thanks all for your replies.
just a few notes of clarification.
my grandad, is Ernest Christopher Gibson Downes .b Feb 1904 Crewe Cheshire England
The photo is believed to be his father. Unknown.
I have no info on the man in the photo except he emigrated to Oz around 1904 and he went to work in the building trade. I guess the photo would have been taken soon after he arrived in Australia. It was sent to my grandfathers mother. I doubt it was taken in the 40s or 50s as my grandads dad would be middle aged/old man by then and the man in the photo is young.
(I have other photos of building sites presumably where he was working but no completed buildings or other feature that could identify where the picture are taken. The building site photo is dated April 1904, so the man in the photo arrived in Australia between May 1903 When my granddad was conceived in the UK and April 1904 when the building site photo was taken in Australia)
I know this is a very long shot All suggestions are much appreciated.
The only other clue is that on his birth certificate my granddad is named as Ernest Alfred Christopher Gibson-Downes. I guess is father is very possibly Mr Gibson. (his mother is Downes)
https://trove.nla.gov.au/ and from there do NOT select newspapers and gazettes. Instead, select
advanced search
and from that option, choose Images, Maps, Artefacts.
at that option, use two keywords, "1904 tent" scroll through.... many/most are
glass negatives .... one in particular caught my attention. Splitters Tent, "Stumpton' / Mark James Daniel. It is dated as August 1904 Also notice that even banks and solicitors operated their businesses out of tents in that decade .... see the photo at
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/166980834?keyword=1904%20tent&l-decade=190 This link is to a
photograph dated circa 1935, man shaving outside a tent in a bush camp.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142105902/view 1904 construction sites .... anywhere across all six states in the Federation ... that's a huge area, but each of the states have public libraries with photographic material, and websites.
Cut throats were still used in the 1960s by many of my male family members but their strops were usually around three feet long.
JM
JM