Historical information

The trough pictured was erected outside of Tim Kennedy's La Belle guest house in Emerald, from at least the 1930s. It allowed travellers at the guest house to water their horses, with water pumped from underground with a hand pump. It was likely installed by Charles A'Vard. The photograph itself was produced in the 21st century.

Significance

Water troughs like the one pictured were once available everywhere; the memory of this one is a memory of the time when much transport still occurred under horsepower.

Physical description

This item is a colour photograph of a concrete water trough, standing on dry flat ground with a fence and then a paved road in the background. The trough stands on six concrete legs, with a metal pipe emerging from the ground to follow the leftmost background leg to a semicircular upper concrete section at the leftmost end of the trough. Some elements of the trough have chipped away but it is mostly intact. The reverse of the printed photograph features regular FujiFilm logos and extensive annotation, handwritten in blue pen.

Inscriptions & markings

Handwritten, reverse: "Original trough from outside "La Belle" guest / house owned by Tim Kennedy. He was a carrier / he had horses and lorry. / This trough was used by travellers to water their horses. There was also one at / Hermon's Corner Menzies Creek. (Main Rd & / Grantulla Rd.) / Charlie A'Vard worked on installing these for / Ard [?] Franklin who had a plumbers business in / Belgrave. / The trough legs were buried well into the ground. / Water was pumped from underground by a hand / pump. / © 1930."