Mount Buffalo Chalet, 1952
{{< figure src="/uploads/2023/d17a553c40.jpeg" >}}
My Dad asked me to scan some photos taken when he was working as a maintenance carpenter at Mount Buffalo Chalet in 1952. He was employed by the Victorian Railway and in those days they owned and ran the Chalet. I guess that explains the holiday posters I used to see on the Red Rattlers.
He was 21 and had just hooked up with a hot waitress who also worked there. That turned out to be an important event in my life because he married her a few years later and they produced some amazing offspring and, equally importantly, an amazing marriage which is going to clock over sixty years soon.
There’s something magical about peering into this monochromatic time portal at a bunch of kids just starting out in their adult life. They are younger than any of <em>my </em>biological<em> </em>children in these photos. Even more spooky is Mum and Dad popping out of the photos and realising the glint in Dad’s eye is my own genesis.
These are scans from sepia prints, some of which are quite small.
The captions are Dad’s.
| {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/a97ccbfd8e.jpeg" caption="Leslie Brush, Ray Castles, Les Merton, Gordon Day">}} | {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/media.jpeg" caption="Back Row: Myself (Edgar (Ted) Slinger, Shirley Rudland, Les Merton, Yvonne ?, painter ?, Gordon Day. Front Row: Painter ?, Ray Castles, Flora Struthers, Peggy Finnigan.">}} |
| {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/2bcf7c9376.jpeg" caption="Opening the roof over the Chalet Kitchen for new bain-maries and stoves. June 1952">}} | {{< figure src="Scan-300x180.jpeg" caption="Outside the stables. From left: Yvonne (?), Flora Struthers, Shirley Rudland">}} |
| {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/fcfd6dff76.jpeg" caption="Railway tradesmen. Carpenters, plumbers, painters, tilers, and labourers. Photo taken at Echo Point, June 1952. Third from left: Les Merton, plumber. Back row right of door, myself, carpenter. Back row left of window, Allan Coulson, carpenter. Extreme right, engineer. Third from right, Leslie Brush, foreman carpenter.">}} | {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/162813199b.jpeg" caption="From left: Flora Struthers, waitress. Gordon Day, plumber. Front row: Peggy Finnigan, waitress. Shirley Rudland, waitress. Irene (?), waitress. Jessy (?) , waitress.">}} |
| {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/151136958a.jpeg" caption="Staircase to female staff quarters. Top left: Violet Rudland (Shirley’s mother), Bottom left: Annie (?), Bottom right: Shirley Rudland">}} | {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/75803635ec.jpeg" caption="Short man on the left: Frank, commissioner. Flora Struthers, bloke in charge of the boilers, Shirley Rudland, Peggy Finnegan.">}} |
| {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/c7a49cf021.jpeg" caption="V.I.A. Hut. Slept four. Built next to Pigeon Rock. From left: Gordon Day, ?, Ray Castles, Shirley Rudland.">}} | {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/2bc994d882.jpeg" caption="Left: Les Merton. Peggy Finnegan, Flora Struthers, Gordon Day, Yvonne Front seated: Shirley Rudland, Standing second row: Violet Rudland">}} |
| {{< figure src caption="Outside the stables. Yvonne and Shirley">}} | {{< figure src="Scan-11-202x300.jpeg" caption="Violet Rudland, Anne, Peggy Finnegan">}} |
| {{< figure src caption="Irene, Flora, Jessy">}} | {{< figure src="Scan-13-300x193.jpeg" caption="On horseback: Annie. Shirley Rudland, Flora Struthers.">}} |
| {{< figure src caption="Shirley Rudland, Flora Struthers.">}} | {{< figure src="/uploads/2023/d17a553c40.jpeg" caption="Shirley Rudland, who I married 60 years ago, beside the "new" Commer bus.">}} |