Morawa Scene: Article 05—The Camel Team
It has been a long time coming but here is my fifth article from the Morawa Scene.
The reason for the delay was not because I was slow producing the article but because I could not work out if the producers of the Morawa Scene had actually published it. I don’t generally put the articles up on my Web site until about two weeks after I know they have been published in the Morawa Scene.
I still don’t know if Article 05 has been published in the Morawa Scene but I have decided to put it up on my site anyway.
For those that want to see the article in the layout that it was published then you can click on the image provided. Otherwise the content below the ruling is exactly the same as that in the layout image.
The previous article “The Ledger” is here.
Here is a relatively well known picture showing a nine camel team going past out the front of P. H. Lodge & Sons. This picture was taken by M. (Maurice) E. Lodge. It is likely to be familiar to some people as it has been used in a number of publications about Morawa’s history. This camel team took stores from the railway at Mingenew up through Yalgoo and Mount Magnet to Cue circa 1922 to 1930.
While I have spent at least a couple of hours trying to ‘improve’ the picture, sadly it has a lot of lateral blur happening in it and although I have tried to compensate for the blur there is only so much I can do to try and eliminate it. Additionally I/we do not have the negative so I have had to work from a photo of a print which introduces another layer of blurring.
Most versions of this picture show more of the camel team but I have purposely cropped this version so that the head-board signages of P. H. Lodge & Sons are more of a feature in the shot.
I did this in order to try and read what is on them.
The main head-board, which is over the actual shop itself, is relatively easy to decipher and I am sure it says “COMMISSION AGENTS” on the left and “GENERAL SHOPKEEPERS” on the right as we look at the sign.
It quite obviously says P. H. Lodge & Sons in the middle.
The second signage board to the south of the main shop (the camels are heading north), which is actually positioned over a laneway that goes down past the side of the shop to the “Big Shed” at the back of the shop, is a little harder to work out.
The part in the middle clearly says Dalgety & Co Ltd with Wool Brokers, Stock Salesmen, and General Merchants written below it.
I am unable to crack whatever is written to the left of that as we look at the sign but I think it might say “something Society Ltd”.
To the right it says Wheat Buyers but then I cannot work out what is written below that.
Following is the picture from this issue shown in the correct orientation.
This picture is 2963 x 1394 pixels so when viewed full screen on a QHD resolution computer monitor it is the full width of the screen.
The next and sixth article in this series is here.
