Summer holidays are just around the corner…
Here’s a summery scene of swimmers at Clovelly Beach in Sydney to get us in a holiday mood.
Can you date this picture?
We have many other undated photographs in Photo Investigator and on our Flickr account. If you know the dates or any other interesting facts about these images please let us know.
Category: -- Can you date...?
Tag: Clovelly, Moments in Time
Robert Mills says:
Hi All
Lets start the ball rolling …
Clovelly Hotel is up and running, lots of urban development is present (including flats) and the concrete ‘wall ‘ is in place around the edge of the ‘beach’ – added as a depression era public works measure to provide work.
At a guess I would date the image as early post WW2. Perhaps the bathing costumes might give a hint …
Vee says:
Roll on the warmer weather! It’s a bit hard to see the detail of the swimsuits…but it appears one or two of the girls right foreground are wearing two pieces. According to Wikipedia, from 1934 swimsuits were more figure hugging with straps that could be lowered for tanning, and by the early 1940’s two pieces were being seeing more on our beaches. Rubber caps were plain, they didn’t start getting wild until the 50’s. Most women seem to be wearing one pieces so very early 40’s?
Anna Gray says:
Great start!
I’ve relpaced the Flickr image with a larger vesion so we don’t all get eye / neck strain trying to glean the detail of the photo!
There’s a lot of action in this one!
Vee says:
uh oh…now can see no two pieces! And quite a few of the men are wearing the Y topped togs, and high-waisted shorts that would be from an earlier date…like mid to late 1930’s. Where are our car buff’s?
JennysOldCars says:
Thanks Anna for the larger image, much easier to see that car now.
Seems to be a 1936-1938 body style, note the full teardrop mudguards front and back, “bustle” boot/trunk. Probably a tourer (becoming less common by the mid and later ’30s) or has the turret painted in a contrasting lighter colour (thought this was usually more a 1939+ feature)
I looked at the 1943 aerial photos on the Lands Dept SIX viewer but couldn’t discern any features to use 1943 as a date. As well as I viewed other photos of Clovelly (aka Little Coogee) on Picture Australia etc and there was a few that looked to be same era as this one but no firm dates given in the metadata.
Anna Gray says:
Well the end of the year is nearly upon us! So I think we should wrap up “Can you date” for 2011. But we will be back in the New Year.
I think the general consensus is a late 1930s early 1940s date for this one!
Thanks for everyones contributions over the past 12 months.
enno says:
window blackouts ?
hardly any men ?
kaye says:
I think it is around 1955 judging by the costumes and the bathing caps….looks like what my Mum looked like when we went to the beach