Home Topics History & Culture Moments in time: vintage Australian postcards

Moments in time: vintage Australian postcards

Fashionable Edwardian couple extend ‘Hands Across the Sea’, c. 1910. Image credit: courtesy National Library of Australia

BOTH THE DESIGNS and messages of old postcards can offer an intimate glimpse into another era, which has been captured in a new book called Moments in Time, published this month by the National Library of Australia.

The ’emails of their time’, during the height of the postcard boom one might have been sent in the morning to arrange a meeting for that same afternoon, back when mail was delivered several times per day. Nowadays they’re often reserved for our most exotic getaways, and for the letterboxes of our grandparents. 

Moments in Time features a total of 300 historic Australian postcards, dating mostly from the 1880s to the 1950s. It offers a fascinating insight into key moments in our nation’s social and cultural history over the past century, during times of war and peace, disasters and celebration, holidays and home life, rural and city living.

Step back in time with the below selection of vintage Australian postcards from the book, which is written by historian and biographer Jim Davidson.

‘Two Silly Asses’ at Ocean Grove, Victoria, 1952. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

50 Dromana Pier, Victoria, 1914. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Hop picking, New Norfolk, Tasmania, c. 1910. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

House built around a fallen tree, Sassafras, Victoria, c. 1910. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Saharet (an Australian dancer, born in Victoria), c. 1910. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Balloonists’ Queensland greeting, c. 1910. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Dame Nellie Melba (Australian opera singer), c. 1905. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Glenelg Temperance Tent, South Australia, 1906. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Esplanade, Manly, Queensland, 1920. (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

Paddle-steamer at Murray Bridge, South Australia, c. 1902 (card c. 1907). (Image courtesy National Library of Australia)

READ MORE:

• Australia’s fashion history
• History of cycling in Australia
• Australia’s cuisine culture: a history of our food

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