Everyday Faces Of Spalding Take Centre Stage As The Mid North Town Celebrates 150 Years
The Spalding 150th anniversary will be celebrated this October, and while there’ll be plenty of looking back at the people who built the Mid North town, one local photographer is making sure the people who call it home today aren’t forgotten either.
Photographer Don Brice has spent months getting people off the tractor, out from behind the counter, away from their everyday routines and in front of his camera for the Spalding Community Portrait.
The exhibition features more than 40 black and white portraits of locals, from farmers and “townies” to young people and older residents, and will go on display in the window of the Spalding General Store as part of the town’s 150th anniversary celebrations on October 10 and 11.
The faces Don wanted to capture weren’t necessarily the ones everyone knows, but the people who quietly play their part in keeping the community ticking.
“I didn’t want to create a ‘who’s who’ of the area. There are so many people that volunteer, or contribute to the community in quiet ways,” he said.
“They are not all prominent in public life, but together, they are the glue that holds a place together.
“A region’s most important assets are not the infrastructure or the buildings, it’s the people that matter.”
Getting To Know Spalding
Don and his wife Lisa bought a house near Spalding more than 20 years ago, arriving without knowing many people in town.
To get to know the locals, they started turning up for Saturday morning coffee under the verandah of the General Store.
“It’s the heart of the town,” Don said.
“People come past to collect the mail, buy the papers or grab food on their way to sport. It’s the perfect way for people to meet one another.”
So when Don needed somewhere to display his Community Portrait, there was a fairly obvious choice.
Spalding General Store proprietor Rick Bowen offered up the store’s front window, meaning the portraits will be on display day and night, right in the middle of a place where locals have been crossing paths for years.
The store will also be one of the focal points during Spalding’s anniversary weekend.
Getting Country People In Front Of The Camera
Finding the faces was one thing. Convincing them to have their portrait taken was another!
Anyone who has ever tried to get a country person to pose for a photo will know there’s usually a fair bit of push back.
While most of us barely blink when someone pulls out a phone for a quick snap these days, sitting deliberately in front of a camera and tripod can be quite confronting.
Some of the people Don approached didn’t know him at all, and at times took several phone calls and messages before they felt comfortable enough to take part.
“I’m so grateful that they trusted me,” he said.
“I hope they like the results.”
And while there are more than 40 faces in the exhibition, Don already knows the collection isn’t finished.
“There are so many more people I’d like to include,” he said.
“Perhaps this could be an ongoing project, with more photos added over coming months.
“I might just sneak back and swap in some different faces so that the show keeps on changing.”
Spalding 150th Captures A Moment In Time
There’s another reason Don chose to photograph his subjects simply, in square black and white images.
Take away the odd piece of modern machinery and many of the portraits look like they might have been taken at almost any point over the past 50 years. And that sense of history is deliberate.
Spalding History Group spokesman Eric Sommerville said old photographs give us a window into the lives of the pioneers who worked the land and built the town, but it’s easy to forget today’s residents will one day become part of that same history.
“We are fortunate to have photographs of the pioneers that worked the land and built the town, but we forget that all of us here today will also fade into history,” he said.
Nobody knows what Spalding will look like in another 50 or 100 years.
But when future generations go looking for the faces of the people who lived there in 2026, they’ll have more than 40 of them staring back.
A set of prints from the exhibition will be donated to the Spalding History Group archives, preserving a little piece of everyday life in the town during its 150th year.
The Spalding Community Portrait was supported by the Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, with the exhibition venue provided by the Spalding General Store.
