Stringybark Open Short Story Award 2024

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A Trip to Tumut, Gundagai and Adelong

By David Lindley

Author: David Lindley

Published: August 2023

Cover designer: Jonathan Vernon

Layout: Stringybark Publishing

Australian printer: Prinstant, Canberra

In a unique insight into the early 20th century history of Tumut, Gundagai, Adelong, Yarrangobilly village, Yarrangobilly Caves and Kiandra districts, author Dr David Lindley presents more than 150 rarely seen picture postcards.

Photographed by some of Australia’s best scenic photographers, postcards were immensely popular, their postage was only one penny and there were up to three mail deliveries a day in some towns and cities. Postcards were the nearest thing to immediate communication.

Text accompanying these postcards was penned by locals, commercial travellers and visitors and included items of historical interest, exchanges reflecting conditions on the land and attitudes of the day. Some were penned by the district’s early pioneers, reflecting on the isolation of their communities. This book documents a talented group of hitherto forgotten local stationers, newsagents, other traders and commercial photographers who published their own postcards.

These postcards give a delightful and intriguing snapshot of life in rural communities before the advent of modern electronic communications.

David Lindley takes readers on a fascinating and thoroughly well-researched journey of what life was like in the Tumut, Gundagai and Adelong districts from the Golden Age to the Early Modern Era through the time-honoured act of communicating through the humble postcard.

With real-life snippets of greetings and news shared and exchanged, the book not only offers an insight into a bygone era, but beautifully depicts the sights and scenes captured from these three townships while meticulously detailing the stories of the photographers and publishers who brought these stunning, and now historical, postcards to life.

     – Helen Castles, journalist and author

By David Lindley, paperback, Stringybark Publishing,

ISBN: 978-0-645-47652-1

Pages: 263

Photos: >350 colour photos

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