Thelma Goes to Hollywood

This is rather a special post, even if I do say so myself... Something both inspiring and full of glamour for the first day of the working week.

The background story is that my mother is friends with an amazing lady named Thelma, who lives just down the street in their town. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, she worked for the art department of Hoyts, a big cinema chain in Australia. Her job was to watch the new films and then visit the different cinemas to paint a relevant and inviting picture to entice the audiences in.

Recently, when my mother went to visit, Thelma pulled out some of her old sketch books, filled with her wonderful drawings. My mother was thrilled and asked if she could take photographs of them, which she then shared with me. Equally thrilled, I asked if I could share them with my readers on my blog, to which Thelma gave her blessing.

See if you can spot some of the glamorous stars from Hollywood's golden era:

I'm sure Thelma didn't always see her job as particularly glamorous, when she was rushing from cinema to cinema to meet deadlines and covered in paint, with aching arms and back. But to me, it's like the next best thing to my mother being friends with a Hollywood starlet from the period. And when you think about what other young women were doing at that time, if they were even working at all and not stuck at home while the men went out to earn a living, it is pretty damn awesome and inspiring.

Love Letter from ... Old Gippstown

As usual, life ploughs on much faster than my blog can keep up. I have scores of photos and tales from Australia that I was intending to share but I keep getting distracted by events and thoughts in the present moment. But I'm going to be strict with myself now and present a few bumper Aussie posts before doing anything else...

And so I bring you Old Gippstown Heritage Park! This requires a post all of its own because I had such a great time there. My mum and I spent several happy hours exploring and being ridiculous, but there was just so much to see that we were kicked out at the end of the day, still not having seen anywhere near everything.

Old Gippstown High Street

Old Gippstown is located in the town of Moe in Gippsland, the beautiful southeastern corner of Australia. It brings together historic buildings from all around Gippsland to create a mid-Victorian township, including the high street with all its shops, a church, a school, theatre, town hall... I don't know how many buildings in total but, as I said, we didn't come even close to seeing everything.

Old Gipptown Church - lots of the churches in Gippsland are timber buildings that could just be picked up and
moved if the early settlements didn't flourish

One of the wonderful things about it is that you can go into every building and there's lots of things to poke and prod and play with. Really, you could spend a couple of days there, if you wanted to properly take it all in... and take multitudes of photos, like we did.

I don't recall there having been a lot in the way of interpretation at the park. And what there was, I haven't really held in my head so I don't have much information about the buildings to repeat here. As such, I think the best approach is to just inundate you with photographs, interspersed with only a few words of explanation...

The ingenious church windows, which could be opened in such a way as to allow some
ventilation whilst preserving the look of the stained glass windows

And the ingenious, reversible pews! In which the back could be pushed forwards to that sitters could face the other way
without the massive effort of actually shifting them around  

Note the dressed-up country look of my outfit (as opposed to my horse-riding country outfit). It was the first outing of the skirt, which my mother gave me, purchased from American Graffiti, a vintage shop on Melbourne's South Bank. The earrings were also a gift from my mother, cardigan from Benetton, jacket from Rokit and scarf from Beyond Retro. Mum thought we should wear heels but we quickly swapped them for more sensible shoes when we stepped out of the car into mud... Mine are EOS, purchased from a factory outlet in Melbourne.

Presumably people weren't exhumed to be re-buried at the heritage park...

Trying my hand at the water pump...

... and the wringer. Mum whipped off her slip so that we could have a proper go at it

All-Australian dunnies

I may have squealed when I saw the classic old ute - unfortunately, I couldn't get in behind the wheel

Look at the colour and details! It could do with a clean though...

Behind the counter at the cobbler's shop. I loved that you could not only go into all the buildings, but even get in
behind the counter and play shop...

Wonderfully rustic, colonial log house, complete with tree bark shutter on the window

It was the end of the day and the dressmaker's shop was all locked up by the time we
found our way to it, sadly... We could peer in the windows though and admire the signage

Enacting the audience of a thriller in the cinema....

... and a weepy

So, we had an awesome time, as you can hopefully see from these pictures. If you ever happen to be really randomly passing through Moe in rural Australia, I highly recommend checking it out.

Jillaroo Style

Embracing the Aussie lifestyle... and look

Jillaroo (noun): a young woman working on a sheep or cattle station to gain experience. 

Origin 1940s: from the given name, Jill, on the pattern of 'jackroo'.

Where do you begin with catching up, when you've been away from blogging for two months, having holidays in Australia, building up an arsenal of literally hundreds of photographs? 

Well, let's go for a stereotypically Aussie adventure, just for fun...

The background story: When I was spending a few weeks in Gippsland, in the south-eastern corner of Australia, I went up into what is known as the high country, the mountainous area towards the the top of the state of Victoria.

A classic High Country scene, in the town of Dargo

Curious High Country cows. Moooo?

In this beautiful part of the world, the 1980s film, The Man from Snowy River, was filmed. Based on a poem by the beloved Australian poet, 'Banjo' Patterson, it's a wonderfully dramatic love story in which a young man proves himself to the local landowner through his ability to capture and tame the infamous wild horses of the area, and in the process wins the heart and hand of the landowner's daughter.

(Image source)

Watching the film after my visit to the High Country, I decided I had to go horse riding. I wanted to be able to ride down the side of a rugged mountain in the fashion of the film's hero in the climactic scene...

The climactic chase scene - apparently the stunt was carried out by a local lad (Image source) 

And so, horse riding I went! It wasn't quite like the above picture but it was pretty amazing! We went on an hour-and-a-half trail, up and down the side of mountains, traversing rocky ground, splashing through creeks, avoiding wombat holes and trotting past grazing cattle.

Here's my faithful steed, Caddie. She was a bit shy...

Caddie and me

I wasn't able to take pictures on the ride, obviously, particularly as I was very busy concentrating on not falling off and adopting the right bouncing pattern when Caddie trotted and egging her on (I was given one of the more docile horses due to my complete lack of experience, but that meant she had the tendency to slow right down when I had to get her to keep up). But here's a view back down over the place where all the horses lived, Coonawarra Farm Resort, taken after our ride.

Coonawarra Farm Resort, in beautiful Gippsland High Country

Back on solid ground, I could focus on striking a few poses... Here I am, doing my best farm/bush girl look, with hat and all.

Jillaroo by the gate

Jillaroo by the creek

The surprisingly rich colours of the Australian landscape... even just in a few little rocks

(Pictures of me, and the view of Coonawarra, all taken by my lovely mother, who accompanied me bravely on the ride)

Bronte Beach Bathers

Hullo again, dear readers, after my long absence! I'm back in an autumnal London now but here are a couple of shots from Australia, taken at Bronte Beach in Sydney. I'm wearing an amazing 1950s bathing suit which a family friend gave me. Isn't it gorgeous? It's part of a collection of clothes she was given by her grandmother. As she doesn't wear it, she thought it better that it be used for the purpose it was intended, rather than sitting in a box... And I was an obvious candidate to be the recipient!

I've been on the lookout for a vintage style bathing suit for a while. There seems to be a fair few being made these days in this kind of style but they are all in modern fabrics and expensive. At the same time, I was apprehensive about buying an actual vintage article as I generally draw the line at pre-loved underwear and swimwear... There's just something that makes me slightly uncertain about it... But, coming from a friend, it felt a bit different and not at all weird. And they are the perfect, genuine, cotton article. The adjustable, buttoned straps initially felt like they were pulling a bit tight over my back, even at the longest length, but I just tied them as a halter neck and voila!

This treasure coming my way after my fruitless search for bathers just goes to show that good things come to those who wait!

Love Letter from... Gippsland

Gippsland countryside at dusk

Hullo again, dear readers! I had the best intentions to post more frequently about the adventures I've been having in Australia, as suggested in my last post. As it turns out though, I've been opting to stay away from the computer more often than not. I've been missing posting and missing reading my fellow blogger's posts but there's just so much to see and do here so I just haven't been getting around to it. I know that you will all forgive me if I continue to be rather absent for the time being...

Gippsland countryside at sunset

I thought I'd share just a few pictures with you though, of where I am in the world. I'm in Gippsland, which is the south-east corner of Australia, east of Melbourne. It is truly beautiful countryside - I just can't get enough of drinking it all in. Photographs do not do it justice! I've also been having fun seeing some of the humble but pretty historic buildings around the place. I do have so much to share, but so little time to share it in! Not to mention the fact that the internet connection where I am is rather slow, so uploading all the pretty pictures to illustrate my posts would take an absolute age...

Messing about at Old Gippstown Heritage Park

So, if you don't hear from me for a while, please forgive me! And rest assured, I will return some day soon.

Love,
Lisa Marie x