Historical information

These postcards are part of the Rose series of photograph / postcards taken around Victoria.
Rose was born in Clunes in 1861 and later worked in his father’s boot-making business in Prahran while studying photography. In 1880 he founded the Rose Stereograph Company and became famous for producing stereographs, or stereoviews, which gave the illusion of being in 3D when seen through a hand-held viewer, a big craze of the era.
Rose produced stereoviews of the Western Front during the First World War. In all, he took about 9000 images in about 38 countries.
As stereographs lost popularity in the 1920s, Rose switched to production of postcards and decorative cards, and he and the photographers who followed took thousands of scenes around Victoria as well as interstate that became iconic images of Australian life.

Significance

These postcards are pictorial records of Orbost in the mid 20th century.Postcards such as these were a way of showing the scenic attractions of Orbost to potential tourists.

Physical description

Three black / white postcards of views over the Orbost flats and railway viaduct. 3183.1 is of a railway viaduct in the foreground and farming flats. 3183.2 is a view over the Orbost flats taken from Grandview Lookout. 3183.3 is a view from the Grandview Lookout showing the back of a woman looking across a rail fence.

Inscriptions & markings

3183.1 - bottom front - Rose Series P 478 SNOWY RIVER FLATS, ORBOST VIC
3183.2 - bottom front - Rose Series P 49 ORBOST, FROM GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS,VIC
3183.3 - bottom front - Rose Series P 14443 A VIEW FROM THE LOOKOUT, ORBOST, VIC