Letter from Professor Cyril Renwick to Wilson Harold Maze that accompanied the collection. Transcription:

"Dear Howard, Thank you very much for the slides which (Ken Right)? kindly passed on to me. They are most absorbing and as I looked at them I was again caused to think how low the standard of living on the land was in Australia during the early 1930’s, and which I remember well. No-one looking at these could relish or be nostalgic for the ‘good old days, down on the farm’. The weary cattle, the ever present prickly pear, deserted & decaying landscapes & abandoned vineyards & paddocks tell a sad tale & one can spend a lot of time thinking about those scenes and the poverty behind them. In those days in high …… it is hard to go back to and believe the realities in those days despite the trauma in our current age, we are in paradise compared with then. I hope that these and other photos can be published at some time, to show to people the realities as they were. The (tests)? in those days make petrol shortages, high taxation and steady inflation look like small objects on a very rosy apple. My kindest regards and best wishes, Sincerely, Cyril."