They made them tough in the olden days

Tweet

I came across this postcard when I was sorting through some photos. It shows Marie Ottile (Tilly) Johannsen (nee Hoffmann) with her daughter, Elsa, on a camel (obviously) and en route to Hermannsburg, an aboriginal mission, in outback South Australia. The photograph was taken by her husband, Gerhardt Andreas Johannsen, in1909. A stonemason and builder, he spent several years in Hermannsburg then took up Deep Well Station. When he because ill in 1927, his son, Kurt, drove his father by truck over 50 miles of roadless country to Alice Springs. Kurt was 11 at the time. They made them tough in those days. Hermannsburg has a fascinating history but that’s a story for another time. I bought the postcard in the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.