Wharf Laborers Picnic, Bellerive, 10 January 1940

Bellerive ("Beautiful Shore" in French) is a surburb of Hobart on the left bank of the River Derwent. Prior to construction and openning of the Hobart Bridge on 22 December 1943 Bellerive was a busy transport hub connecting two shores. It must have employed a lot of people to support a large flow of passengers and goods crossing the river.

Bill's Buick is on several of these snapshots. Did Bill work on the wharf? He might look like a laborer and could have started his career as one but a new Buick would be well outside the reach of even the best-paid wharf worker at the end of the Great Depression in Australia.

The venue of the picnic could not be identified. The long wooden fence created a nice unobtrusive background for the snapshots, provided a comfortable surface to lean to, and even served as a coat rack. We don't see a lot of refreshments but again life was still tough in 1940. There are several young ladies in these shots who look anything but wharf laborers. Where they office workers? Typists or secretaries?