1957 Overland Track, Tasmania

[headwerkn]

Wow, great photos. I don't suppose you know what camera the photos were taken with, and the film stock? Looks like some form of medium-format camera with Kodachrome. Gotta love old slide film - nothing has the same 'feel' about it.

Cheers, Ben.

[stepbystep]

This one above is my favourite, apparently a couple of local farmers walking the track from south to north on the 'new' track to have a bit of a look.

I love this. It so reminds me of some of the older farmers I have met on the NW Coast.

I bet the family of those 2 guys would value that shot greatly...

Thanks for scanning them in and sharing awildland

[MickyB]

Really interesting photos awildland. Thanks for sharing them.

Can anyone tell me when the Overland Track first opened?

[whynotwalk]

Really interesting photos awildland. Thanks for sharing them.

Can anyone tell me when the Overland Track first opened?

Officially it was 1931 MickyB, although (of course) it had been walked unofficially before that. I believe Bert Nichols was one of the official guides on that trip. He later went on to advertise his trips as "the five most thrilling days of your life".

The great thing is that's still true for a lot of people walking it today!

cheers

Peter

[MickyB]

Thanks for that info Peter. It's a lot older than I thought although I assumed it would have been walked unofficially before that as you mentioned.

[walkon]

Gotta love a decent sun dial does anyone know if they were put on any other tracks

[Mark F]

Great photos. I must get mine from 1969 out and have a compare.

To the best of my knowledge the OLT was created by linking together various bits of other tracks. It didn't exist before becoming a recreational track in the 30's.

[bearded bushwalker]

I think the sundial is really a sunshine recorder. Particularly a Campbell-Stokes recorder used to measure the amount of sunshine.
Wikipedia has a page about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell%E2%80%93Stokes_recorder

[awildland]

I am so excited to report that my Dad's 1957 photos of the OT have found a good home and some publicity!!! Thank you to whoever passed on my details to Eddie Firth in the Parks and Wildlife Service. He got in touch with me and I have sent all the original slides as well as scanned files of the images and these will be kept in their archives. I also wrote a quick little story about it and after checking with Parks Service I sent it off to Australian Geographic to see if they might be interested and ....hey presto

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... barn-bluff

thanks to everyone here on the forum for showing such interest in the photos. I showed my Dad and my Uncle all the comments here and he was chuffed. I can't wait to show him the AG story online.

[cooee]

Well done.

[DanShell]

I am so excited to report that my Dad's 1957 photos of the OT have found a good home and some publicity!!! Thank you to whoever passed on my details to Eddie Firth in the Parks and Wildlife Service. He got in touch with me and I have sent all the original slides as well as scanned files of the images and these will be kept in their archives. I also wrote a quick little story about it and after checking with Parks Service I sent it off to Australian Geographic to see if they might be interested and ....hey presto

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... barn-bluff

thanks to everyone here on the forum for showing such interest in the photos. I showed my Dad and my Uncle all the comments here and he was chuffed. I can't wait to show him the AG story online.

That is fantastic to have Australian Geographic do that little story, your father must be very pleased well done. I hope as your families generations go down the line they don't lose touch with this.

[Aztec]

Well they just made it to AG Outdoors

http://img.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... 010vo.html

[GraemeSpedding]

Fantastic shots. Thanks for taking the time and effort to scan /post and label. I'd give them to the archives people.. who hopefully would add them to their on line collection for all to access and enjoy.

[skog]

Thanks for taking the time to scan and then upload the images.

There is something special about looking at old photos and seeing how they did it compared to what people experience today.