Tourism and sightseeing in the 1930s

Prompt and cheerful compliance with the wishes of the conductor or chaperon will not only show your kindly consideration but will help make the tour enjoyable for everyone.

Rail travel was a widely-used mode of transport for tourists and sightseers in New South Wales up to the mid-20th Century. The Railways cooperated with the Government Tourist Bureau to produce a variety of tourist literature to meet public demand.

A day trip to the Royal National Park was a popular outing, and the brochure gives details of package tours offered, which included train and bus travel and a trip along Port Hacking by motor launch.
School holiday trips ‘to the snow’ have long been a staple in New South Wales, and this leaflet provided information to school pupils about arrangements and requirements for the trip by train and bus.
In the 1930s, Henry (Harry) J Weston, a cartoonist and commercial artist, seems to have been commissioned to do a series of tourist maps for various regions in New South Wales. The descriptions and photographs of key attractions (on the back of the maps) are fairly standard, but he brought a distinctive individual touch to the maps themselves, with various towns and regions highlighted by means of quirky drawings. The South Coast map, for example, has the NSW-Victorian border marked by a fence with two neighbours arguing across it, and Canberra is illustrated by politicians holding forth while standing on soap boxes.



Source: NRS 16410/1/1 [1A] Albums of travel and advertising brochures (Railways), 1938-57. Royal National Park day trips, pre-1938



Source: NRS 16410/1/1 [1A] Albums of travel and advertising brochures (Railways), 1938-57. Mt Kosciusko winter tours for school pupils; n.d. (1940s/50s?)



Source: NRS 16407/1/2 Railway Tourist Guides, Maps and Souvenir Booklets, 1879-1946. Two maps – Central Coast for the tourist (33), South Coast for the tourist (36), by Henry J Weston, 1938

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