Sending postcards in the early decades of the twentieth century was a past time with many uses. The sender could let someone know what train they would be arriving on, how their trip to Aunt Myrtle was going, or send good wishes on a special occasion. Sometimes children used postcards to hone their writing skills. The cards themselves were also highly collectable and I have seen several examples where the writer has commented on the previous postcard that they had received. This one is perhaps the funniest. Master J Noonan posted this card in Benalla in 1912 to his friend Master T Norghton (Norton/Naughton?) of Beechworth Junction. Master Noonan’s message was short and sweet. He sounds like a right young wag, honing also his ribbing and joke skills.

The postcard was recently claimed to be of Irvine’s Viwe [sic] Family Hotel in Wangaratta. It is clearly not the View Hotel as there never was one so named in Wangaratta and I can see nowhere any useful words to identify the hotel on the actual image or card rear. Partly obscured by the trees are the words “family hotel”. Hmmm, not very useful. As it was postmarked in Benalla, I looked around and found a match to the Commercial Hotel. The railings on the second storey give the game away.

Commercial Hotel Benalla, Howship Studios, 1919, courtesy University of Melbourne. This is a cropped version of the full image of cars taking off for a rally to Dookie.

For Benalla historians, there is also this image taken at the laying of the foundation stone for the Benalla Post Office with the hotel in the background.

Laying of the foundation stone for the Benalla Post Office, Howship Studios, possibly 1881, courtesy University of Melbourne.

The moral of this story is not to believe what sellers on auctions sites claim!