Albury railway station

Depicts a group of soldiers wearing great-coats outside a darkened 'RTO' sign at the Albury railway station. A dark railway carriage forms the left hand side of the work. In wartime Australia the railways moved troops to all parts of the country. In those days before the railway gauge's were standardised passengers travelling between Melbourne and Sydney had to change trains at Albury, frequently in the middle of the night. Troops in transit to and from the many camps in Albury area added to the throng, making the old Victorian era station with its long canopied platforms one of the busiest in the nation. Drysdale's depiction of Albury station captures the men huddled together, without individual characteristics or identities, at a bleak and impersonal station. The formal composition sits in contrast with the agitated mode expressed by the free use of black with stridently coloured washes. The combined effect is a scene replete with restlessness and eerie tension.