About this record

This is a black-and-white photograph of primary school girls boarding a school bus in Darwin supervised by a young man who is probably a teacher. The bus appears to be a converted cattle truck and is parked on a street in front of a bush background.

Educational value

This photograph:

• Shows the type of heavy-duty transport vehicles required in the Northern Territory in the 1950s – Darwin has a tropical climate with two seasons, wet and dry, and many of the dirt roads would have been impassable in the wet season using conventional transport.




• Shows multiple-use vehicles in the 1950s at the beginning of a pastoral and minerals boom in the Northern Territory – this vehicle was probably used for other purposes when not required to transport school children.




• Indicates the role of school buses in enabling children to access education; every child's right to education and the importance of education for the development of Australia were highly valued and the school bus network was boosted in the 1950s.




• Demonstrates the creative use of available materials to suit the required purpose – the tray of the truck has a canvas cover with side flaps; this provided shade while enabling air to move through the area in which the children were sitting or standing.




• Provides examples of clothing worn by schoolgirls in the 1950s in Darwin – cotton dresses that had short sleeves, a straight bodice and gathered skirt; footwear is sandals or short socks and shoes.




• Shows hairstyles of schoolgirls in the 1950s – shoulder length hair sometimes worn in pony tails or plaits, or short bobs.




• Provides examples of school bags of the 1950s – small rectangular cases.