Fitzpatrick’s Drouin

Photographer Jim Fitzpatrick was an official war photographer for the Australian Information Service. The activities of this government department were many and varied, and in 1981 two packets of photographs of the rural Victorian town Drouin were sent back to Australia by the New York office of the A.I.S.

Some of these photos had appeared in a magazine called South West Pacific – under the title A Small Town at War.

Here’s a photo with the exterior of the Drouin Hotel in the background. I did a Google drive-by and unfortunately all the lovely iron work has disappeared.

| Jim Fitzpatrick, Ethel McDonald (farmer’s wife) ties her horse in Main Street, Drouin, 1944 |

Mrs McDonald was probably off to Bell and Macaulay’s Store…

| Jim Fitzpatrick, Grocery section, Bell and Macaulay’s Store, Drouin, 1944 |

You can see more of these great Drouin images on the National Library of Australia website.

Julia Ritson