THE BANJO MAN ON THE TRANS
He sits at the entrance of a fly-sheet tent, hat perched jauntily, pipe in mouth and an apparently entranced dog listening to his music.
Going by the large triangle hanging next to him, this bloke may be the cook. There are certainly a lot of large billies in the scene.
The man on his right seems to be washing clothes, so this may be the domestic utilities section for a gang of workers occupying the tents in the background. They are building the Trans-Australian Railway (the ‘Trans’), probably before 1917 when the line opened after five hard years of toil.
The banjo is playing a fine looking instrument. A 5-stringer with what looks like a full keyed resonator head, suggesting a serious level of engagement, possibly professional – if not at the moment! Perhaps, like out of work actors, he is ‘between engagements’? He could be fingerpicking or frailing. But what is he playing and what would it have sounded like out there on the Nullarbor Plain?
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