Gall, Ernest, c. 1896, Photograph, PRG 631/2/411
Grenfell Street, north side, looking east. Matthew Goode's is on the west corner of James Place. Near side of Milne's is 13-1/2 yards east of James Place. Milne's frontage - 18-1/2 yards. The dome on the Adelaide Arcade can be seen in the far distance. Young girls wearing white smocks are boarding twelve horse drawn trams. Many adults are watching the proceedings. The weather is hot as many people are holding parasols. According to a researcher, this image was likely created 24 January 1896 and shows the first picnic expedition by horsetram of "The Sunbeams", a children's organisation started by David Hughes Bottrill (1866-1941) (see Australian Dictionary Of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bottrill-david-hughes-5301 ). The children are grouped into small "Sunbeam circles", of about six, each carrying their own banner and named after historical or eminent figures. The horse trams took the children to a picnic at the home of Sir Edwin Smith, "The Acacias", on Kensington Road. The event is described in "The Advertiser" on 28 January 1896. By 1903, there were 285 "circles", and at its height, 12,000 members, but folded when Bottrill was bankrupted around 1911.