Snapshot of the past: young lady and her horse

A well-known photograph of a young woman standing next to a horse in Drouin's main street in 1944.
She stands against a backdrop of Drouin's businesses.
But, do you know who this woman is?
In 2015, "The Stories of Drouin" project was able to interview Lyrebird Village resident Ethel McDonald who is the young woman captured.
The caption reads, "Ethel McDonald (farmer's wife) ties her horse to the rail in Main Street, Drouin".
It was amongst a collection of photographs taken by Jim Fitzpatrick who was an official war photographer with the AIS.
Mr Fitzpatrick was sent to the dairying town of Drouin in 1944 to document the impact of World War II on the population. The resulting "A Small Town at War - the Drouin Collection" includes 88 photographs. These are held by the National Library of Australia and the Drouin History Group, who have licence to use the photographs of the collection.
A city girl, Ethel didn't know anything about cows or animals when she married Mervyn McDonald. But, she quickly learnt.
The promise "you'll never have to milk cows" by her husband, only lasted two weeks.
Ethel and her family lived three miles from Drouin. Initially, the only way to Drouin was to walk. However, many businesses would run a delivery service to save a lot of carrying on the journey home.
Later on, the couple were able to acquire a horse and cart, featured in the photograph.
Ethel had never driven a horse and did not know about the bit going into the horse's mouth. Fortunately, the horse knew which way to go. Like her many other achievements, this was another skill learnt in time.
No electricity, using lamps, growing fruit and vegetables and bottling them with Fowlers Vacola, cooking in a woodfired stove, using two troughs in the shed for washing clothes, and boiling clothes in the copper in the backyard were all part of this young wife's challenges.
Ethel ended up having 100 chooks and sold eggs to family and friends in Melbourne. She packaged the eggs and sent them on the train.
Visit storiesofdrouin.com.au to hear Ethel McDonald tell her life story.
Ethel tells the stories about her life in rural Drouin with humour and honesty as well as sharing five of her poems.
Photograph and information courtesy Stories of Drouin, a cooperative oral history project between The Committee for Drouin, Drouin History Group and 3BBR FM to preserve local stories.