Historic photos of Wattle Day celebrations in Australia

From family and national archives

Enjoy photos of how Wattle Day has been celebrated around Australia since 1910.

Courtesy of Lyn Hanley, the photo below shows her grandmother, Laura Narborough, among the women wearing sprigs of fresh wattle to celebrate Wattle Day in Brisbane in 1914.

This photo was taken in her grandmother’s workplace when all the staff assembled on the factory floor of the machinist factory.

As Australia had just become involved in the First World War when Britain and Germany went to war on 4 August 1914, one wonders what they were thinking about as they celebrated this national day.

Also in 1914 in Brisbane

Daphne Mayo (dressed as a wattle maid, the centre foreground) participating in Wattle Day celebrations in Brisbane, 1914 / Image courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane

RAISING FUNDS ON WATTLE DAY, 1914

Also in 1914 but much further south, this picture of Maggie Moore’s wattle stall was taken in Tasmania (probably Hobart).
Courtesy of the National Library of Australia