compiler's fellow travellers.

The scrapbook was purchased by the donor from Abbey Furniture of Leichhardt, a Sydney suburb, in about 2003. No information is known about the probable original compiler, Dorothy Palmer.

Travel scrapbook, paper / cardboard, Pioneer Highway Holidays' nine day coach tour from Sydney to Kiewa Valley and Mount Buffalo, Victoria, Australia, 25 July to 22 August, 1953, compiled by Miss Dorothy Palmer, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, probably 1953

The scrapbook has been compiled in a plain-page, two staple, exercise book. It records a nine day tour from Sydney to Kiewa Valley and the Victorian snowfields of Mount Buffalo in 1953. A handwritten inscription on the inside cover records: "Being a Pictorial Record of a Pioneer Tour to Mount Buffalo in the month of August in the year 1953 A.D." The printed Pioneer coach itinerary notes indicate they were for the passengers, Miss D. Palmer and Mrs M. Palmer (Miss Palmer's mother). The coach captain was J. Rees. The scrapbook contains black and white photographic prints, maps, postcards, luggage labels and itineraries inserted with gold photo-corners. Handwritten captions describe the photographs including the people in them and places. The book is covered in decorative paper which features an abstract stylised pattern with geometric red shapes.

Made: 1953

See part records for marks.

2010/68/1

1953

27 mm

177 mm

228 mm