Thomas George Crooks

(Please be aware that these pages may contain images of the deceased)

Background

Thomas George Crooks came to Australia from England at the age of 18 and for many years travelled in North-western Australia, settling down at times in Wyndham. He was intensely interested in the country south of Wyndham and in the Kimberley area and took all his photographs before 1942. The Macleay Museum has several hundred of his photographs which depict life in outback Australia through the 1930s up until 1942.Included amongst these are images of the pearl diving industry at Broome, stockmen, Kimberley Aborigines and Aboriginal rock paintings, the Flying Doctor Service and early outback aviation.

Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service) commenced internal services in November 1922. In 1934 it became and international airline when it won the contract to provide the air service between Australia and Singapore, connecting with Imperial airways which completed the link to London. A new company Qantas Empire Airways (50% QANTAS and 50% Imperial Airways was formed to perform this service. On Feb. 26 the first wholly Australian service from Singapore to Darwin arrived carrying mail, the plane used in this flight was the RMA Melbourne depicted in this photograph.