Puzzling photo presents window into past

Do you recognise any of the people in this old photograph?

LOOKING BACK: Somerset resident Adrian Staatz has taken a keen interest in the old photographs he's inherited from his family.

A MEMBER of one of the Somerset region’s earliest families is calling for public support in unravelling the mysteries posed by an old photo.

Adrian Staatz has an avid interest in the early history of the region, having accumulated a sizeable collection of old photos from older family members.

“They settled here around Lake Clarendon, our great-grandfather owned a lot of property,” he said.

He and his younger sister have spent hours poring over the photos, identifying different events and relatives from bygone times, but one particular photo among the hundreds has Adrian stumped.

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The sepia-tone photograph shows a group of well-dressed men of different ages and ethnicities posing with rifles, standing and sitting on unmowed, grassy ground, against a backdrop of tangled trees.

The photo – which Mr Staatz believes dates back to the early 1900s – depicts a group of well-dressed men posing with rifles.

Although members of his family were involved with one of the first gun clubs in the region, Adrian said he hadn’t been able to identify any of the people in the photo as being relatives.

“My grandfather was, I think, the secretary of the Glenore Grove Rifle Association. My grandad, his father, and his two brothers used to shoot all over southeast Queensland – I mean Goondiwindi, Warwick, Enoggera,” Adrian said.

“This was 1910 or so, they did a fair bit of travelling, but this photo I suspect is from before then, just by the look of the dress of them.”

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The photo itself contains no defining landmarks and the card it was attached to had no labels or notes that might reveal where it came from or who it depicts.

There is only one small clue as to the origin of the photo, a faded, torn-off red sticker that appears to read “Lockyer Studio – Gatton”, possibly a place the photo was displayed or printed.

A partially-torn sticker reading "Lockyer Studio – Gatton" suggests the photo was taken, or at least printed, locally.

Adrian said he’d tried to find out more about the photo but hadn’t had much luck.

“The old fellow who used to run the gun shop at Ipswich, I tried to contact him and speak to him about it but he’s now retired,” he said.

“I wanted to see if he could pick what rifles they were and narrow down the age, because one of them even seems to have rope around it where the other ones have leather.”

He hopes someone in the region might recognise someone or something about the photo and help pin down its place in history.

“I know some people are really good at spotting family resemblance just by looking,” he said.

Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact Adrian on 0428 885 759.

More stories by Nathan Greaves

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