Not a reproduction, this is a genuine 1960's scenic postcard pack of the Grafton NSW area
Amazing old colourised photographs of notable points of interest in the Grafton area.
This is NOT a reproduction of an original postcard pack but the real deal, around 60 years old!
A Colorful Souvenir Of Grafton NSW
Publisher and printer are unknown - these details are not indicated anywhere
No credits for the photography
Release date unknown but likely to have been in the very early 1960's
Scenic postcard pack (10 scenes)
Drop down postcards, 10x colour, printed in drop down format with 5 on each side.
Each photograph is labelled at the bottom and scenes depicted are:
Jacaranda Avenue Grafton
Clarence River Grafton
The Bowling Green Memorial Park Grafton
Clarence River From Crown Hotel Grafton
Jacaranda Festival Market Square Grafton
Bridge Connecting Grafton With South Grafton
The Market Square Grafton
Prince Street Grafton - View #1
Central Prince Street Grafton - View #2
Prince Street Grafton - View #3
Notes:
The cover for the postcard set seems to be a "stock item" possibly intended for the American market - the spelling for Colorful in the title is not the English spelling and the title words GRAFTON. N,S,W look like an overprint in blue and what gives with those commas in NSW?
I am not even convinced that the front photograph (unlabelled) is of the Grafton area, nice flowers but no sign of a signature Jacaranda flower!
There is no printed information on the cover about who designed the postcard set, who published it and where it was printed.
I get the impression that the first 5 photographs listed above are from an earlier period, perhaps 1940's (WWII) These photographs show people in the shots with two interesting notes:
Jacaranda Festival Market Square Grafton shows a large number of people attending BUT almost all are women with just a few teenage looking boys and a couple of the boys appear to be wearing a white uniform with hats. During World War II, Grafton was the location of RAAF No.6 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot, so perhaps the "missing men" in this photograph were involved in the war or post war efforts and couldn't attend the festival.
Clarence River Grafton shows two Flying Boats at anchor in the Clarence River. These were part of the Sunderland Flying Boat service which began operations in 1948 and used the Clarence River as a set down point.
The photograph showing a bridge connecting Grafton with South Grafton is the original bridge opened in 1932
The other side of the drop down photographs focus on Prince Street, Grafton and the scenes are totally devoid of people, just one car is showing in a couple of other photographs. Colouring is also slightly better in these photographs, but that said, by today's standards these photographs are very "greenish/blueish/brown" colouration.
CONDITION:
Clean throughout EXCEPT the rear of the cover which has a couple of light handling marks
All seams/folds are sound with no splitting
Writing on the rear of the postcard pack cover "200,000,000" and nothing more
All photographs are clean although the colouring is a bit odd looking, predominantly blue/green/brown and shades of. Not sure if this was due to the photography of the day or limitations in printing technology.
Today I have sealed this postcard pack in plastic to preserve the current condition and now it has been put away in a dark place to reduce any light fade.
