Summer Holidays, Frankston 1922
For many Australians, a January beach holiday is a quintessential summer tradition. The post Christmas migration to the coast is as Australian a tradition as the Boxing Day test.
In 1922, the Meagher family headed to Frankston for their annual summer holiday. Summer dresses, walks along the pier, reading on the beach, swimming in the shallows, spending time with friends are depicted in this collection of photographs. The caption ‘Frankston Jan 1922’ is handwritten on verso of all photographs. Not all people in the photographs are known. There are no letters in the family archives that reveal any insight into this holiday. Eileen Chapman, a cousin of the Meagher children, came to live with and support the family at Hawthorn after John S Meagher’s wife died in 1911. Jack Meagher, the youngest of John S Meagher’s children, is 17 years of age, Mary, his sister, is 22 and of his brothers, Vin is 20, and Lux is 31. Jack was due to embark his final year at Xavier College, Vin was at university studying pharmacy and Lux had just completed his fifth year of medicine at Newman College. One of the photos depicts the excitement of a beached boat lying before the bathing boxes. Two returned soldiers had been caught in wild weather and were cast adrift for more than 12 hours before being rescued. An excerpt from the Age details the saga.
