Tasmania in Photographs

Commandant James Boyd documents now at Port Arthur

2011-06-05T09:04:00.001+10:00

James Boyd was the Port Arthur prison's longest serving commandant.

Title: James Boyd, Commandant P. Arthur
Creator(s):Bock, Alfred, 1835-1920
Date: 186-?
Description: 1 photograph : sepia ; 10 x 6 cm.
Notes: Exact measurements : 93 x 58 mm, Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand., Full length photograph of James Boyd standing beside his horse.
Format: photograph
Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125882134

Century-old Port Arthur prison diary found
By Selina Bryan
Sat Jun 4, 2011 10:18am AES
Source: ABC News Online

Video: Former Port Arthur boss' items surface (7pm TV News TAS)

A snapshot of life at the Port Arthur convict prison during the 1800s has been uncovered in a Victorian estate.

Photos, letters and a pocket watch belonging to James Boyd, the longest-serving commandant, have been donated to the former Tasmanian penal settlement.

Boyd was the commandant from 1853 to 1871 and was behind the development of Port Arthur's notorious separate prison, which sent many convicts insane.

Jody Steele of the site's management authority says the collection of more than 250 items includes Boyd's diary.

"All of the information that we get is very government document oriented, so it's a very formal understanding of the man," she said.

"Whereas this is a really personal side with photographs that he may have collected and things that belonged to him.

"So it gives us sort of the complete opposite version of James Boyd to what we've got in the official documents."

The collection is one of the most significant donations given to Port Arthur management in recent years.

"It's just very rare that we get access to primary documents like this and being able to see a man's handwriting, hold his own pocket watch gives you that real personal connection," Ms Steele said.

"There's nothing better than that."

'Mover and shaker'

The official documents include testimonials from Tasmanian governors and prison directors across Australia and Britain supporting Boyd's pension claims.

Ms Steele says Boyd considered himself a very experienced prison reformer.

"Looking back at that period of time, he was doing everything that was at the forefront of prison reform so he was definitely a mover and shaker for his time," she said.

"The separate prison was I guess one of his baby projects, having come from Pentonville Prison in England, which is a very similar structured prison which was all about separation and reform through silence and reflection and he implemented a lot of that here."

It is believed the items were passed from Boyd's grandson to a fellow priest, who was the grandfather of Melbourne man David Thomas.

Mr Thomas contacted Port Arthur when he uncovered the collection, but did not realise its significance until he returned it.

"I met up with some staff over here and it's when we were sitting in the room and they looked at these bits of paper and they just looked stunned," he said.

Historians will transcribe the diary, letters and other documents and have them published.

Parts of the collection are on display in the commandant's cottage at Port Arthur.

Russell Sandeman in Tasmania 1945

2011-05-28T16:45:00.005+10:00

Russell Sandeman was a photographer with a studio at 84 Le Hunte Street, Wayville, Adelaide. Phone: U5716, according to the studio stamp on the verso of the three portraits of himself (on viewer's left in two) and an unknown travelling companion/photographer.

Provenance: purchased from a stall at the Kingston Markets, Canberra.
Copyright Text and Images © KLW NFC Imprint 2011

VERSO Transcript:

"On the road to Scottsdale (TAS) at this point approx. 15-20 miles from Launceston. Country like this abounds on this glorious scenic trip. This very scene would remind one of a forest taken from "Alice in Wonderland", or perhaps a scene that could come out of "A Midsummer's Night 's Dream". On both occasions, of course, the modern car would have to be removed! For many miles the road winds back and forth with little time to "straighten up", which, of course, gives the route greater scenic value. 1945

PRINTED from VERICHROME".

The verso of this photograph bears a comment about the route, handwritten in pencil. The two literary allusions intend to convey to the recipient (if there was one) that the writer is educated and profoudly so in matters of English literature. The car - a Vauxhall perhaps - appears in several of these scenes, photographed by either Sandeman or his friend driving it.

The two men handling cameras in the three other photographs (below) are assumed to be Russell Sandeman (taller man) and his unknown travelling companion/photographer. A third person was present, the person taking their photograph. All three appear to be engaged in a conversation about the merits of the cameras in their hands. One of the objects may even be binoculars, if this man on the left is assumed to be at once the (press) photographer Russell Sandeman AND the racing commentator (see newpaper clips below)..

Russell Sandeman (on left) with unknown companion ca. 1945. All three portraits bear Sandeman's blind stamp on recto.

Provenance: purchased from a stall at the Kingston Markets, Canberra.
Copyright Text and Images © KLW NFC Imprint 2011

RUSSELL SANDEMAN: Other Works

A person called Russell Sandeman appears in various newspaper reports of the 1930s-1940s as a racing commentator in Perth, W.A., who moved to Adelaide to become the editor of the salacious tabloid called TRUTH. He may be the same individual who became the photographer with the Adelaide studio at Le Hunte St. Adelaide. Sandeman the photographer appears to have taken photographs on commission for various businesses such as Harris Scarfe and Myer, both department stores and of local theatres and cinemas.

The State Library of NSW holds a few examples of Sandeman's work, per these catalogue entries:

1. Title: Sandeman, Russell

Linked Records : 2
Photographer, 34 Le Hunte Street, Wayville, Adelaide (ca. 1945)
Title John Fraser - film and theatre photographs, 1935-1985
Level of Description Series
Date of Work 1935-1985
Type of Material Graphic Materials
Call Number PXA 1112 Box 21
Physical Description Photographs : 72 silver gelatin photoprints ; 25.7 x 30.5 cm. or smaller
INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES ARE:
4. Harris Scarfe window advertisement for Cover girl at Wests Theatre, Adelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

18-20. Myer shop windows for film Love at first flight, and novel Ring twice for Laura, Adlelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

21. Harris Scarfe window advertisement for Cover girl at Wests Theatre, Adelaide, 1944 / Russell Sandeman

*****************

2. Title Roberts and Hall (Architects): photographs of Adelaide and South Australian city and suburban theatre and cinema interiors and exteriors, ca. 1935-1962
Level of Description Item
Date of Work ca. 1935-1962
Type of Material Graphic Materials
Call Number PXA 764 / 681-747
INCLUDED IN THIS SERIES by RUSSELL SANDEMAN

697-706. Plaza Theatre, Adelaide (interior, previously Empress Ballroom) / Russell Sandeman

745-747. Unidentified South Australian small theatre or theatrette (interior) / Russell Sandeman

RUSSELL SANDEMAN: Possibly Related BIOGRAPHICA

"Miss Doreen Andrews of Nedlands, whose marriage to Mr. Russell Sandeman, of Perth, will be solemnised in the Wesley Church on Tuesday, June 7, [1932] at 5.30pm, prior to their departure for Adelaide where Mr. Sandeman will take up a position with the Press of that city.

"WITH JOHN JAMES AT THE RACES

Russell Sandeman

One of the most interesting of Australia's one-time radio sporting commentators is Russell Sandeman, who is spending his annual leave from Adelaide in Perth where he spent his boyhood. Before going to Adelaide to take up the management of Adelaide "Truth", Mr. Sandeman broadcast the running of the local trots. His services were secured by the National station in Adelaide when he transferrred to South Australia and for years he regularly broadcast the Adealide trots. During the last few years, however, his managerial activities have increased to such an extant that he retired from actual broadcasting."

There is no mention of photography in either newspaper clip. However, if it is the same Sandeman as the photographer, perhaps photography was part of his journalistic and managerial activities at the TRUTH, or even a business he set up on retirement from broadcasting.

Jeremy Irons' forefather Thomas Irons and William Paul Dowling

2011-04-08T08:59:00.007+10:00

The TASMANIAN Connection:
Jeremy Irons, Thomas Irons and the transported convict William Paul Dowling.

Above:
Snapshot (from DVD) of portrait of Thomas Irons, Jeremy Iron's great great grandfather featured in the episode Who Do You Think You Are? UK SBS Series 1, 2008.

According to the historian featured on Jeremy Iron's episode on Who Do You Think You Are?, this framed pastel portrait held in the Jeremy Irons family collection of his paternal great great grandfather Thomas Irons was probably painted by fellow prisoner William Paul Dowling while Thomas Irons was held in custody awaiting trial for Chartist insurrection at Newgate Prison.

The same historian produced a portrait of another prisoner called William Cuffy [Cuffey and/or Cuffay] which was painted and signed by William Paul Dowling at the time when all three - Dowling, Irons and Cuffy - were incarcerated at Newgate in 1848. Thomas Irons was imprisoned for 18 months, but both William Cuffy and William Paul Dowling were transported for life. Dowling was transported to Van Diemen's Land the same year, and developed a reputation as an artist, hence the Tasmanian interest.

Above and below:
Thomas Irons' portrait on left, probably by Dowling
William Cuffy portrait signed by W.P. Dowling on right and below.

The original lithograph of William Cuffay - spelt "Cuffey" on the recto - is held at the National Portrait Gallery UK. The catalogue notes state that:

William Cuffay's grandfather was a slave on the Caribbean island of St Kitts.
William's father came to England as a cook on a Royal Navy vessel and settled in Chatham, Kent. His son was born in Kent and became a tailor. He became involved in trade union politics, becoming one of the most prominent leaders of the Chartist movement in London. He was savagely lampooned in Punch and The Times and as a direct result of these virulent attacks in the racist press, his wife at the time, Mary Ann, lost her job. In August 1848, Cuffay was arrested and tried for treason to which he pleaded 'not guilty', but was sentenced to transportation. He arrived in Tasmania in November 1849. Cuffay did not repent his radical politics and after his free pardon in 1856 he became involved in local politics, particularly the amendment of the colony's Masters and Servants Act. At one of his last public appearances he addressed the crowd as 'fellow slaves' and told them 'I'm old, I'm out of work, and I'm in debt, and therefore I have cause to complain.'

NPG UK notes:
William Cuffay
after William Paul Dowling
lithograph, 1848
12 1/8 in. x 8 1/2 in. (308 mm x 215 mm) paper size
Purchased, 1966
NPG D13148

Above:
Police register showing the transportation records of Dowling and Cuffy [sic].
(Snapshots from SBS DVD).

WILLIAM PAUL DOWLING (1824-1877)

Dowling, who was said to have studied at the Dublin School of Arts and to have won awards, gave his profession as 'artist' from arrival in the colony of VDL. He was a painter, engraver and photographer, was born and raised in Dublin and known as Paul. He was transported to Hobart Town as a political prisoner, arriving in the Adelaide on 29 November 1849. In about 1846 he had gone to London to organise the Davis Club, an Irish revolutionary organisation, and there also became secretary of an English revolutionary society. It was for his part in the latter's activities that he was given a life sentence for sedition at the London Central Criminal Court on 18 September 1848. As was the case with many other political prisoners, Dowling was granted a ticket of leave upon arrival. He set up as a portrait painter at 9 Liverpool Street on 1 January 1850, received a conditional pardon on 14 August 1855 and a full pardon on 24 February 1857. Supporting his application for the former, the Very Rev. William Hall, the Roman Catholic Vicar-General of the diocese of Hobart Town, wrote: 'he has taught drawing in my school for some time past'....

Above:
Portrait of a boy by W.P. Dowling
State Library of Tasmania
Title: Curzon Allport / WP Dowling
Creator: Dowling, William Paul, ca. 1824-1877
Publisher: 1850
Description: 1 drawing : crayon on paper pasted on to a canvas stretcher ; 38 x 32 cm. Format: [picture] / Picture ADRI: AUTAS001124066994
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

William Paul Dowling died of tetanus at his residence in Brisbane Street on 3 August 1877, following an operation. Reporting his death, the Launceston Examiner stated that he was best known 'for the production of photographic portraits, and particularly for his system of enlarging photos which are then finished in oil or crayons'. His obituary in the Cornwall Chronicle on 6 August 1877 stated he had made 'a comfortable competence' from the business and had been able to return to Ireland for a visit before moving into his Brisbane Street studio in the 1860s: 'Mr Dowling was an amiable man of quiet, retiring demeanour, very much respected, and liked best by those who were longest acquainted with him'

Source: Joan Kerr, G.T. Stilwell: DAAO

Above: snapshot from DVD
Jeremy Irons tries out the hat worn by Peelers while searching for details about Thomas Irons' five year career as a policeman in the late 1830s.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Synopsis: SBS online
Episode 13, Season 1 (UK)
Who Do You Think You Are?

Jeremy Irons
Other than a story that one of his ancestors rode to Westminster on a donkey to present a petition on behalf of the Chartists and was subsequently imprisoned in Newgate, [Jeremy Irons knew little about his family background].

In the hope of uncovering some colourful characters in his family tree, Jeremy started by talking to his family. A cousin was the custodian of the family archives, including a sketch of his great great grandfather, Thomas Irons, who is believed to be the man with the donkey.

Thomas Irons' marriage certificate in 1840 shows that at the time of his marriage, his profession was 'policeman', one of London's first 'Peelers'. He signed up in 1828, but was eventually dismissed in 1834 for deserting his post and being drunk.

So was there a connection with Chartism? This was a political movement founded after the 1832 Reform Act when the vote was extended to the middle classes but not the working classes.

The People's Charter (after which the Chartists were named) set out plans to widen the franchise and secure a more democratic voting system. The movement reached its height with a massive rally on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848, when a petition was delivered to parliament containing over two million signatures.

The petition had no effect, and disgruntled extremists turned to means other than peaceful rallies. On 16 August 1848, the Orange Tree and Powell Plots were exposed by an informer, Thomas Powell, who tipped the police off about a series of planned insurrections by militant Chartists.

Among 14 men arrested at the Angel pub, Webber Street, was Thomas Irons. Weapons were found. The leaders were tried, found guilty and deported to Australia. Thomas was convicted as well, but because he didn't possess a weapon he was sentenced to 18 months in Newgate prison instead.

During his time inside, newspaper reports show that his wife and five children were supported by charitable donations from other Chartists. Yet it appears that in the end, Thomas abandoned them. By 1871 he was dead, having gone to sea as an engineer. His body was found in Rio.

VIDEO at YouTube
This video uploaded to YouTube (not by us) is a heavily edited extract of Jeremy Irons' episode on the Who Do You Think You Are series. All the key images of Thomas Irons were excluded to prevent copyright breaches.

The poem read by Jeremy in the final moments was written by his maternal great great grandfather to his daughter Kate on Valentine's Day 1857.

Gould's Tasmanian Book of Fishes (1832)

2011-04-07T08:02:00.002+10:00

Tasmanian convict William Buelow Gould's Sketchbook of Fishes 1832

EXTRACT from ABC TV (Aus) News 2 April 2011
Report: Linda Hunt
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/02/3180515.htm

A convict sketchbook created in Tasmania in 1832 has gained international attention.

Tasmanian convict William Buelow Gould's Sketchbook of Fishes has been recognised as a document of world significance.

At a ceremony in Hobart last night the sketchbook was inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

For historic material, it is the equivalent of World Heritage Listing.

Gould's watercolour sketches depict some of the earliest species identified in Tasmanian waters, including the unique spotted hand fish.

The CSIRO's Peter Last says some of the information is still used by scientists today.

"In fact some of the fish he collected at the time and drew at the time we barely know much about these days."

Gould and his sketchbook were immortalised in an award-winning novel by Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan.

The State Library of Tasmania has digitised the sketchbook: view it here.

The Corrick film collection

2011-02-01T07:52:00.005+11:00

The National Film and Sound Archive (Australia) has restored all 130 films in The Corrick Collection: -

They are the surviving films which were purchased or produced by the Corrick Family Entertainers, a touring company of ten performers (singers, musicians, comedians and cinematographers), active from 1897 through to 1914.

As the NFSA nears the completion of preservation of all 130 films, the significance of the Corrick Collection is being celebrated worldwide. A dynamic and comprehensive illustration of the popular experience of cinema in its earliest years, the collection has been highlighted through its progressive relaunch at the Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world’s pre-eminent silent film festival in Pordenone, Italy.

The sheer beauty and variety of the films — produced in France, Britain, Italy, the USA and Australia between 1901 and 1914 — inspires both surprise and delight for today’s audiences, some of whom have been completely unaware of the ingenuity and artistry of cinema in those formative years. The collection also delivers a rich source for research into early cinema, the Australian social experience and the local version of a vaudeville/music hall tradition.

Read more and watch footage at the NFSA: Corrick Collection and at Screen Australia (best):

Watch The Hand of the Artist (1906)

IN THE NEWS

John Corrick (picured below), son of the Corrick family's cameraman and projectionist Leonard Corrick, had kept these films in his garage in Tasmania. In this news report he relates the constant fear of fire these nitrate films held for him.

THE AMAZING CORRICK COLLECTION
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 25/01/2011
Reporter: Rebecca Baillie

An amazing archive of more than 130 films made at the turn of the century that were discovered in a garage in Tasmania have been restored and saved by the National Film and Sound Archive.

TRANSCRIPT

Source: ABC TV 7.30 Report

TRACY BOWDEN, PRESENTER: Finding a collection of long-lost silent films in a garage in Tasmania is the stuff of dreams for the National Film and Sound Archive.

The archive has saved and restored more than a 130 films made at the turn of the 20th Century, including some of the oldest surviving footage shot on the streets of Perth and London.

Rebecca Baillie reports on a celluloid treasure trove called the Corrick Collection, back on the silver screen after more than a century.

REBECCA BAILLIE, REPORTER: They're some of the oldest surviving silent films in the world and for the first time in more than a century, these snippets of cinematic history are once again delighting Australian audiences.

PATRICK NOLAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, LEGS ON THE WALL: These films were made at the very beginning of cinema and so they're really like nothing else you've ever seen.

REBECCA BAILLIE: Saved from lying dormant and disintegrating in a garage in Tasmania, the films have been restored by the National Film and Sound Archive and re-released to the silver screen.

MEG LABRUM, FILM CURATOR, NATIONAL FILM & SOUND ARCHIVE: The world audience is literally hungering for what's gonna come next. Some of the films have been thought to be lost in the rest of the world. Some of them are in better condition than any other copes around the world. And some of them are just so lovely, people just melt when they see them.

REBECCA BAILLIE: Film curator at the National Film and Sound Archive Meg Labrum describes the collection as a treasure trove of films from countries including Australia, England, America and France.

MEG LABRUM: The films are fabulous because they're not only black and white, they're stencilled colour. And that means the films were actually frame-by-frame coloured.

They're mad. I mean, if you look at them, you think somebody maybe was indulging in something not quite natural.

One of the most amazing ones, though, is - it's 10 minutes from a 40-minute film that was made in England in 1904. These are the only 10 minutes known to exist anywhere. And it's beautiful black and white film called 'Living London' and it's actually - it's just simply the camera filming what was happening in the streets of London at that time. It's one of those things - it was lost; it's now been found.

REBECCA BAILLIE: The films were collected at the turn of the 20th Century by a Tasmanian family who toured their vaudeville show around Australia and the world. The Marvellous Corricks showed hundreds of short films as part of their act, with 130 of the films surviving today.

JOHN CORRICK: Other companies were starting to advertise films would be shown at the theatre that night. Well, competition was something that the Corricks had to be extremely wary of.

REBECCA BAILLIE: John Corrick was the son of Leonard Corrick, who was the only boy of eight children in the original troupe. Leonard was the family's film projectionist and cameraman.

JOHN CORRICK: The father drop - (inaudible) in Perth. And of course everybody crowded into the streets and got their photographs taken and they were on the screen that night, and of course, swell the numbers in the theatre, doesn't it? So that was a gimmick to get their numbers up.

MEG LABRUM: It's a rarity. It's something that everybody's always on the hunt for. The Perth footage is thought to be one of the earliest records of life on the streets there.

REBECCA BAILLIE: The Marvellous Corricks disbanded in 1914, with their highly flammable film collection ultimately ending up in John Corricks' garage.

JOHN CORRICK: That was about 10 miles of nitrate film stored in the garage, some of it without cans, just in a tin and into the open. If I ever caused a minor fire there, I'd run like hell, because nitrate film, boy, does she go!

PATRICK NOLAN: It's like an Aladdin's lamp. Every box that you open releases a new genie into the world. And that is a great, great gift.

REBECCA BAILLIE: When the director of acrobatic troupe 'Legs on the Wall' Patrick Nolan first saw the Corrick films, he was inspired to create a show featuring the collection.

PATRICK NOLAN: You feel very privileged, I guess, in term of being able to work with these people who are now of course - are all ghosts. The films themselves have such a bizarre, crazy energy and that's great to be around.

MEG LABRUM: You get a huge thrill. I mean, as someone who loves films, I love to be in the audience and actually see them come alive again. I love to hear the audiences respond. And also I love to see now that the films are starting to inspire something new.

REBECCA BAILLIE: For John Corrick, the restoration and rebirth of his family's heritage is a tribute to the marvellous Corrick, who were an act ahead of their time.

PATRICK NOLAN: To think that such a wonderful collection of old silent film has been made available to people today. It's marvellous. That's when you bear in mind their first show about 1902, is 108 years ago, isn't it? A long time ago. Long before my time.

TRACY BOWDEN: A fantastic find. And that Legs on the Wall dance production called 'My Bicycle Loves You' is heading to Perth in February after its season at the Sydney Festival

Watch La Poule aux Oeufs (1905)

RELATED at ABC

Cornelian Bay Then and Now

2011-01-08T21:44:00.007+11:00

Historic boatshed burns down
Source: 7pm TV News TAS
Published: Monday, December 28, 2009 9:20 AEDT

A historic boatshed built in 1875 at Cornelian Bay in Hobart has been destroyed by fire.

Sources:
ABC News online;
The Mercury news online

DAMIEN BROWN
On December 28 last year just metres from yesterday's scrub fire, destroying the Cornelian Bay Aquatic Club along with boatsheds.

The 85-year-old buildings – a popular destination for Hobart swimmers in the 1920s – were destroyed and damage was estimated at more than $400,000...

HISTORY of CORNELIAN BAY

Lindy Scripps published a book on the history of Cornelian Bay, Tasmania, A Tranquil Haven, in 2006 for the Hobart Municipal Council which begins with the Aboriginal presence, moves onto the development of the Government Farm, documents the subsequent division to notables such as Captain Bell and Samuel Page, discusses the social impact of the Cemetery and boatsheds, and notes the slow decline into suburbia and neglect. Each section is illustrated with maps, official documents and photographs.

Click on map for large view

Read selections at Picasa Albums

A history of Cornelian Bay

An hour's stroll in Hobart December 2010

2010-12-29T06:38:00.037+11:00

OLD HOBART BUILDINGS

AMUSEMENTS at Taste of Tasmania

Photos © TP for Pinnacle Times 2010 ARR

The travelling Melbourne Cup 1888 at the TMAG

2010-11-03T09:08:00.000+11:00

'Nowhere in my travels have I encountered a festival of the people that has such a magnetic appeal to a whole nation. The (Melbourne) Cup astonishes me!'

Mark Twain (Bernstein 1969:2)

Conservator Cobus Van Breda
Photos courtesy TMAG 2010

NOTES from TMAG News online

The 1888 Melbourne Cup is travelling Australia’s museums and galleries thanks to the generosity of Australian-born former President of the World Bank Jim Wolfensohn.

In 1988 he donated funds to enable the National Gallery of Australia to purchase and tour works of museum quality to regional and remote Australia.

The 1888 Melbourne Cup was on display in the TMAG Medals and Money gallery in April 2010. It is a spectacular trophy with three horses cast in silver weighing 800 grams surmounted on a large silver plated base.

Melbourne Cup Trophies

Interestingly the Melbourne Cup race originated from rivalry between the Victorian Turf Club and the Victorian Jockey Club, and is believed to be the brainchild of Captain F.C Standish, Chief Commissioner of Police in Melbourne. The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, but there was no trophy for the first four years. In 1865 with the Victorian Racing Club in control of the Melbourne Cup, a handsome silver cup valued at one hundred sovereigns was first presented to the winner in addition to the prize money.

The year 1888 was the hundredth anniversary of British settlement in Australia and while the various colonies were not yet welded into one federated nation, new Australians in all the colonies joined in a year of celebrations to mark the first century of the new land.

The Melbourne Cup trophy of that year was known as the Centennial Cup and had been ordered from England (Elkington & Co Birmingham). The Victorian Racing Club also lifted the prize-money by adding 3,000 gold sovereigns (sovereign = £1) to the race, thereby making the race the most valuable handicap in the world.

There were twenty-eight runners in the 1888 Cup, based on past performances a number of them should not have been in the race. They were eager to win part of the new £50,000 sweep run by Mr George Adams.

As the race was run, jockey Mick O'Brien (wearing the racing colours of black with white sleeves and scarlet cap) always had Mentor in a winning position. With plenty in hand Mentor ran home a comfortable winner in 3 minutes 30 ³/₄ seconds, from Tradition second and The Yeoman third.

Mentor had been bred at Mr Donald S Wallace's stud 'Ballark' between Ballarat and Geelong. Wallace, a shrewd operator, enlisted the aid of a bookmaker to place £1,000 on Mentor at long odds in case the odds shortened by Cup day. As Mentor won the Cup, Wallace collected £20,000.

Jockey Mick O'Brien was very popular with the average racegoer and he and his mount received a fine reception on their way back to the scale. In the evening O'Brien received a gold mounted whip, a tradition that continues for the winning jockey.
Read more ...

Abbott family and Francis Abbott's Diary

2010-10-11T18:13:00.000+11:00

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery has recently acquired the leatherbound journal of Francis Abbott from a Queensland collector. Abbott brought it with him from England when he was transported for obtaining watches under false pretences. After working on road gangs at Oyster Cove, Abbott became one of Hobart's most respected citizens, gaining recognition as an astronomer, meteorologist and clockmaker, receiving a commission to make the clock at Government House. Abbott also kept weather records which were published monthly and became the standard reference.

State Library of Tasmania
Title: Francis Abbott [seated in doorway]
Creator(s):Unknown
Date: ca 1860
Description: 1 photograph : b&w copy of sepia original; 14 x 10 cm.
Notes: Exact measurements 138 x 98 mm, Title inscribed in pencil on verso in unknown hand., Francis Abbott seated in a shed doorway wearing a fez and holding binoculars.
Subjects:Abbott, Francis - 1799-1883 Abbott family
Format: photograph
Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125299883

These TV snapshots were taken from footage of an ABC News report of the TMAG's acquistion of Abbott's diary, broadcast October 3, 2010:

EARLIER ENTRY 11/28/06

This is possibly the blue half-plate photograph referred to in Joan Kerr (1992:3) showing the Abbott garden with its workshop and pear tree in foreground.

Title: Hobart Town
Creator(s):Abbott, Charles, 1824-1888
Abbott, Alfred, 1838-1872
Date: 1858
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001124068651

The Abbotts were an enterprising family from convict beginnings in Van Diemen's Land.

This Abbott family photo is from Joan Kerr (1992:2). It is believed to be by Charles Abbott, as he is missing from the photograph.

Dan Sprod comments:

"The talented Abbott family in the garden of their Murray Street home, c. 1860. Francis, senior (centre) was transported in 1844 for 'obtaining two watches under false pretences' but soon overcame this setback to gain wide recognition as a watchmaker, meteorologist, and astronomer. Francis, junior (right), was appointed superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. Two other sons, Alfred (left) and Charles (not present) were early amateur photographers. The women are Mrs Mary Abbott and her daughter Maria."

Dan Sprod, Victorian and Edwardian Hobart From Old Photographs (John Ferguson, Sydney 1977), Plate 170.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection:
Ref: Q16505
ITEM NAME: Photograph negative:
MEDIUM: Wet glass plate negative,
MAKER: Charles Abbott [Artist];
TITLE: 'Abbott family, left to right Alfred [ watchmaker, Hobart], Mary (wife of Francis Sen.), Francis (senior), Maria (married Alfred Burbury), Travers Jnr. Photograph "taken in garden of house Murray Street, now Richardson's building" [ by Charles Abbott ? Watchmaker and optician, Hobart.]
DATE: 1858 December

The Census of 1867 listed fifteen Abbott residents. Francis' senior's sons Alfred and Charles were both remarkably good photographers (late 1850s to the early 1860s), although they were not listed by profession in 1867 - unlike professional photographers Letitia Davidson, Charles A. Woolley, Samuel Clifford and George Cherry.

CENSUS: RESIDENTS OF HOBART TASMANIA 1867-1868.

NAMES. OCCUPATION & ADDRESS TOWN
-------------------- ------------------------------------- -----------

ABBOTT Alfred 78 Murray Street Hobart
ABBOTT Charles Murray Street Hobart
ABBOTT Charles Orr 215 Macquarie St. Hobart
ABBOTT Francis Watchmaker & Jeweller 78 Murray Street Hobart
ABBOTT Francis jnr Royal Society's Garden, Queens Park Hobart
ABBOTT Frederick Wm. Survey Office Hobart
ABBOTT George 44 Patrick St Hobart
ABBOTT George Coach Manufacturer 175 Elizabeth St Hobart
ABBOTT Henry Campbell St Hobart
ABBOTT John George St, New Wharf Hobart
ABBOTT John William 54 Murray Street Hobart
ABBOTT Joseph New Street Hobart
ABBOTT Mrs 111, Macquarie Street Hobart
ABBOTT Robert 147 Colins Street Hobart
ABBOTT Robert Macquarie Street Hobart etc etc

Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125299883

Colonial paintings at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

2010-10-09T17:54:00.008+11:00

AG241
ITEM NAME: Painting, oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas, MAKER: Thomas Bock [1790 - 1855] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Rossbank Observatory, Hobarton' DATE: (1842) DETIALS: See 'Tasmanian Vision' p 72

AG115
ITEM NAME: Painting, oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: W C Piguenit [1836 - 1914] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Lake St Clair, the Source of the River Derwent, Tasmania' DATE: 1887

AG5917
ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,
MAKER: W C Piguenit [1836 - 1914] [Artist]; TITLE: 'A Mountain Top, Tasmania' DATE: c1886

AG2997
ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: William Duke [1815 - 1853] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Offshore whaling with the "Aladdin" and "Jane"' DATE: 1849

AG2570
ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: Henry Gritten [1818 - 1873] [artist]; TITLE: 'Main Road, New Town' DATE: 1856

AG1286
ITEM NAME: Painting, oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas,MAKER: Thomas Bock (attributed) [1790 - 1855] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Emma, daughter of Edward and Maria Lord'

AG80
ITEM NAME: art work: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas, MAKER: W B Gould [1803 - 1853] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Self Portrait' DATE: 1838

AG3180
ITEM NAME: Painting oil: MEDIUM: oil on canvas, oil on canvas, MAKER: Haughton Forrest [1826 - 1925] [Artist]; TITLE: 'Mount Wellington ' DATE: 1883

John Watt Beattie produced lantern slides and stamps of Haughton Forrest's paintings in a series called "Hobart from the Bay". This scene is a photograph of another painting by Forrest, similar to the painting above.
Courtesy AOT: Ref: NS2495/1/84

Source: State Library of Tasmania Our Digital Island Preserved Sites

V-J Day in Hobart 15 August 1945

2010-08-16T12:00:00.004+10:00

It's now 65 years since Australians welcomed the end of the Second World War. These photographs of celebrations in Hobart were published in the Melbourne Age.

R.A.A.F. officer dancing across Macquarie St, Hobart
Source: State Library of Victoria (more below)

NOTES from the AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day

VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day, also referred to as VJ (Victory over Japan) Day, is celebrated on 15 August. This date commemorates Japan’s acceptance of the Allied demand for unconditional surrender 14 August 1945. For Australians, it meant that the Second World War was finally over.

The following day, 15 August, is usually referred to as VP Day. In August 1945 Australian governments gazetted a public holiday as VP Day and most newspapers reported it as such. However, the governments of Britain, the United States and New Zealand preferred VJ Day. It is not true, as some have claimed, that the day was originally called VJ and that the name was surreptitiously changed later.

STATE LIBRARY of VICTORIA
[Victory celebrations in Tasmania] [picture]

* Date(s): [ca. 1945]
* Terms of use/Copyright: Reproduction rights: State Library of Victoria.
Cite as: Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria.
* Description: 6 photographs : gelatin silver ; 21.0 x 25.0 cm. or smaller.
* Identifier(s): Accession no(s) H98.101/355; H98.101/356; H98.101/357; H98.101/358; H98.101/359; H98.101/360
* Subjects: Australia. Royal Australian Air Force -- Officers ; World War, 1939-1945 -- Peace ; V-J Day, 1945 -- Tasmania ; Gelatin silver photographs ;
* Contents/Summary: Women dancing in circle in front of Town Hall; R.A.A.F. officer dancing across Macquarie St, Hobart; Women and man holding a baby waving Union Jack, Launceston; Couple dancing in a circle of people, Hobart; Children up a lamp post over the crowd; Crowd in Hobart.
* Notes: Stamped/inscribed on verso.
Gift of The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 1976.

IMAGES
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/argus/gid/slv-pic-aaa32635
WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_over_Japan_Day

QVMAG Images Database now online

2010-07-06T07:50:00.008+10:00

All kudos and praise to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, for finally making available online a selection of their considerable holdings of historical Tasmanian photographs, mostly representing people, places and events in the north of the State.

The QVMAG's southern counterpart in Hobart, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, has yet to provide the same access, despite claims on their website since 2006 that they are in the process of providing an online "world-class" images database service.

Access at: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mercury/

The QVMAG db images are watermarked, the lightbox function allows magnification, and the catalogue notes appear below image. Hopefully, this service will be developed into providing the missing images which appear as "NO IMAGE YET" .

With a bit of tweaking of the URL, an image can be accessed from the database fully resized (some are huge) and minus the watermark, for example, the same image of the athlete above was downloaded this way:

http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mercury/data/images/1999_P_1044.jpg

Several photograph records have TWO or more images, where the second image may be the verso of the photograph and can only be viewed - and not downloaded - as a lightbox against the page, for example the convict/prisoner photographs by T.J. Nevin (ignore the Boyd attribution, it is an error - read more in this article):

These are the two images for Nevin's photo of prisoner Bewley Tuck at the QVMAG:

Recto: Convict Bewley Tuck
Photo by T.J. Nevin 1874-5
Also held in the AOT and TMAG collections

Verso:Convict Bewley Tuck
Photo by T.J. Nevin 1874-5
Also held in the AOT and TMAG collections

To download the second image belonging to a photograph record, tweak the URL in this way:

http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mercury/data/images/1985_P_0068_verso.jpg

The SEARCH function will provide COLLECTIONS holdings as well, which can be downloaded as a pdf. The whole web page can be printed. The whole database holds (from notes on website) -

Collections (Click here for Collection Index)
The Community History Series (CHS) includes records of Tasmanian local government, businesses, community organisations and individuals.

Images
Photos of Tasmania, particularly Northern Tasmania, including landscapes, architecture and portraits.

Albums
Collections of browsable images from the community history archives.

Audio Recordings
A diverse range of interviews relating to the history of Tasmania and Tasmanians. (Coming Soon)

The only real shortcoming of the software so far is that the NEXT PAGE/Skip to LAST PAGE function arrows only appear at the top of the SEARCH results when logically they should also appear at the end of the Search Results to avoid the effort of scrolling back to top.

Amateur photographer Russell Young fl. 1880-1913

2010-06-05T02:28:00.005+10:00

Amateur photographer Russell Young fl.1880 and 1913.
Views of Hobart, family portraits and important buildings.

Caption: Young in his studio cleaning camera equipment imported from Windsor and Newton, London, 1880s. (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Photograph Collection: Russell Young)

Russell Young was a solicitor in Hobart. His father arrived from Scotland in 1824. His granddaughters donated a collection of glass plate negatives to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. They were featured in an exhibition of old photographs of Hobart and southern Tasmania on at the Schoolhouse Gallery in Rosny, Tasmanian, 2008.

Russell Young's residence, called "Rosebank", on Elizabeth Street in North Hobart has since been demolished. It had a greenhouse where he had a night blooming cactus that bloomed once a year.

Some of the glass plates have the photographer's finger prints from the emulsion of silver nitrates poured onto the glass. In the 1880s photographers would add tannin and honey to the emulsion to delay the drying process and give them more time to produce the image.

Source: ABC News online
Photos of old Hobart, Russell Young
22 April 2008

Caption: The skylights of Russell Youngs' studio can be seen reflected in the bubble. (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Photograph Collection: Russell Young)

Caption: This is a double exposure created by covering half of the plate, taking the exposure of the subject and then after covering the opposite side taking a second exposure with the subject in a different position. (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Photograph Collection: Russell Young)

Caption: Camera, tripod and rifles can be seen on the ground nearby. (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Photograph Collection: Russell Young)

Source: ABC News online
Photos of old Hobart, Russell Young
22 April 2008

Desire Prosperity in Tasmania 1912

2010-05-20T08:43:00.007+10:00

With scarce land available for agriculture in Britain at the beginning of the 2oth century, extensive campaigns encouraging migration to Australia were launched by institutions such as the Royal Colonial Institute before the First World War. Tasmania was promoted to farmers and pensioners as the "chief tourist and health resort of Australia." Affiliations to the "old country" or the "mother country" were strengthened with generous schemes offered to Tasmania's sons such as the Rhodes Scholarship. The propaganda of "Empire" and "Commonwealth" was fundamentally rooted in the economic survival of the population living within the borders of the British Isles. British passports were offered to the sons and daughters of British immigrants returning to the "mother country" from Australia as an inducement to retain emotional ties of family origins, perpetuate English class-based social relations, ensure loyalty to the Monarch, indoctrinate a mystical love for Shakespeare, Milton, Byron and Wordsworth, encourage RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION, and buttress these vital trade relations.

TASMANIA.

FARMERS and others who desire prosperity
and life under most advantageous con =
ditions should settle there.

GOOD INCOMES derived from Orchards.
Apple production a great and increas=
ing industry.

LAND can be obtained cheaply and on easy
terms from the Government.
Liberal Advances made by State Agri=
cultural Bank to Settlers.

PRACTICAL Agricultural and Horticultural
Training on GOVERNMENT FARMS
with board and lodging for £25 a year.

Total MINERAL output valued at TH1RTY=
FOUR MILLIONS STERLING.

PENSIONERS and others with moderate
incomes can live there under ideal
conditions.

FREE Government Expert Advice given
to settlers.

The MAGNIFICENT SCENERY, PER=
FECT CLIMATE, fishing and other
sports have made the State the chief
TOURIST and HEALTH RESORT of
Australia.

For information apply to The Agent General for Tasmania, 56 Victoria Street,
LONDON, S.W.

RHODES SCHOLARS
Three Tasmanians with scholarships to attend Oxford University were listed as Honorary Fellows in 1912. Women were still not eligible to apply (from Tasmania) as late as the 1970s.

ORIGINS of the Royal Colonial Institute
First named as such in 1870, its chief roles then were "a club-house" and an information bureau.

Proceedings of The Royal Colonial Institute, Vol. 4, 1870

AUSTRALIA's CHIEF EXPORTS 1914
Bark (for tanning), Butter, Coal, Copper, Flour, Fruit, Gold, Wheat, Meat, Oil, Silver and Silver-lead, Hides, Skins, Horses, Leather, Tallow, Tin, Wine, Wood and Timber, Wool, Zinc.

Click on all images for readable versions

Sources:

http://ia341020.us.archive.org/3/items/yearbook1912roya/yearbook1912roya_djvu.txt

http://www.archive.org/stream/yearbook1912roya#page/n5/mode/2up

John Glover at Clarendon House

2010-04-19T06:46:00.006+10:00

TV snapshots courtesy of ABC TV Collectors
Episode 9, broadcast 9 April 2010
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s2868848.htm

EXCERPT (website)
Tasmania is very rich in heritage and blessed with some of the finest colonial architecture in Australia. Gordon takes us to Clarendon, one of Australia’s finest Georgian buildings, which is only a leisurely 30 minute Penny Farthing ride away from the heritage-listed town of Evandale. It is a superb example of Neo-classical design. One of the most impressive features of this residence are the 6 thirty-foot high Ionic columns in the entrance, but that is not all that is showy about this mansion. Amongst the collection at Clarendon the most valuable is a painting by the celebrated colonial artist, John Glover, who lived only ten miles away and probably visited the house on many occasions. The mansion was built by wealthy pastoralist James Cox in 1838 and had the top floor designed with ten bedrooms to accommodate his eight children.

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds several Glover paintings. However, these are not available online. The TMAG website is hosted by the Tasmanian Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts, and the State Collections page has displayed a notice since 2007 which promises world-class online access, yet despite the provision of fast broadband services recently funded by the Federal Government to the State, no evidence of this facility has materialised. This is the notice:

ONLINE ACCESS TO THE STATE COLLECTION
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is in the process of developing world-class access to our collection information. The TMAG has one of the most diverse collections in Australia, and with this diversity, challenges for digitisation are presented. The TMAG is committed to providing access to this information, and whilst our on-line service is unavailable, requests for assistance can be directed to TMAGmail@tmag.tas.gov.au.

Collectors host Andy Muirhead with statue of colonial artist John Glover
TV snapshots courtesy of ABC TV Collectors
Episode 9, broadcast 9 April 2010

Penny Farthing Race at Evandale 2010

2010-04-19T05:47:00.012+10:00

Historic town Evandale in northern Tasmania hosts the Penny Farthing race and a magnificent collection of bone shakers, some dating from the 1880s and valued at $6-8,000. The ABC TV program Collectors broadcast this episode (Episode 9) on 9 April 2010.

The earliest designs of these bikes were called walking machines, to help the straddler get around large estate gardens. They first appeared in 1817 and were not very practical for roads. Later the pedal-powered bike, the boneshaker, appeared in 1865, and its name describes the type of ride it gave on the cobbled streets of the day. With spokes, larger wheels, rubber tyres and bearings, the Penny Farthing of 1870 was faster and more comfortable. It was given the name because it looked like a penny and a farthing combined

WATCH VIDEO

Watch the segment hosted by Adrian Franklin
Episode 9, broadcast 9 April 2010.
Footage and TV snapshots courtesy Collectors ABC TV
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/video/download.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s2868839.htm

Footage and TV snapshots courtesy Collectors ABC TV
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/video/download.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s2868839.htm

Bushranger Martin Cash on the year of eating well 1837

2010-03-25T08:18:00.006+11:00

" ... it was an everyday occurrence to have a pan full of eggs, with a handful of flour shaken over them, ..."

Martin Cash ca. 1870, unattributed.
National Library of Australia

Biographical information: Australian Dictionary of Biography online edition

Title	Historic homesteads of Australia Volume 1 of Historic buildings of Australia
Author	Australian Council of National Trusts
Publisher	Cassell Australia, 1976

"Frederick [Stieglitz] received a grant of 2,000 acres which he took up up on the Break O'Day River and named Killymoon. In 1830 he married Mrs Ransom who owned an inn at Kempton, and several years later moved with her to Killymoon, where she continued in the tradition of good housekeeping for which she had become famous. The following quotation from Martin Cash The Bushranger of Van Diemen's Land relates to the year 1837:

'On the following morning we started for Break O'Day, and on coming to Mr Stieglitz I engaged with the 'missus' as dairyman for twelve months, my companion being obliged to participate in the management of the dairy. The servants' table at this establishment was served up in a style and profusion which I had never before seen equalled; roast and boiled joints, with pies, puddings and tarts, was the daily routine, and it was an everyday occurrence to have a pan full of eggs, with a handful of flour shaken over them, cooked for breakfast, and a similar dish for tea...' "

Click on images for readable version

Photos © Pinnacle Times for TP 2009

Real Archives, Virtual Archives and Equal Access

2010-02-24T10:06:00.004+11:00

The Archives Office of Tasmania, in conjunction with the State Library of Tasmania provides a good sample selection online of their holdings. The lacuna for researchers who do not live in Tasmania and who cannot visit the State is the total lack of virtual or online records of the substantial holdings in the two other key institutions, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, located in Hobart, and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, located in Launceston. These two museums do not even provide summary indices online of their historical collections of photographs which number in the tens of thousands. Attempts to obtain information about these records and copies of photographs often fail. The "gatekeepers" of these publicly-owned items give reasons such as a lack of staff, a lack of facilities and expertise, and cold storage inaccessibility, when in fact attitudinal factors are to blame, such as the perceived importance of the status of the requester. "Equal access" is at the core of this issue and the issues raised in the 7.30 Report (transcript below).

People power averts closure of National Archives
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 23/02/2010
Reporter: Mike Sexton

Full report and video at ABC 7.30 Report
Transcipt

The Federal Government's plan to downsize sections of the National Archives sparked such an outrage among historians and archivists last year that they took up a national petition. Now the Government has decided not to close offices or shift records interstate in order to cut costs. Historians see it as a victory of sorts, but questions have arisen over the future access to historic documents in the digital age.

TRANSCRIPT

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: The Federal Government has backed down on a controversial plan to downsize sections of the National Archive. Last year, it announced as part of a cost-saving measure that offices would be closed in Darwin, Hobart and Adelaide, with the records being moved elsewhere, most likely to Sydney or Canberra. The decision sparked outrage amongst historians and archivists, who took up a national petition. Now the Government says the offices will remain open, but in a substantially reduced form. For historians, it's a victory of sorts, but questions remain over future access to historic documents in the digital age. Mike Sexton reports.

MIKE SEXTON, REPORTER: This morning in Adelaide, a modest protest rally turned into a celebration of sorts.

KYLIE PERCIVAL, AUST. SOCIETY OF ARCHIVISTS: There's a bit of relief and a bit of excitement that we're seeing some fruit for the efforts that we've put into this campaign.

MIKE SEXTON: Their campaign was against the Federal Government's plan to close the National Archive's offices in Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. After several months of protest, last night came on announcement from Canberra that some services would remain in the three cities.

Is this a little victory for people power, do you think?

KYLIE PERCIVAL: Oh, absolutely. I think it helped being an election year. I think that's always good. In retrospect, people can think, "Oh, well, it doesn't make a difference if I send off this email or this letter," but it does.

MIKE SEXTON: The National Archives of Australia is the repository for the nation's history, a home for every significant document created by federal government departments, from the Antarctic Division in Hobart, to records of Maralinga and Woomera in South Australia and the Stolen Generation of the Top End.

ROSS GIBBS, NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA: We have 350 kilometres, or more than that, around the country, so you can imagine there's a lot of files there.

MIKE SEXTON: The documents are available for anyone to view in reading rooms in each capital.

ANNE PICOT, AUST. SOCIETY OF ARCHIVISTS: That's how people, how our citizens, as a right in a democracy, can see the records which enable government to be accountable.

MIKE SEXTON: But the National Archives has to find multi-million budget cuts and believed it could do so by closing the three smallest offices. It was a proposal that sparked widespread outrage from those who see the archives as a vital national resource.

ANNE PICOT: It's a terribly Sydney-Canberra-centric view of the Commonwealth Government and it also destroys something which I think is unique about National Archives institution: it's federal nature, the fact that it has had offices in every state and capital territory city has meant that people do have access.

GRAHAM JAUNAY, SA HISTORIAN: The concept of the federation that we signed up to at the beginning of the last century was that all citizens have equal opportunities and equal access and I think we're being denied that.

MIKE SEXTON: But this is not the first plan to rationalise the archives. Under the Howard Government in 2001, the space in Adelaide contracted by roughly 90 per cent when the office moved from a suburban warehouse to a converted pub in the CBD. A similar move in Brisbane raised the ire of then Labor backbencher Kevin Rudd.

KEVIN RUDD, LABOR BACKBENCHER (archive footage, 2001): The decision to sell the repository at Cannon Hill in fact becomes a pretext for a rapid culling and rationalisation of the existing holdings. And who knows what documents may be destroyed as a consequence of that?

MIKE SEXTON: Nine years later, another Labor backbencher, Damian Hale, whose seat takes in Darwin, helped collect signatures on a petition of protest.

DAMIAN HALE, NT LABOR MP: Sometimes people sign these things because they get jack of Canberra taking things away, and the whole thing is that if you don't fight for these things, it becomes easier and easier to take things away.

MIKE SEXTON: The decision now is to keep some part of the National Archives open, but in a reduced form by co-locating them with other state and territory institutions.

The restructuring is part of a greater debate over how an organisation conceived a century ago in a time of paper adapts to the needs of a digital age.

ROSS GIBBS: We have 21 million items online, which sounds a phenomenal number, but when you understand that in the context of the figure that we have 350 kilometres of records, it's a fairly small part, it's just a taste of it. So but with that said, we're adding files or pages at the rate of 1.2 million a year at the moment.

MIKE SEXTON: Archives director-general Ross Gibbs says the reality is that most inquiries are made by people who never visit the archives office.

ROSS GIBBS: The great, great majority write to us, they fax us, they email us, they write through the post, they ring us up and we deliver it to them remotely. And in addition to that of course, that great overwhelming fact, that now we have two million inquiries a year on the internet.

MIKE SEXTON: But for historians like Graham Jaunay scanned documents are only of superficial value and true research involves following a paper trail, not requesting a single document.

GRAHAM JAUNAY: Much of the material is so detailed and complex it's impossible to catalogue it, and the only way of really finding some information is by trawling through reams of material looking for the individual material that you seek.

MIKE SEXTON: Graham Jaunay and others remain concerned about the changes, fearing staff will be lost and with them the valuable local knowledge. But for the moment, their protest has been heard.

KYLIE PERCIVAL: The symbolic gesture of closing an office entirely and moving it interstate is unpalatable.

KERRY O'BRIEN: That report from Mike Sexton.
[End of transcript]

Gunns and Faxes 1859 & 2007

2010-01-12T13:04:00.009+11:00

Source: SLTas
Ref: AUTAS001125645325

Above: Photo of William Gunn (1800-1868), a member of the Gunn family whose timber industries have dominated the Tasmanian economy from the colonial era.

The original photographer of this portrait is unknown, apparently. This copy was printed by the highly commercial photographer John Watt Beattie ca. 1895. The State Library of Tasmania's accredition to J.W. Beattie (1859-1930) as the creator/photographer is a chronological impossibility. Beattie was a nine year old boy still living in Scotland when William Gunn died in 1868, but facts such as these do not deter public libraries and museums from assigning accreditation to the later copyist with scant regard to the historical confusions this practice causes.

The Commercial Uses of Photography
The Mercury May 15, 1859
extract from The Photographic News:

" ...other important legal documents ought always to have photographic fac-similes taken ..."

Full article: click on images for readable version ...

Full issue of the 1859 Photographic News is available at Google books:

And now for Clarke & Dawe on the importance of the fax to Gunns and the Tasmanian bicameral system.

Source: ABC TV The 7.30 Report (uploaded to Youtube July (?) 2007)

Sydney-Hobart yacht race 2009

2009-12-30T06:58:00.008+11:00

This year's winner was Alfa Romeo.

From Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race 2009

TV snapshots before, during and after the race courtesy of ABC TV1 and 7Prime.

Click on images for large view

Latest news from ABC online: Slow race drama develops off Hobart

TV snapshots before, during and after the race courtesy of ABC TV1 and 7Prime.

Slides: TV snapshots courtesy of ABC TV1 and 7Prime

Historic Houses saved: Clarendon and Campania

2009-12-13T17:51:00.008+11:00

Two great examples of colonial Georgian house architecture have made the news this month.

Above: Tasmania's historic Clarendon House, red room interior. (ABC News)

Historic homestead makeover
Source: ABC News online
Friday Dec 4, 2009 9:55am AEDT

Video: Historic homestead gets revamp (7pm TV News TAS) Evandale 7212

The National Trust in Tasmania has welcomed funding to restore what is reputedly one of Australia's greatest colonial homes.

The State Government has announced it will provide $120,000 to restore Clarendon House, built in northern Tasmania in 1838.

That is on top of $800,000 from the Federal Government.

The Trust's managing director, Chris Tassell, says the funding will be used to repaint and repair crumbling stairs on the historic property.

"I think it's generally recognised that this is perhaps one of the greatest, arguably the greatest, early pre-1850s colonial houses in Australia," he said.

"I mean it is of a scale and magnitude that is literally unmatched and it gives some idea of the wealth that was generated from northern Tasmania."

Above: Campania House (ABC)

Historic house stays in Tasmanian hands
Source: ABC News online 13 December 2009

One of southern Tasmania's oldest homes has sold at auction to a local farmer. Campania House and 22 hectares of farmland went for $1.54 million.

About 1000 people attended the sale and bidding was strong but the eight bedroom sandstone house was snapped up by grazier Robert Downie. The house contents are also being sold, with proceeds going to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. Mr Downie plans to live in the Georgian property, which was built for Lieutenant George Weston Gunning who arrived in Van Dieman's Land circa 1810. Lt Gunning was made Inspector of Public Works and officiated at the laying of the foundation stone of Richmond Bridge in 1823.

The two Auroras: Northern Lights, Southern Lights

2009-12-06T10:31:00.028+11:00

AURORA AUSTRALIS: Southern Lights

The Aurora Australis was visible from Hobart, Tasmania, on at least one occasion during the mid 1950s, and possibly because of this event the people of Tasmania were often referred to as "Taswegians" by mainland Australians, a moniker not heard so much these days. The perception then was that Taswegians lived far enough south to be the counterparts of the Norwegians who live far enough north to witness the Aurora Borealis.

AURORA AUSTRALIS: Video by Anthony Powell taken in Antarctica.

It was a major event in the lives of Tasmanian schoolchildren of the decade, and its mysteries were the subject of junior fiction such as Ponny The Penguin (Veronica Basser, illustrations by Edwina Bell. Sydney, Australasian 1948).

JOANNA LUMLEY seeks out the AURORA BOREALIS

As a child growing up in steamy Malaysia, Joanna Lumley (British actor) read this Australian children's book, Ponny the Penguin, with illustrations by Edwina Bell depicting a penguin watching the hanging curtains of the Aurora Australis. The little book inspired Lumley to make the journey to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights: the trip became the subject of the BBC documentary Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights (broadcast ABC TV1 30 Nov 2009):

TV snapshots from the live ABC TV broadcast (Australia 29 November 2009) of the BBC documentary "Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights."

Below: Lumley: "Look at THAT!!!!"

YouTube EXTRACT from Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights

Snow in Hobart

2009-12-05T09:34:00.004+11:00

Snow on Mt Wellington, Hobart Tasmania, on Christmas Day is not an unusual sight.

Above: Photo © Anthony Davey, taken 28 years ago. Kodachrome.
Source: Red Bubble: Mt Wellington Snow Beauty

Title: Hobart under snow, two ladies walking
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AB713-1-685
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

HOBART's CLIMATE
Source: Wikipedia

Climate
Hobart has a mild temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb). The highest temperature recorded was 40.8°C on 4 January 1976 and the lowest was −2.8°C on 25 June 1972. Compared to other major Australia cities, Hobart has the second fewest daily average hours of sunshine, with 5.9 hours per day. (Melbourne has the fewest) [6] Although Hobart rarely receives snow during the winter, the adjacent Mount Wellington is often seen with a snowcap. Unseasonal mountain snow covering has been known to occur during the other seasons. During the 20th century, Hobart did receive many snowfalls at sea level because of cold air masses arriving from Antarctica. These snow-bearing winds often carried on through Tasmania and Victoria to the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. Though snow is unusual in general at sea level in Australia, Hobart has had the most sea level snowfalls out of any Australian capital city, although Canberra, Sydney,Melbourne, and Adelaide have sometimes recorded some snow.

SIGNIFICANT WEATHER – November 2006

Tasmania
The coldest November day in Hobart in 18 years occurred on the 16th, with snow and hail to near sea level state wide. Hobart recorded a maximum daily temperature of 10.6°C, the coldest November day since 1988.

Source: AG Bureau of Meteorology

Theatre Royal Hobart celebrates 175 continuous years

2009-11-29T10:44:00.015+11:00

"Built among the public houses, brothels, factories and tiny workers’ cottages of Wapping, the theatre opened in 1837."

More about the 175 years celebrations at ABC Local :
Slideshow and voice recording of Larry Olivier 1948

Source: Nexo fit out for new audio system by The Sound Company (TSC).

1830s

The Mercury, 8th December 1837

TRANSCRIPT

Mr. Meredith of the Theatre Royal, stood charged with having committed an assault on Mr. Kew a young gentleman at the Shades on Friday Evening last. It ap- peared that the fracas had originated in some misunderstanding connected with the Theatre. In the course of the evidence a fact was elicited which caused great mer- riment. All the parties charged each other with having sacrificed too liberally to the jolly God, and amongst the persons present on that evening was a jovial undertaker, well known in this town on account of his eccentric habits. Mr. Hill a colonial cap- tain, actually went away to hire a hearse thereupon to carry home the undertaker.

Mr. Meredith made an able defence, and was only fined 10s. with costs.

With us it is a question of doubt whether it is for the interest of the Theatre that a license is granted for selling spirituous liquors, &c. on the premises.

Caption: The Shades Tavern, which operated until late 1840, underneath the auditorium at the Theatre Royal. (Paul McIntyre)

More history and photographs at the Theatre Royal's homepage

The Theatre Royal Playbills and Posters

The State Library of Tasmania holds a large collection - see their holdings here.

1870s

Title: Aurora Floyd
Author: Theatre Royal (Hobart, Tas.)
Publisher: [Hobart] : [The Mercury?], [1870]
Description: 1 print (poster): Green text on cream background ; 42 x 30 cm.
Format: [picture] Poster
ADRI: AUTAS001126074848
Source: Tasmaniana Library
Notes: "the great sensation drama found on Miss Braddon's world-renowned novel, Aurora Floyd."
Sole lessee and manager, Mr. F. B. Watson.
Silk playbill listing: "the great sensation drama founded on Miss Braddon's world renowned novel, Aurora Floyd, after which, the grand ballet interlude, Le Pas des Fees ... and Corps de Ballet".
Cast of Aurora Floyd includes: Miss Ada Hart, Mr. S. Parker, Mr. H. Edwards, Mr. George Bromley, Mr. E. A. Reeves, Mr. W. A. James, Mr. C. Sefton, Mr. George Bromley, Mr. Walter Airey, Miss Fanny Hart. Also Mons. G. Massartic and Miss Sally Lloyd in Le Pas des Fees.

1900s

Title: Cinderella
Author: Theatre Royal (Hobart, Tas.)
Publisher: Hobart : Mercury, 1915
Description: 1 poster : black lettering/ col. lithograph ; 102 x 39 cm.
Format: [picture]. Poster
ADRI: AUTAS001125297325
Source: Tasmaniana Library
Notes: "Thursday, Friday and Saturday August 5, 6 & 7".
Direction: J.C. Williamson Ltd. ; produced by Charles A. Wennan ; musical director: Robert Keers ; stage manager J. Whitfield.
No. 300 in the J.W.B. Murphy Collection of theatrical posters.
Coloured illustration of scene from pantomime in upper section of poster ; printed below image: Syd. Day The printer Ltd.
Cast includes: Barry Lupino, Minnie Love, Dolly Castles, Arthur Stigant, Gertie Latchford, Leslie Gaze, Charles Albert, Rupert Darrell, George Young, Tiny Tot Margerie, Little Eileen, George Miller, Jack McArdle, Dorothy Firmin, Gladys Thomas, Maudie Amery.

BOOKMARKS sold at the Theatre Royal 1980s
Handcrafted by Prestige Bookbinders Launceston Tasmania

Photos & bookmarks © Private Collection 2009

Oceanic Viking Hobart

2009-11-18T07:12:00.003+11:00

UPDATE:18th November 2009

The Oceanic Viking farewells the last of the asylum seekers ..

Caption: The Indonesian government expects Australia to keep its resettlement promise.
(Reuters: Vivek Prakash)

Australia expected to resettle asylum seekers

By Geoff Thompson for AM and staff

Photo and article source:ABC News online

After four weeks off the coast of Indonesia, the Customs ship Oceanic Viking last night weighed anchor and began the journey back to Australian waters.

A few hours earlier, the last of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers entered a detention centre in Tanjung Pinang, ending an impasse that has kept the Federal Government on the defensive.

Next is the debate over whether the 10 women and children in the group are also in detention, or outside it, as Kevin Rudd says they are.

Read the rest of the article and listen to the news item here ....

First post on 31st October 2009

FV Taruman in foreground below being escorted by Oceanic Viking Sep 2005 AFMA

Source of images: Sea Shepherd Forum

Caption: This is the Oceanic Viking arresting illegal Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) fishermen and excorting the ship back to Hobart.

Australian Government
Australian Customs and Border Protection Services
[pdf] Information about the Oceanic Viking

The Australian Government takes the protection of its sovereign territories and assets very seriously. Illegal, unreported and
unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Southern Ocean presents a
threat to Australia’s Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI)
and Macquarie Island exclusive economic zones (EEZ), its
valuable Patagonian toothfish fishery and the fragile Southern
Ocean environment.

The remoteness of the HIMI and hostile Southern Ocean sub-
Antarctic waters makes the detection and apprehension of
vessels carrying out IUU fishing even more challenging.
Illegal activity in the Southern Ocean is being fuelled by rising
fish prices, over fishing elsewhere in the world and excess fishing
capacity in northern hemisphere fishing fleets. There is concern
that, if left unchecked, such fishing could eventually lead to the commercial extinction of stocks of the Patagonian toothfish.
In response to this, the Australian Government, through the
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Australian
Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and the Australian
Defence Force, has provided surveillance and apprehension of
vessels operating illegally in this remote region. This has included
on-the-water cooperation with other countries with similar Southern Ocean interests, in particular France who share an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundaries with Australia.
The Southern Ocean Maritime Patrol and Response (SOMPR)
program provides a dedicated vessel, Oceanic Viking, which
is able to conduct year-round patrols in sub-Antarctic weather
conditions.

About the Oceanic Viking
Oceanic Viking is the Australian Customs and Border Protection
Service and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority
(fisheries) Southern Ocean patrol vessel.
The vessel is contracted from P&O to conduct year-round patrols
as part of the Southern Ocean patrol program.
The Oceanic Viking undertakes a minimum of 200 days in the
Southern Ocean per year and can conduct up to 300
days per year.

These patrols are part of Australia’s commitment to intercepting
vessels and apprehending people suspected of illegally fishing
in the ecologically fragile sub-Antarctic waters.
When not operating in the Southern Ocean, Oceanic Viking is
available to patrol Australia’s coastline.

Specifications
Length: 105 metres
Beam: 22 metres
Gross tonnage: 9075
Range: 15,900 nautical miles at 16 knots with 10 per
cent reserve
33,800 nautical miles at 12 knots with 10 per cent reserve
Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBS)
Two 9.2 metre Norsafe SOLAS approved
RHIBS powered by
twin 233hp diesel jet propulsion in 6 tonne davits, with a
range of approximately 60 nautical miles at 20 knots.

Accommodation
The vessel is licensed to carry 75 people.
Without a steaming party on board, there are 19 P&O crew and
56 people from Customs and Border Protection & other agencies.
With a steaming party on board, there are 25 P&O crew and 50
people from Customs and Border Protection & other agencies.

Equipment and facilities
• an emergency care and
resuscitation room staffed by an
Australian Antarctic Division doctor
• facilities to accommodate illegal foreign fishers
• operations room equipped
with secure communications
• a Forward Looking Infra-Red camera
• a TerraScan system used to predict weather conditions
• other classified systems.

February 2009
Weapons and Personal Defence Equipment (PDE)
• two .50 calibre machine guns deck mounted
• Glock pistols for Customs and Border Protection Boarding
Party officers
• other PDE equipment is also on board.

Customs and Border Protection Marine and Aviation
Unit personnel
The Customs and Border Protection Marine and Avaiation
Unit within the Maritime Operations Support Branch in Customs and
Border Protection provides personnel and logistic support to civil
vessels chartered by Customs and Border Protection to combat
illegal foreign fishing in Australia’s northern and southern waters.
All armed Customs and Border Protection Marine and Avaiation Unit boarding party personnel are required to satisfy and maintain mandatory security, medical, dental, fitness and psychometric standards as part of their conditions of employment.

Customs and Border Protection Marine and Avaiation Unit
personnel are trained in use of force, ship search and undertake
armed boardings at sea. Some staff also have specialised
hospital theatre assistant training. Officers performing the
role of tender coxswains must have the appropriate
marine qualifications.
Officers operating in the region undergo
extensive training in:
• cold climate survival and safety at sea
• use of force, including side-arms and deck-mounted
weapons
• vessel familiarisation
• medical training
• operational command
• Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and
Fisheries legislative provisions
• tactical boarding operations
• ship search techniques.

Southern Ocean Maritime Patrol and Response
Program Outputs
To detect, deter and apprehend illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing vessels in Australia’s EEZ. This includes:
• operating a marine vessel with deck-mounted weapons in the
Southern Ocean EEZ
• undertaking marine patrols for a minimum of 200 days in the
Southern Ocean.

Delivery of other services in the Southern Ocean and Northern
waters as directed by Government.
These services include:
• j oint operations with France
• medical evacuations
• environmental checks of the HIMI for the Australian
Antarctic Division
• buoy deployment for the Bureau of Meteorology
• ad hoc engagements for the Australian Government.

Southern Ocean Maritime Patrol and Response
Program Outcomes
The desired outcomes of the SOMPR program are the protection
of:
• Patagonian toothfish fisheries around the HIMI EEZ from IUU
fishing
• Australia’s Southern Ocean waters
• the fragile Southern
Ocean environment
• the Northern Australian coast line
• other Government responses such as environmental and
security requirements.
Southern Ocean conditions
Missions to the region are challenging. Severe
weather conditions can include Force 12 gales and seas of more than 10
metres.
Average temperatures are minus two.

More information
For information on any Customs and Border Protection matters, contact Customs and Border Protection Information and Support Centre on 1300 363 263 or email information@customs.gov.au or browse the website http://www.customs.gov.au/

TV Snapshot ABC TV 1

Indonesia rules out forcing asylum seekers off Oceanic Viking

Source: ABC Radio National PM program

Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)
Alternate WMA version MP3 download

The Director of Diplomatic Security with the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Department says Indonesia won't allow the forcible removal of asylum seekers from the Oceanic Viking while it's in Indonesian waters. And Dr Sujatmiko says even if they're forced off the ship outside Indonesian waters, they wouldn't be welcome on an Indonesian ship.

MARK COLVIN: Indonesia has ruled out the forcible removal of asylum seekers from the Oceanic Viking while it's in Indonesian waters.And the director of diplomatic security with the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Department says that even if the asylum seekers were removed from the ship outside Indonesian waters, they wouldn't be welcomed on an Indonesian ship. Dr Sujatmiko said the asylum seekers would be resupplied with food and water, supplies which are expected to run out by Sunday.Dr Sujatmiko spoke with Indonesian correspondent Geoff Thompson.

DR SUJATMIKO: I went there only once yesterday and I believe that they're living in good conditions. The ship is, I think for me, it is luxurious ship, hospital also there, doctors are there, food enough and I thought they enjoy living there, so that's why they rejected to go to the land.

GEOFF THOMPSON: And there have been some messages they've thrown from the ship saying that they might self harm or commit suicide, hurt themselves if they were... if an attempt was made to remove them from the ship. Have you had any indication of that sort of thing?

DR SUJATMIKO: Well, we have not been thinking of forcing them to go to the land, because it should be voluntarily disembarking from the ship.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But if they're receiving adequate food and water, they could stay on the ship indefinitely couldn't they?
DR SUJATMIKO: I... that's not... I think you better ask the master of the ship. I believe so.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Is Indonesia prepared to allow the Oceanic Viking to stay off its coast with these people on board indefinitely?

DR SUJATMIKO: We are not discussing this issue but at least we are trying the first time we are giving permission for the ships to enter Indonesian water, based on humanitarian grounds. I think this is very important one. And secondly I think what we need to send the message is that we are the country which it is not easy for any people to come inside the country, because there's an international syndicate playing around for this game.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So that would mean the people who are on the ship you don't want them forcibly removed and for now it's really a waiting game just hoping that they will agree to leave voluntarily?

DR SUJATMIKO: We are not thinking of that. I mean if really they are going to force the people it's up to Australian authorities, as long as they are not doing it in Indonesian waters.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Okay so they will not be forced from the ship in Indonesian waters, so if Australia wants to remove them from the ship it must be done outside Indonesian waters.

DR SUJATMIKO: At least what I'm thinking as long as they are in Indonesian waters they should follow our rules and regulations. As I said yesterday if they are going to disembark there is some process that we need to follow.First the medical check-up, they reject it, secondly we need to have immigration interview, they also reject it, and they said that they are committed to continue going to Australia and they're not ready to go to Indonesia.

GEOFF THOMPSON: What if the Australian Government wanted to bring in some military personnel for instance to assist in making the people leave the ship, would Indonesia agree to that?

DR SUJATMIKO: As long as this is in the international waters I think this is up to Australia.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But they would still have to be put onto an Australian ship in international waters, they wouldn't be able to be moved in international waters from an Australian ship to an Indonesian ship?

DR SUJATMIKO: I think the most important point is if I mean in our perspective we are assisting the Australian Government first because we have good relations and secondly because we were told that some of them are women, children and we need medical treatment. For that reasons we are giving permission for the ship to enter the Indonesian waters.

GEOFF THOMPSON: So essentially I think you're saying that the Australian authorities can do whatever they want with these people as long as it's not in Indonesian waters?

DR SUJATMIKO: I think at the moment this is what I'm thinking of.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Is there a possibility then of moving them to an Indonesian ship in international waters?

DR SUJATMIKO: I'm not thinking of that option.

GEOFF THOMPSON: It seems doesn't it that as long as they want to stay on the ship, the most likely solution, the only solution available may be perhaps for them to be eventually placed back in Australian territory?

DR SUJATMIKO: Well I think again they are in the Australian ships, this mean in the Australian territory, so this is on the Australian authority to respond.

MARK COLVIN: The Director of Diplomatic Security with the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Department Dr Sujatmiko speaking to our correspondent Geoff Thompson.

TO BE CONTINUED ... (see update at top of this post)

Wreck of the ghost ship Lake Illawarra in Derwent River

2009-11-04T06:29:00.012+11:00

Photographer Don Stephens worked for the Hobart newspaper The Mercury for more than thirty years. His choice of camera was a Mamiya RB6x7.

Don's images of the devastating Hobart bushfires were published in The Mercury, 7-9 February 1967. Many are held in the National Library of Australia's collections.

Another tragedy in the Hobart area which cost lives was the collision of the bulk ore carrier, the Lake Illawarra into the Tasman Bridge on January 5th, 1975. Don Stephens took this photograph at night as the rescue operation continued:

Image copyright 2006 © Don Stephens & Leatherwood Online

These are some of the Australia Department of Defence photographs of salvage operations in 1975:

NAVY REPORT: Bridging troubled waters by Brett Mitchell

On the evening of January 5, 1975 the Australian National Line bulk carrier MV Lake Illawarra, laden with a cargo of zinc concentrate, collided with the Tasman Bridge, which spanned the Derwent River in Hobart.

The ship sank, killing seven of the crew, and collapsing two pylons and 127 metres of bridge decking into water 110 feet deep.

Four motor vehicles fell into the river, killing five occupants.

At 4.30am on January 6, a 14-man detachment from Australian Clearance Diving Team Two (AUSCDTTWO), commanded by LEUT Alexander Donald, flew to Hobart for search and recovery operations.

Following preliminary dives later that day, AUSCDTTWO was tasked to locate and assist Hobart Water Police recover the motor vehicles.

Two additional divers from AUSCDTONE arrived from Sydney, with a one-person recompression chamber.

Two vehicles were identified on January 7; one was salvaged that day and the second three days later.

Another vehicle was found buried under rubble on January 8. Three team members assisted Tasmanian Police divers comprehensively survey the wreck of the Lake Illawarra between January 9–13.

Operations ceased on January 16.

The Navy divers operated in hazardous conditions with minimal visibility and strong river currents. Divers had to contend with bridge debris consisting of shattered concrete, reinforced steel rods, railings, pipes, lights, wire and power cables.

Strong winds on the third day brought down debris from the bridge above, and caused unguarded ‘live’ power cables to fall into the water, endangering the divers.

Understandably, LEUT Donald described the conditions as “appalling”.

The breakage of an important arterial link isolated the residents in Hobart’s eastern suburbs the relatively short drive across the Tasman Bridge to the city suddenly became a 50 kilometre journey around the bay.

Although ferries provided a service across the Derwent River, it was not until December 1975 that a single lane combat bridge was opened to traffic, thereby restoring some connectivity.

Reconstruction of the Tasman Bridge commenced in October 1975 and the bridge officially reopened on October 8, 1977. The wreck of the Lake Illawarra remains where it sank in 1975.

Recent images of the wreck of the Lake Illawarra were captured by the Royal Australian Navy's Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Forces and the United States Navy Mobile Diving Salvage Unit using specialised sonar equipment and head-mounted cameras during a survey exercise as part of training activity Dugong 09. Details appeared in this article from The Mercury November 1, 2009:

Lake Illawarra revealed

Photographer: Department of Defence

Source: The Mercury online

DANIELLE McKAY

November 01, 2009 08:00am

NAVY divers have taken the closest look yet at the ship which slammed into the Tasman Bridge and sank 34 years ago.

LYING at the bottom of the River Derwent, the MV Lake Illawarra has the aura of a well-preserved ghost ship, say its most recent visitors.

The murky waters make it difficult to see the vessel until you get up close, say navy divers who visited the infamous wreck next to the Tasman Bridge last week.

It is more than 34 years since the vessel smashed into the bridge in 1975, killing 12 people and severing the link between Hobart's eastern and western shores.

In eerie silence and limited visibility, the Royal Australian Navy's Mine Warfare and Clearance Diving Forces and the United States Navy Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One have captured the most extensive survey of the wreck yet.

Using specialised sonar equipment and head-mounted cameras, 30 divers collected the data over eight days and more than 160 individual dives during a survey exercise as part of training activity Dugong 09.

Visibility was a metre, temperatures below 7C and divers went down to 36m.

"There was something very eerie about the silence," said navy diver Able Seaman Joshua Manning, 26, from Sydney.

"We were focused on the task while we were down there, but there was also time to think about the tragedy and death, which was really surreal."

A regular flow of fresh water has kept the bulk ore carrier remarkably preserved, the divers say.

Cargo doors remain open, in anticipation of unloading, but now they are inches out of line from the enormous jolt the ship suffered when it hit pylon 18 of the bridge.

But the bridge and wheelhouse are almost intact.

"We went inside the wheelhouse, about 4m in, it's amazing." Able Seaman Manning said. "It's just pristine -- as it would have been at the time I imagine."

However, the bow's port-side is a mangled wreck of steel and rotting wood, crushed under the weight of several columns of concrete.

The divers discovered the rear bumper of a car resting poignantly on the bow.

Clearance Diving Team One commanding officer Lieutenant-Commander Chris White, from Launceston, said the survey was a challenge for his team and a chance to return something to Tasmania.

WATCH VIDEO:

Caption: Navy divers take a look at the Lake Illawarra, which brought down the Tasman Bridge in 1975.

Video and photos courtesy Australian Department of Defence 2009

Elizabeth Blackburn Nobel Prize winner 2009

2009-10-05T23:12:00.007+11:00

Source: The Australian News

EXPATRIATE biologist Elizabeth Blackburn has won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Hobart-born Elizabeth Blackburn has won the Nobel for physiology or medicine.

Professor Blackburn shares the Nobel with her former graduate student, Carol Greider, from Johns Hopkins University's school of medicine, and Harvard's Jack Szostak.

Her discovery of telomeres, caps on the ends of chromosomes which protect genetic information, has opened up new lines of inquiry into growth, ageing and disease. Her work with psychologists on telomeres, stress and meditation seems to prove a mind-body connection.

Dr Blackburn, 60, a Hobart-born graduate of Melbourne University who has worked in the US for many years, was one of the favourites for the Nobel for physiology or medicine.

Australia's last two laureates, gastroenterologist Barry Marshall and pathologist Robin Warren, continued their tradition of sharing a beer in Perth around the time of the announcement.

Professor Marshall, from the University of Western Australia, famously swallowed a bacterium in solution to prove that most stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria, not stress or spicy food.

He and Dr Warren shared the Nobel for physiology or medicine in 2005. They began their beer ritual as a rueful comment on the long-standing unwillingness of the scientific community to embrace their theory.

Dr Blackburn has graced lists of Nobel favourites before, only to be passed over. She has won awards, such as the Lasker prize for medical research, which are seen as marking out a future Nobel laureate.

Last year she received the L'Oreal-UNESCO award for women in science.

Dr Blackburn, regarded as a mentor to women who juggle careers in science and the demands of family, told The Australian that the prospects for women in the life sciences were much improved since her time - “but only up until the end of the PhD, graduate training and postdoctoral research period.

“Then the number of women in science careers drops off, indicating that the career options for women are not as well matched for women as they are for men.”

She is Morris Herztein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her lab is seen as female-friendly, partly because of her role as a mentor but also because of its inter-disciplinary approach, which embraces fields well beyond basic biology.

In a 2007 interview with The New York Times Dr Blackburn said telomeres were “like the tips of shoelaces. If you lose the tips, the ends start fraying.

“In humans, the thing is that as we mature, our telomeres slowly wear down. So the question has always been: did that matter? Well, more and more, it seems like it matters.

“In my lab, were finding that psychological stress actually ages cells, which can be seen when you measure the wearing down of the tips of the chromosomes, those telomeres.”

Dr Blackburn was famously appointed, then removed, from president George W. Bush's bioethics advisory council because she objected to ideology rather than science guiding its work, especially on embryonic stem cells.

Australians have now won 11 Nobels, all but one for science and medicine, the exception being Patrick White's gong for literature.

Since 1901, there have been 754 male laureates and only 37 female, 23 of those straddling the literature and peace prizes. The club of female science laureates is a very exclusive one.

List of Australian Nobel prize winners

William Bragg - Physics (1915)
Lawrence Bragg - Physics (1915)
Howard Florey - Physiology or medicine (1945)
Sir Frank MacFarlane Burnet - Physiology or medicine (1960)
Sir John Carew Eccles - Physiology or medicine (1963)
Patrick White - Literature (1973)
Sir John Warcup Cornforth - Chemistry (1975)
Professor Peter Doherty - Physiology or medicine (1996)
Professor Barry Marshall - Physiology or medicine (2005)
Dr Robin Warren - Physiology or medicine (2005)
Professor Elizabeth Blackburn - Physiology or medicine (2009)

Visit the Nobel Site:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"

Elizabeth H. Blackburn	Carol W. Greider	Jack W. Szostak

Photo: Gerbil, Licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0	Photo: Gerbil, Licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0	Photo © Harvard Medical School
1/3 of the prize	1/3 of the prize	1/3 of the prize
USA	USA	USA
University of California San Francisco, CA, USA	Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Baltimore, MD, USA	Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, MA, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute
b. 1948 (in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia)	b. 1961	b. 1952 (in London, United Kingdom)

Titles, data and places given above refer to the time of the award.

British landscapes at the Library courtesy Alfred Winter 1874

2009-09-25T20:20:00.012+10:00

Alfred Winter was a Melbourne photographer who moved to Hobart Tasmania in 1869 and maintained a successful practice in studio portraiture and landscapes. On Sundays and holidays he travelled to beauty spots around Hobart with his apprentice Frank Miller, that is, until Miller came under suspicion of thieving from his master, and although arrested, the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence (The Mercury 19 October 1877).

Landscapes were Winter's speciality. He gained a commission with the Hobart Municipal Council's Land and Works Office in the mid-1870s, but he may have had a yearning to paint. In August 1874 he took the trouble to place on views his three oil paintings by British landscape artists in the reading room of the Public Library, housed upstairs in the Hobart Town Hall.

The first painting (below) by British landscape artist William Shayer was possibly the view mentioned in The Mercury article, 17 August 1874. The second painting is an example only of the other artist's work, Henry G. Duguid.

WILLIAM SHAYER

Courtesy The Athenaeum
Cattle By A Stream
William Shayer Snr - No dates listed
Private collection
Painting - oil on canvas
Height: 60 cm (23.62 in.), Width: 51 cm (20.08 in.)

William Shayer Biography

The name of William Shayer has been linked with Morland, Ibbeston and Wheatley, all great English landscape painters of the 18th century. In his own right, Shayer is one of our first-class rural artists, with a delightful style and composition entirely his own, and completely free from imitation. He is at his best depicting the rural life of Hampshire and the New Forest; the countrymen and women going about their daily tasks, or resting in the shade of leafy boughs, faces shaded by big rustic hats; stopping at the inn on their return from market, or urging on teams of horses hauling timber.

His pictures express the great love and sympathy he had for the countryside and its people, and his wonderful sense of draughtsmanship and the perfect balance of his palette enabled him to reproduce the very spirit of what he observed - the translucence of reflected light, the sandy bank and filtered sunlight of the forest lanes.

Although he did not exhibit until well into his thirties, his work achieved considerable success and much praise from the art critics of his day. He did exhibit over two hundred paintings in his lifetime, and showed at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists and Suffolk Street. He sometimes painted with E C Williams, the one painting the landscape and the other painting the figures.

His paintings have always been highly sought after and today his work is valued for its accurate representation of rural life in the first three-quarters of the 19th century.

His works can be found in many galleries, museums and private collections throughout the world, including The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Montreal; Glasgow and Leicester

Selected Exhibitions 1825 - 1870
Shayer showed over 330 works at the Royal Society of British Artists and 80 at the British Institution.
He exhibited also at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution of London. His works have been displayed in museums in Glasgow, Leicester, London, Montreal, and Sunderland.

HENRY DUGUID

Courtesy Artnet
Henry G. Duguid
Linlithgow Palace and Chapel, from the south, looking toward the River Forth and Ochil Hill
Oil on Canvas
20 x 30.1 in. / 50.8 x 76.5 cm.
Signed, Inscribed
Sale Of Christie's East: Wednesday, February 26, 1997
[Lot 291]
Old Master and 19th Century European Paintings

THE MERCURY, 17 AUGUST 1874

Alfred Winter's exhibition of British landscape artists,
William Shayer and Henry Duguid at the Public Library.
The Mercury 17 August 1874.

TRANSCRIPT

PICTURES IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. - There are now on view in the reading room of the Public Library, three oil paintings, the property of Mr Alfred Winter, photographer, of Elizabeth-street, who has placed them there for the inspection of the public. The gem of the three is "Cattle drinking at the Stream" by W. Shayer. The others are larger, and as landscapes they unquestionably occupy a high place. They are both by the same artist. H. G. Duguid, the one being "Nidpath Castle, Peebles in the distance on the Tweed" and the other "Landing Place, Stirling, Anchel Hills and Cambuskenneth Abbey." All the paintings have attracted much attention, and connoisseurs agree, we believe, as to their being very excellent works of art.

Exhibition ticket photo of Alfred Winter 1894
Courtesy State Library of Tamania

ALFRED WINTER PANORAMA

Courtesy State Library of Tasmania
Title: Photograph - Panorama of Hobart, in four conjoined parts, taken from the Glebe.
Alfred Winter photographer
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS2960-1-2
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Series: Panoramas of Hobart, 1856 - 1905 (NS2960)
Notes: Four panoramas of Hobart that were in the custody of the Hobart Bellringers and stored in the Bell Tower of the former Holy Trinity Anglican Church in North Hobart. It is believed that the photographs were acquired by the Bellringers around the time each of the photographs were taken. 1870

Alfred Biggs and the telephone 1877

2009-09-07T07:48:00.003+10:00

Alfred Biggs and his telephone prototype, 1870s

Images courtesy of Archives Office of Tasmania
Ref: Portrait - 30-2892c

BIOGRAPHY (Notes from ADB online)

Biggs, Alfred Barrett (1825 - 1900)

BIGGS, ALFRED BARRETT (1825-1900), teacher, bank officer, astronomer and inventor, was born on 10 April 1825 in London, eldest son of Abraham Biggs, carpenter, and his wife Eliza, née Coleman. In 1833 the family moved to Van Diemen's Land. Abraham's involvement in Methodism and eventually in the teaching profession was to have a strong influence on Alfred, who took up a tutoring position at Bothwell in 1845. Three years later he became a bank clerk in Hobart Town, but left for Melbourne in 1852, continuing in banking then returning to teaching. On 22 February 1855 at Melville Street Wesleyan Chapel, Hobart, Biggs married Harriet Burville. In 1858 he became headmaster of the Hoddle Street School, Melbourne. The family returned in 1864 to Tasmania, where Biggs again took a teaching post at Bothwell.

In 1872 they moved to Campbell Town. There he taught in the public school and befriended Dr William Valentine. Both men were fascinated by astronomy and in 1874 a rare astronomical event occurred: the transit of Venus. Valentine had invited an American expedition to view the transit from his home. Biggs assisted with the observations and the Americans gave him a building they had used in making their observations.

In 1877 Biggs learned of the invention of the telephone.

The Mercury 8 May 1877

He then constructed a pair of telephones and had them connected between Launceston and Campbell Town, successfully transmitting sounds between the two locations. It has been claimed that this was the first telephone connection in Australia. About 1879 he moved to Launceston and took a position as accountant and ledger-keeper with the Launceston Bank for Savings. His continuing interest in astronomy led to the construction of an observatory in the western part of the city. Despite the small size of his telescopes—his instruments were then a 2-inch (51-mm) and a 3-inch (76-mm) refractor—Biggs was a diligent and pedantic observer, becoming known as Launceston's 'Astronomer Royal'. He contributed reports to the local newspaper and from 1884 papers to the Royal Society of Tasmania, of which he was that year elected a fellow. He made observations and measurements of comets, double stars, eclipses and transits of Mercury and Venus (another transit of Venus occurred in 1882).

In 1885 he came into possession of an 8½ inch (216-mm) diameter reflecting telescope, originally owned by Valentine.

Biggs had a reputation as an inventor and instrument maker. He constructed a microscope—grinding the lenses himself—and both a vertical and a horizontal seismometer; his interest in seismology was likely to have been aroused by Launceston's small earth tremors about 1880. Other devices he made included an observatory clock driven by a float and micrometers to measure angular separations, such as the apparent distance between double stars, through the telescope. For the detection of counterfeit coins he invented a coin tester.

His devotion to religious activities was lifelong. At St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Launceston, Biggs played the organ and conducted the choir; he composed at least three hymns. He saw no conflict between religion and science. When he was a teacher, he had some difficult times with the Board of Education. However, his thin, bearded face was suggestive of a man with a sense of humour. A frequent writer of letters to the press, he was a committee member and sometime president and treasurer of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute. Predeceased by his wife, Biggs died on 19 December 1900 at his residence above the bank and was buried in the general cemetery. Six of his eight children survived him.

A 1935 memorial to Biggs stands in Royal Park, Launceston, near the former site of his observatory.

Select Bibliography
M. Giordano, Watcher of the Skies (Launc, Tas, 1995);
Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1933;
Records of the Queen Victoria Museum Launceston, no 89, 1985;
Examiner (Launceston), 29 Sept 1886, p 2, 20 Dec 1900, p 7;
Biggs family papers (Archives Office of Tasmania);
private information.
Author: Martin George

Marans eggs at the Rare Breeds Poultry Show

2009-09-03T23:32:00.000+10:00

"We've got the Marans, which are an egg-laying breed from France, and they lay a beautiful chocolate coloured egg."

HD TV Snapshot from the ABC TV FREEVIEW Broadcast
22 August 2009.
Copyright ABC TV 2009.

Pecking order: rare birds on show

Source: ABC News online

Posted Sat Aug 22, 2009 3:19pm AEST

Some of Australia's finest poultry are strutting their stuff in Hobart.

671 birds are entered in the Tasmanian Rare Breeds Poultry Club show at the Royal Agricultural Society grounds.

Dozens of breeds of chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys have been plucked and preened to perfection.

Publicity officer Brent Lance says some odd breeds such as the Scots Grey are being shown for the first time in more than half a century.

"We've got the Marans, which are an egg-laying breed from France, and they lay a beautiful chocolate coloured egg."

Mr Lance says there is renewed interest in traditional breeds.

"Older people are reminiscing about the chooks they used to have when they were kids, 60 or 70 years ago," he said.

Judge Val Bragg says award winning chooks have the right eye and comb colour, and no broken feathers.

"You open the wings to make sure theres no broken feathers and that the colour is all black."

Poultry Club President Richard Poke says one of the rarest breeds on show is the Phoenix, which is renowned for its long tail feathers.

"They continue to grow for their entire life and end up about two metres long, perhaps three if you're lucky," Mr Poke said.

Merv Hut breeds Transylvanian Naked Neck chickens which, he concedes, are not the prettiest of birds.

"But I fell in love with them because they are so friendly," he crowed.

HD TV Snapshots from the ABC TV FREEVIEW Broadcast of the above news item,
22 August 2009.

Copyright ABC TV 2009.

Wellington Bridge 1910

2009-08-18T05:47:00.001+10:00

The outfall for the Hobart Rivulet which flowed from the foothills of Mount Wellington was into the River Derwent at the Domain. Here where it passed under the main street of Hobart - Elizabeth Street - the stretch of road was called Wellington Bridge, which was nothing more than a short span of arch. John Watt Beattie took over the Anson Bros. studio at Wellington Bridge in 1892 (the frontage visible above the arch).

The direction of the woman's gaze - looking away from the photographer and following the direction of the fast current - lends this photograph an air of unease. What was she doing there?

The slippery paved slopes of this rivulet have claimed several lives, some accidental and some not.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection:
Q14067
ITEM NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: Photograph negative glass plate,
TITLE: 'Hobart Rivulet - Wellington Bridge '
DATE: 1910 c

1850s National Song

2009-07-20T11:24:00.000+10:00

A National Song Dedicated to Lady Fox Young, wife of the Governor written ca. 1859. The lyrics of the final verse urge:

"Let our watchword still be 'Onward!' We will show to other Lands! What may be dared by Tasman hearts! And done by Tasman hands!"

Title: Our own Tasmanian home, words by E. La Mont ; music by J.S. La Mont. [music] :
Description: 1 score (6p.) ; 34 cm.
Published: Hobart Town : J. Walch & Sons, [1859?]
Notes:"Composed and dedicated by permission to Lady Young ..."--Cover.
"National song"--Cover.
For voice and piano.
In: Music by Tasmanian composers ; also in Songs (784.3 Son)

State Library of Tasmania Record number 25211166

Real Tennis

2009-06-27T15:55:00.000+10:00

Surprisingly few if any photographs which may have been taken in the mid-1870s are readily available of this indoor tennis court which was erected in 1874, and is still a functional club today (some structural modifcations have been made in the last decade). You can visit the Hobart Real Tennis Club and play a virtual game.

This sketch and text is from Historic Tasmania Sketchbook (Rigby 1977) with drawings by Max Angus, Frank Mather and Arthur Phillips. Text is by Patsy Adam Smith and Joan Woodberry.

The National Archives of Australia holds ONE image of the court, taken in 1971.

Title : Historical - Buildings - The Royal Tennis Club building in Davey Street, Hobart
Date : 1971
Image no. : A1200, L96147

Marcus Clarke's "...His Natural Life"

2009-06-27T08:56:00.000+10:00

Above: Marcus Clarke's hat, State Library of Victoria Collection

Want to browse Gutenberg’s plain text version of Marcus Clarke’s FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE?

The first few pages …

Link and source: For the Term of His Natural Life

by Marcus Clarke

DEDICATION

TO

SIR CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY

My Dear Sir Charles, I take leave to dedicate this work to you, not merely because your nineteen years of political and literary life in Australia render it very fitting that any work written by a resident in the colonies, and having to do with the history of past colonial days, should bear your name upon its dedicatory page; but because the publication of my book is due to your advice and encouragement.

The convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career. Either his exile has been the mysterious end to his misdeeds, or he has appeared upon the scene to claim interest by reason of an equally unintelligible love of crime acquired during his experience in a penal settlement. Charles Reade has drawn the interior of a house of correction in England, and Victor Hugo has shown how a French convict fares after the fulfilment of his sentence. But no writer–so far as I am aware–has attempted to depict the dismal condition of a felon during his term of transportation.

I have endeavoured in “His Natural Life” to set forth the working and the results of an English system of transportation carefully considered and carried out under official supervision; and to illustrate in the manner best calculated, as I think, to attract general attention, the inexpediency of again allowing offenders against the law to be herded together in places remote from the wholesome influence of public opinion, and to be submitted to a discipline which must necessarily depend for its just administration upon the personal character and temper of their gaolers.

Your critical faculty will doubtless find, in the construction and artistic working of this book, many faults. I do not think, however, that you will discover any exaggerations. Some of the events narrated are doubtless tragic and terrible; but I hold it needful to my purpose to record them, for they are events which have actually occurred, and which, if the blunders which produced them be repeated, must infallibly occur again. It is true that the British Government have ceased to deport the criminals of England, but the method of punishment, of which that deportation was a part, is still in existence. Port Blair is a Port Arthur filled with Indian-men instead of Englishmen; and, within the last year,France has established, at New Caledonia, a penal settlement which will, in the natural course of things, repeat in its annals the history of Macquarie Harbour and of Norfolk Island.

With this brief preface I beg you to accept this work.
I would that its merits were equal either to your kindness or to my regard.

I am,
My dear Sir Charles,
Faithfully yours,
MARCUS CLARKE

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, MELBOURNE

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE

BOOK I.–THE SEA. 1827.

I. THE PRISON SHIP
II. SARAH PURFOY
III. THE MONOTONY BREAKS
IV. THE HOSPITAL
V. THE BARRACOON
VI. THE FATE OF THE “HYDASPES”
VII. TYPHUS FEVER
VIII. A DANGEROUS CRISIS
IX. WOMAN’S WEAPONS
X. EIGHT BELLS
XI. DISCOVERIES AND CONFESSIONS
XII. A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH

BOOK II.–MACQUARIE HARBOUR. 1833.

I. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF VAN DIEMEN’S LAND
II. THE SOLITARY OF “HELL’S GATES”
III. A SOCIAL EVENING
IV. THE BOLTER
V. SYLVIA
VI. A LEAP IN THE DARK
VII. THE LAST OF MACQUARIE HARBOUR
VIII. THE POWER OF THE WILDERNESS
IX. THE SEIZURE OF THE “OSPREY”
X. JOHN REX’S REVENGE
XI. LEFT AT “HELL’S GATES”
XII. “MR.” DAWES
XIII. WHAT THE SEAWEED SUGGESTED
XIV. A WONDERFUL DAY’S WORK
XV. THE CORACLE
XVI. THE WRITING ON THE SAND
XVII. AT SEA

BOOK III.–PORT ARTHUR. 1838.

I. A LABOURER IN THE VINEYARD
II. SARAH PURFOY’S REQUEST
III. THE STORY OF TWO BIRDS OF PREY
IV. “THE NOTORIOUS DAWES”
V. MAURICE FRERE’S GOOD ANGEL
VI. MR. MEEKIN ADMINISTERS CONSOLATION
VII. RUFUS DAWES’S IDYLL
VIII. AN ESCAPE
IX. JOHN REX’S LETTER HOME
X. WHAT BECAME OF THE MUTINEERS OF THE “OSPREY”
XI. A RELIC OF MACQUARIE HARBOUR
XII. AT PORT ARTHUR
XIII. THE COMMANDANT’S BUTLER
XIV. MR. NORTH’S INDISPOSITION
XV. ONE HUNDRED LASHES
XVI. KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS
XVII. CAPTAIN AND MRS. FRERE
XVIII. IN THE HOSPITAL
XIX. THE CONSOLATIONS OF RELIGION
XX. A NATURAL PENITENTIARY
XXI. A VISIT OF INSPECTION
XXII. GATHERING IN THE THREADS
XXIII RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
XXIV. IN THE NIGHT
XXV. THE FLIGHT
XXVI. THE WORK OF THE SEA
XXVII. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH

BOOK IV.–NORFOLK ISLAND. 1846.

I. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH
II. THE LOST HEIR
III. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH
IV. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH
V. MR. RICHARD DEVINE SURPRISED
VI. IN WHICH THE CHAPLAIN IS TAKEN ILL
VII. BREAKING A MAN’S SPIRIT
VIII. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH
IX. THE LONGEST STRAW
X. A MEETING
XI. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF THE REV. JAMES NORTH
XII. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF MR. NORTH
XIII. MR. NORTH SPEAKS
XIV. GETTING READY FOR SEA
XV. THE DISCOVERY
XVI. FIFTEEN HOURS
XVII. THE REDEMPTION
XVIII. THE CYCLONE

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX

HIS NATURAL LIFE.

PROLOGUE.

On the evening of May 3, 1827, the garden of a large red-brick bow-windowed mansion called North End House, which, enclosed in spacious grounds, stands on the eastern height of Hampstead Heath, between Finchley Road and the Chestnut Avenue, was the scene of a domestic tragedy...

etc etc Read more …

Former convict Mrs Mary Gifford

2009-06-14T09:36:00.002+10:00

In 2006 this weblog posted the lower two portraits of former convict Mary Anne Gifford (nee Hunt). In 2007 the catalogue of the exhibition, The Painted Portrait Photograph in Tasmania 1850-1900, John McPhee curator, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Tasmania, appeared with a very similar portrait by W.P. Dowling (d.1877) of Mary Anne Hunt, although she is not identified by name by the curator. Her portrait on the frontispiece of catalogue is dated to ca. 1860. If she is the same sitter, these three portraits dated 1860, 1865, and the later one by the Anson brothers dated ca. 1880, show Mary Anne Hunt as a young woman, a young married woman, and a middle-aged woman, fond of lace collars and floral fascinators...

"Unknown woman", catalogue of the exhibition, The Painted Portrait Photograph in Tasmania 1850-1900, John McPhee curator, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Tasmania.
Photos of catalogue © Pinnacle Times for TP 2009 ARR.

Mrs Gifford (nee Hunt):
Title: Mary Anne Hunt : portrait
Creator(s):Dowling, William Paul, ca. 1824-1877

Date: ca. 1858Description: 1 painting : pastel on photographic enlargement ; 25 x 20 cm.

Notes: Attributed to William Paul Dowling by Henry Allport., Unsigned and undated.,

Exact measurements 242 x 194 mm. within mount. Framed under glass in wooden frame., Support x-ray tested: traces of silver, iron, bromine, chromium and lead.,

Note on reverse 'Mary Anne Hunt married Aeneas Gifford ; mother of Mrs. Charles Barclay'., Condition on accession: Acidic mount, straw/mill board backing. 2 cracks centre and lower edge. Exposed damage right side.

Subjects:Hunt, Mary Anne Women

Format: picture

Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001124067141

This portrait of Mrs Gifford looks remarkably like the former convict Mrs Gifford in the photo (below) by the Anson Bros. ca. 1880 (State Library of Tasmania Collection).

In both portraits Mrs Gifford is tightly strapped around the bosom. In the handtinted pastel portrait she is wearing the sort of whale bone corset which was like a hardcover book opened outwards with the spine wedged into the cleavage.

Title: Mrs. Gifford

Creator(s):Anson Bros

Date: 18--Description: 1 Kodak card photograph : sepia toned ; 14 X 9 cm.

Notes: Exact size:135 X 86 mm., "Sarah Ann Hunt, convicted Central Criminal Court, London, Augt. 22, 1842. 14 years"--written in pencil on verso in unknown hand., Head and shoulders inclined right.

Format: photograph

Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

ADRI: AUTAS001125645408

Title: Aeneas Gifford as an old man

Creator(s):Anson Bros

Date: 18--

Description: 1 photograph : sepia toned, hand pencilled highlights ; 25 X 20 cm.

Notes: Exact size: 244 X 193 mm., Three quarter length portrait of Mr. Gifford seated with a cane.

Subjects:Gifford, Aeneas Format: photographLocation: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

Below: Picasa album of photographed extracts from the catalogue of the exhibition, The Painted Portrait Photograph in Tasmania 1850-1900, John McPhee curator, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Tasmania, 2007-2008:

The Painted Photograph in Tasmania

Photos copyright © Pinnacle Times for TP 2009

Barnum's famous visitors

2009-06-09T12:23:00.000+10:00

General Stratton (Tom Thumb) and Mercy Lavinia Magri toured Tasmania with Barnum's in 1873.

Photographers: E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. (USA)

"General Tom Thumb and wife, in the indentical i.e. identical costumes worn before Emperor Louis Napoleon and Empress Eugenie, at the Palace of the Tuilleries, Nov. 29, 1864 [picture]

Date(s) of creation: [ca. 1864] photograph ;
albumen silver carte-de-visite : on carte-de-viste 10.7 x 6.5 cm."
Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria

Miniature Brass Photo Album with General Tom Thumb
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

Featured on the ABC program "The Collectors" 11th August, 2005

"It’s time for another object from the collection at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and Niccole Warren has it in her hand. It’s very tiny and that’s appropriate when referring to Tom Thumb.

It is a miniature brass photo album containing twelve portraits of little people, some from the wedding of a man known as General Tom Thumb (real name Charles Stratton) who was only 63.5cm (25 inches) tall! He was promoted by Barnham and Bailey Circus who travelled to Tasmania. When Tom Thumb farewelled the state in 1873, the photo album became a souvenir.It was donated to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery as a piece from a large private photographic collection."

Crew "For The Term of His Natural Life" 1927

2009-05-28T10:09:00.002+10:00

Although no details are given for this photograph of the film crew held at the Archives Office of Tasmania (Ref: 30-4148c), this group may include cinematographers Bert Cross, Len Roos, and John William Trerise.

Len Roos on the set 1926.

The joke? Social class, as defined by headwear. At the heart of Marcus Clarke's novel His Natural Life (1874) on which the film was based, is the anxiety of the declasse - a wrongly accused English aristocrat who is transported to the penal colonies, incarcerated, and who aspires to the love of the Commandant's daughter.

"If the cap fits, wear it..." as the saying goes. From left to right: the hat of the free settler farmer; the cap of the incarcerated convict; the bowler of the ruling gentry; and the battered hat of the ticket-of-leave servant.

The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery has an online exhibition of convict clothing, originally from the Beattie Collection:

Cap Felted grey woollen convict cap. ‘B O’ stamped in white paint inside cap

Beattie Collection QVM.2003.H.0571
QVMAG Collections

Original film details at the National Film and Sound Archive
Screensound Australia

Title No: 231
Title: FOR THE TERM OF HIS NATURAL LIFE
Date:Release From: 20 Jun 1927 To: - Production From: 1927 To: - Country of Origin: AustraliaMediums:Moving Image (Principal)Sub-mediums:Film (Principal)Class:Features/Telemovies/Telefeatures/Radio/TV playSub-Class:Silent film

Cast/Actor:George FisherBeryl GowJessica HarcourtMayne LyntonArthur McLaglenAugustus NevilleEva NovakArthur TauchertDunstan Webb
Cinematographer/Director of photography: Bert Cross Len Roos John William Trerise
Copyright contact: NFSA-controlled
Director: Norman Dawn
Editor (Film):Katherine Dawn Norman Dawn Mona Donaldson
Producer: Norman Dawn
Production company: Australasian Films

Summary
Based on Marcus Clarke's epic novel, this big budget film follows the fate of an English aristocrat, Rufus Dawes, transported for life to the convict settlement of Van Dieman's Land for a crime he did not commit, and his enduring love for Sylvia, the daughter of a prison governor. General notes: Four of the principals in the cast, Eva Novak, George Fisher, Steve Murphy and Katherine Dawn were Americans, as was the director, Norman Dawn and the principle cameraman, Len Roos. Shot on location in New South Wales at Berrima, Wombeyan Caves and Sydney Harbour, as well as in Tasmania at the ruins of the convict settlement at Port Arthur, the film portrays some fine scenes of the convicts in the penal colony and also puts on screen some special effects such as 'glass shots' which enabled Dawn to 'restore' roofs to the derelict buildings at Port Arthur. Hundreds of extras were employed on the film. The use of Americans in the production was hoped to ensure American release. There was public opposition to the film at the time it was made concerning its portrayal of this less favourable aspect of Australia's white history. Originally 10 000 feet of 35mm, surviving substantially complete at 2448 feet of 16mm. The film has been restored as a tinted 35mm print with music. Running time: 102 mins @ 18fps. Access copies: 35mm (restored, tinted, music), 16mm, video.

Subjects: Convicts

Marcus Clarke 1866

Courtesy State Library of Victoria Collection

Pampoleterion: unique to Tasmania

2009-05-23T05:38:00.004+10:00

Ask Google and Yahoo what a pampoleterion is, and just ONE result is returned - this photograph of a shop held at the Archives Office of Tasmania. The same photograph is catalogued online again at the State Library of Tasmania.

Caption:
Shop - 'M A Harding. Pampoleterion'. Window shows drapery and general wares. Unidentified location

Reference: PH40/1/345
Title:Shop
Subject:buildings, draperies, shops
Locality: not identified
Date:1880

Tasmanians like to think there are many unique aspects to their island, and they should proudly claim this old neologism (new word) because it is truly unique. It has stumped Google. How's that!

The Hursey Case

2009-03-23T21:21:00.000+11:00

A waterside worker 1950s.
Ref: AB713-1-4167
State Library of Tasmania collections

Waterside workers loaded ships on the waterfront during the boom times of the 1950s when Tasmania exported apples and other fruit world-wide. Their union came to national attention in October 1956 in what became known as the Hursey case.

Hursey and two other WWF members refused to pay a 10 shillings per head levy as a contribution to the Labour Government's election campaign. Their refusal to pay contravened two basic rules of unionism: action is taken collectively; and the decisions made by the majority apply to all members. Other members refused to work with Hursey and his supporters, and refused to recognise their membership. However, the Stevedoring Industry Authority took the view that it was still bound to register and roster Hursey and the other two on call for duty. Violence, pickets, police confrontation and a Supreme Court injunction ensued, and the issue was not resolved until 1958 when the High Court of Australia validated the right of Australian trade unions to make financial contributions to political parties for the improvement of members' working conditions.

Extract from:
"Trade Unions. The Political Levy. Conspiracy"
E. I. Sykes
The Modern Law Review, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 1960), pp. 90-94
This article consists of 5 page(s).

Click on image for readable version

Cadbury's poster 1950s

2009-03-23T10:02:00.000+11:00

Title: Cadbury's by mountain and sea, Claremont, Tasmania

Creator(s):Kelly, Harry Cadbury Schweppes Australia Limited

Date: 195-

Description: 1 poster : col. print of painting ; 29 x 57 cm.

Notes: Signed off centre lower edge., Framed in wooden frame., Measurement to inner edges of frames: 55 X 73 cm., by a Tasmanian

Subjects:Cadbury Schweppes Australia Limited - Posters

Format: poster

Location: Tasmaniana Library

ADRI: AUTAS001126077254

Superimposed images on postcards

2009-03-22T08:10:00.000+11:00

Two versions of the mash-up, 1920s-1930s:

Q6613 HCC1920/50
ITEM NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: Black and White Postcard ,
TITLE: 'Elizabeth Street near Liverpool Street looking towards G.P.O., boat superimposed.'
DATE: 1920 c.

Images courtesy of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Q9064
ITEM NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: postcard,
TITLE: 'Wharves : "Shipping Tasmanian Apples".'
DATE: 1930's

The Trouble with Merle Oberon

2009-03-21T08:55:00.000+11:00

Photograph of Constable Richard John THOMPSON and family,
including child claimed to be Merle Oberon.

Archives Office of Tasmania
Reference: PH30/1/9329
Title: Constable Thompson and Family
Date: 1940

Source: ABC TV Documentaries: The Trouble With Merle
First Broadcast: 29 August 2002 Rebroadcast 11 March 2007.

The Trouble With Merle

Merle Oberon was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1930s and 1940s. Studio publicists said she was born into a wealthy family in Hobart, Tasmania - Australia's island state.

In a biography that read like a film script they said that after her father's death Merle joined her aristocratic godparents in India.Yet rumour was that the exotic almond-eyed actress concealed her true past.

It was said she was actually "oriental," perhaps Anglo-Indian, and born in Calcutta. In Tasmania, many remain convinced she was their island's most famous daughter, born not to wealthy parents but to a Chinese hotel worker and her married employer.
The Trouble with Merle looks at celebrity, memory, identity, race and class...and at why Merle Oberon's origins mattered to people on a tiny island, in a country at the bottom of the world.

THE TROUBLE WITH MERLE

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

THE GERM OF THE IDEA

The idea for The Trouble with Merle evolved when I learned that the film star Merle Oberon visited Hobart in 1978 for a welcome home reception. I’d grown up believing Merle was a Tasmanian film legend – like Errol Flynn, she’d gone to Hollywood and become a big star. Merle was famous for her roles in Hollywood and British films of the 1930s and 40s - films like Wuthering Heights, Dark Angel, The Cowboy and the Lady, The Private Life of Henry V111. She was nominated for an Academy Award and was always written up as "the Tasmanian born movie star".

But sometime in the 1980s, and I can’t remember how, I heard that she wasn’t Tasmanian after all, that she was Indian. I didn’t think about Merle Oberon for another twenty years, until by chance, the curious fact of her 1978 visit to Hobart came my way. If Merle was actually from India, why at this late stage in her life would she accept an invitation to a welcome home reception in Hobart? It seemed very odd and worth researching. Producer David Noakes thought so too, and we began a two year journey exploring Merle’s past.

Charles Higham’s biography "Princess Merle" (which he wrote with Roy Moseley) first revealed that Merle was actually Anglo-Indian. Higham argues that Merle’s Tasmanian provenance was concocted by British film producer Alexander Korda’s film studio in London after Merle had arrived there from India.

In the movies at that time, a woman of mixed race was not acceptable. The racism of the period made it very explicit: Merle’s Anglo-Indian background was a major obstacle to her becoming a star. Tasmania was chosen as her new birthplace because it was so far from the USA and Europe and was generally considered to be "British" to its core. So Estelle Thompson from Bombay became Merle Oberon, a white upper class Hobart girl who moves to India from Tasmania after her distinguished father dies in a hunting accident.

Higham writes that after Hobart Council's invitation to Merle in 1978, it was discovered that there was no record of her Tasmanian birth. According to Higham, the Lord Mayor decided to go ahead with the function in order to save face and Merle attended the reception not knowing that she’d been sprung!

However, when I travelled to Tasmania to research the welcome home reception, I discovered a completely different story.

TASMANIA

According to guests who attended the welcome home reception, Merle Oberon was most definitely Tasmanian. But instead of subscribing to the studio story of Merle’s Tasmanian birth and its fantasy of wealth, class and "whiteness", the Tasmanians I spoke to were adamant that the film star was the daughter of a Tasmanian woman called Lottie Chintock from the now-disappeared Chinese tin mining community in the north-east of the island.

What struck me while filming in Tasmania was the passionate conviction of many people that Merle was both Tasmanian and Lottie Chintock’s daughter. Merle had died in 1979, but 23 years later many Tasmanians were still concerned that Charles Higham’s biography was "taking Merle away" from them and were very enthusiastic about speaking in the film and putting their side of the story. And, as we filmed and talked with them, their stories began to convince me! Fascinating stories of Indian silk merchants adopting little Merle after Lottie Chintock is forced to give her up, or a troupe of travelling actors called O’Brien taking her to India, hence the Indian connection; Tasmanians with family connections to Merle – a grandmother who was the midwife who delivered her, an aunt and uncle who saw her playing on the beach.

Lottie Chintock was a real person too – from the small, north-eastern town of Weldborough. Although she’d been dead for fifty years, the memory of her was very strong in Tasmania. I was contacted by her nephew Peter Lawrence who had photos of Lottie and stories about her longing for her lost daughter Merle. Was Lottie Merle’s mother? I wanted her to be – but in the Tasmanian Archives there was no official record for anyone who could remotely approximate Merle, or be a daughter for Lottie. Yet Lottie’s story is still told today in Tasmania. Did Lottie have a little girl? Was she taken from her? What happened to her?

Tasmanian writer Cassandra Pybus, who appears in the film, believes that Tasmania’s distance from the rest of the European world in the first half of last century contributed to Tasmanians’ ‘need’ for someone like Merle. She was famous, beautiful and glamorous, and represented everything Tasmanians longed for in a time of limited communication with the rest of the world. The irony was, that no matter how hard the film studio worked to describe Merle as a white upperclass Tasmanian, the island’s community, with its small population and rigid hierarchies of class and race, knew she wasn’t - and yet, they longed to embrace her. Their explanation, that she was from the Chinese community "up north", that she was illegitimate and of mixed race, in a great irony, landed Merle right back in the place the studio had tried to hide.

INDIA

Filming in India produced ironies too. If this was Merle's birthplace, it was nearly impossible to find any record. In the film, we go to the school Merle supposedly attended in Calcutta, and learn that, yes, the headmistress remembers her – but only on the screen: "I think she is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen". Later, through an article in a newspaper, I strike it lucky. There are still people in Calcutta who remember Merle.

An article about my search for people with information produced Dorothy Colah. Dorothy, now in her 90s, knew Merle as a teenager in Calcutta and was convinced she was Anglo-Indian. Later in Mumbai (Bombay) we interviewed a priest whose mother had babysat Merle. The priest, Father Richard Lane Smith, had also gone to school with a man called Harry Selby. In Higham’s biography, this was the man who proved that Merle was Anglo-Indian – she was his aunt – or so I thought.

CANADA

After a false lead or two, I found Harry Selby in Toronto. Here I discovered completely new information about Merle’s birth. Although Harry Selby had told Charles Higham that he was Merle’s nephew and had found Merle’s birth certificate in Mumbai, it seems Harry had held information back from the biographer. What he had in fact discovered when he found Merle’s birth certificate deep in the bowels of the Indian government records office, was a deeply guarded family secret of which even he was unaware: Merle Oberon was not his aunt, she was his sister.

It seems Harry’s mother Constance Selby had given birth to Merle when she was 15 and her mother had taken the baby and raised Merle as her own preventing Merle’s real mother from claiming her. When Harry learned that his mother was Merle’s mother and not her sister, it helped him to understand why his mother always fretted for Merle. Merle, however, never directly acknowledged the Selby family, except by sending them small amounts of money from time to time. When Harry tried to visit Merle, now famous and living in Los Angeles, she refused to acknowledge him.

THE WELCOME HOME RECEPTION IN HOBART

Merle Oberon accepted an invitation to a welcome home reception in Hobart in 1978, the year before she died. If she wasn’t Tasmanian, why did she go there? This is the question which set the film in motion and it’s the question we return to at its end.

Charles Higham suggests in The Trouble with Merle that it was on the urging of Merle’s fourth husband, the much younger Robert Wolders, that she came to Hobart. Robert wanted to see her birthplace. Had she not told him the truth?

For many Tasmanians, then and now, Merle’s visit to Hobart is proof of her Tasmanian birth. They ask in the film, "why would she come if she wasn’t Tasmanian?" And it’s a reasonable question - Hobart is certainly a long way from Hollywood. Whatever her intention, Merle appears to have found the visit more difficult than she anticipated. She refused to give interviews to the local press, hiding away in the Wrest Point Casino where she and Robert were staying; on the way to the welcome home reception she told her Tasmanian driver a completely different story of her birth, claiming she was travelling on a ship that was passing Hobart when her father became ill and that as a result she spent her early years in Tasmania; at the reception she denied she was born in Tasmania much to the disappointment of people there and finally, when it all got too much, she had a mini-collapse at the event and had to be helped from the room. As biographer Higham says in the film, "It was a tragedy. She should never have gone there."

Merle left Tasmania shortly after the reception fiasco and died in Los Angeles the following year. The banners on newspapers at the time proclaimed: "Tasmanian-born movie star dies in the US".

THEMES

Loss and longing underpin the film’s journey through Tasmania, India and Canada. Lottie Chintock, the Chinese-Tasmanian woman lost a daughter she believed became the movie star Merle Oberon; Anglo-Indian Constance Selby lost her daughter when she gave birth at fifteen and kept the secret from her family all her life; Merle Oberon lost her identity, her country and her mother. Tasmanians who still care about Merle Oberon believe anybody supporting the Anglo-Indian story is taking Merle away from them.

Another theme explored in The Trouble with Merle is that of isolation and the desire to belong. Tasmanian writer Cassandra Pybus argues in the film that in the earlier part of the 20th century, just as the film studio needed Tasmania, Tasmanians needed Merle Oberon. She represented glamour, beauty and a connection to the centre of the world at that time – Hollywood. "She proved you could leave, and become very, very famous".

Who would have thought that lying underneath the veneer of celebrity and glitter surrounding Merle was a poignant tale of loss and longing?

Marée Delofski Writer/director

THE TROUBLE WITH MERLE

BIOGRAPHIES

Marée Delofski

Marée Delofski’s most recent film was A Calcutta Christmas (1998) which she wrote and directed. The Film Australia documentary received the following awards and nominations:

Silver Images Film Festival 1999 USA Winner: Best of Festival, Documentary

Intercom 1999 USA Winner: Gold Plaque, Documentary

NY Festivals 1999 USA Winner: Bronze World Medal, Documentary

Mumbai Int Film Festival India Winner: Silver Conch

San Francisco Int Film Festival USA Winner: Certificate of Merit

EthnoFilm Festival Berlin Honourable Mention

International Documentary Ass USA Nominated: IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award

AFI Awards 1999 Nominated: Best Documentary & Best Direction in a Documentary

Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards Finalist: Best Australian Documentary

Marée’s filmmaking career began in London with the documentary workshop Cinema Action, where she worked on a number of projects, most notably, The Dockers Film – Arise Ye Workers which she co-directed and edited. This film won a Silver Dove at Leipzig International Film Festival.

In Australia she has produced the feature length documentary Philippines, My Philippines which was nominated for two AFI Awards: Best Documentary and Best Cinematography in a Documentary. The film received an Honourable Mention at San Francisco and was invited into competition at Yamagata (Japan) and Festival dei Popoli (Italy). The film was sold to nine territories and completed a successful six week theatrical season in Australia as well as screening on SBS TV. Marée has also written and directed short drama: The Lost Thoughts of Chairman Mao, Bats Over Sydney and Every Little Breeze (screened Sydney Film Festival and internationally, Finalist: ATOM Awards – Best Short Drama, selected for AFC showreel Cannes).

Marée teaches and consults regularly at the Australian Film Television and Radio School where she designed the MA Documentary – Directing course (and was the first Head of Documentary) and has been Project Coordinator (Film Development) for the AFC.

(remainder of article gives biographical details of producer David Noakes ... )

The Trouble with Merle

Written & directed by MARÉE DELOFSKI
Produced by DAVID NOAKES
Director of Photography HIMMAN DHAMIJA
Editors ANDREW PLAIN REVA CHILDS MELANIE SANDFORD
Location Sound CHRIS BOLLARD
Music by JAN PRESTON
Script Editor DAVID NOAKES

© 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A selection of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes

2009-03-13T14:47:00.007+11:00

A selection of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
Courtesy of the State Library of Tasmania, Digital Island - Museums. Details available online at the State Library of Tasmania preserved pages.

TMAG Catalogue:
ITEM NAME: Photograph:
MEDIUM: Daguerreotype full plate 200mm by 156mm,
MAKER: J W Newland [Artist];
TITLE: 'Murray Street '
DATE: 1848 Hobart,

View this album at Picasa

TMAG daguerrotypes and ambrotypes

Wilfred Batty and his Tasmanian Tiger

2009-02-24T11:53:00.007+11:00

Source: State Library of Tasmania eHeritage
Date: 1930 -

Description: Wilfred Batty of Mawbanna, Tasmania, with the last Tasmanian Tiger known to have been shot in the wild. He shot the tiger in May, 1930 after it was discovered in his hen house.

Format: Pictorial and artistic works
Object: photographs
Titles:
Wilfred Batty of Mawbanna, Tasmania, with a Tasmanian Tiger
Subjects: Tasmanian tigers; hunting
People/Orgs: Batty, Wilfred
Places: Mawbanna, Tasmania
Institution: Circular Head Heritage Centre
Object number: CHH_00960

The National Museum of Australia, Canberra, has a single viewing room for this exhibit of the thylacine.

Click on images
Photos © Pinnacle Times for TP 2009 ARR

Charles Darwin in 1836 and 2009

2009-02-19T09:02:00.014+11:00

EXTRACT

Photo by Julia Margaret Cameron 1870

Extract from Charles Darwin's account of his visit to Hobart, February 1836 aboard the Beagle.

From Chapter XIX:

Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle.
London : H. Colburn, 1839.

"The Beagle stayed here ten days, and in this time I made several pleasant little excursions, chiefly with the object of examining the geological structure of the immediate neighbourhood.

The main points of interest consist, first in some highly fossiliferous strata, belonging to the Devonian or Carboniferous period; secondly, in proofs of a late small rise of the land; and lastly, in a solitary and superficial patch of yellowish limestone or travertin, which contains numerous impressions of leaves of trees, together with land-shells, not now existing. It is not improbable that this one small quarry includes the only remaining record of the vegetation of Van Diemen's Land during one former epoch.

The climate here is damper than in New South Wales, and hence the land is more fertile. Agriculture flourishes; the cultivated fields look well, and the gardens abound with thriving vegetables and fruit-trees. Some of the farmhouses, situated in retired spots, had a very attractive appearance. The general aspect of the vegetation is similar to that of Australia; perhaps it is a little more green and cheerful; and the pasture between the trees rather more abundant.

One day I took a long walk on the side of the bay opposite to the town: I crossed in a steamboat, two of which are constantly plying backwards and forwards. The machinery of one of these vessels was entirely manufactured in this colony, which, from its very foundation, then numbered only three and thirty years! Another day I ascended Mount Wellington; I took with me a guide, for I failed in a first attempt, from the thickness of the wood. Our guide, however, was a stupid fellow, and conducted us to the southern and damp side of the mountain, where the vegetation was very luxuriant; and where the labour of the ascent, from the number of rotten trunks, was almost as great as on a mountain in Tierra del Fuego or in Chiloe. It cost us five and a half hours of hard climbing before we reached the summit. In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed a noble forest.

In some of the dampest ravines, tree- ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one which must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour of the night.

The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is 3100 feet above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view; to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline: to the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with clearness before us. After staying some hours on the summit, we found a better way to descend, but did not reach the Beagle till eight o'clock, after a severe day's work. (Feb. 6, 1836: pp 486-7) "

[end of extract]

Darwin's astonishment at the magnificence of these ferns was repeated by Tasmanian photographers right through to the 1900s in endless variations. Ferns laden with snow was a particularly popular image. The State Library of Tasmania holds hundreds of photos taken by Clifford, Anson, Cawston, Abbott, Allport, Haigh, Winter, Baily and every other photographer between 1860-1880.

At least five stereographs of ferns by Thomas Nevin are held at the Tasmanian Musueum and Art Gallery, dated to ca. 1870.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collections

Q1994.56.13 Fern Trees Sepia Stereo on Salt Paper ca. 1870

Q1994.56.13 ITEM NAME: Photograph: MEDIUM: sepia salt paper stereoscope , MAKER: T Nevin [Artist]; DATE: 1870c DESCRIPTION : Fern Tree ? INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impress on front: T Nevin/ photo

Q16826.34 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns. Possibly near Hobart, maybe Mt.Wellington or Kangaroo Valley.

Q16826.33 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope, MAKER: TJ Nevin [Photographer]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns. Possibly near Hobart, maybe Mt.Wellington.

Q16826.31 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia coloured stereoscope, MAKER: Nevin ? [Artist]; DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : Ferns With Snow. Ferns with snow, possibly at KangarooValley. (LenahValley)

Q16826.30 ITEM NAME: photograph: MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia coloured stereoscope, MAKER: T J Nevin ? [Artist]; TITLE: 'FernsKangarooValley.' DATE: 1870s DESCRIPTION : (Lenah Valley)

INTERVIEW with a CHARLES DARWIN DESCENDANT

Source of image: Charles Darwin University

Source: ABC Radio National Science Show

TRANSCRIPT

Robyn Williams: So we begin with a Hollywood movie called The Runaway Jury, starring Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and John Cusack. What's that got to do with Darwin?

[excerpt from The Runaway Jury]

Robyn Williams: Part of The Runaway Jury. That, like other films written for the likes of Bruce Willis, Victoria Tennant or Kevin Kline, was by Matthew Chapman, Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson, or one of them. Mathew Chapman also wrote the marvellous memoir Trials of the Monkey on how he went to visit Dayton Tennessee where the Scopes monkey trial was held in the 1920s, putting Charles Darwin, his ancestor, right in the dock.

Here's Matthew Chapman with Mike McRae reflecting on the USA, creationism and the modern world.

Matthew Chapman: Also you're living in a country where there are all kinds of strange disparities, where you have the richest nation on Earth with 11 million children living in poverty, the richest nation on Earth where you have people who have billions of dollars and people who can't afford health care. And I think in the education system you have the same thing; at the top end you have Stanford and Harvard and Caltech, and at the bottom end you have little communities like Dover Pennsylvania where the last intelligent design trial took place where in fact there was a very good science class, a wonderful teacher there, but the money that was being provided was not huge and the emphasis on science was not great.

You know, it's going to cost this country very dearly, I think. You have India and other countries in the east that are graduating way more scientists, and science in general enjoys much more respect and dignity and status in those countries. And the fact is that in this country, 50% of the growth of the American economy since WWII has come out of science and technology, and we're about to start losing that innovation, it's slipping away to India and China, and manufacturing jobs too. So unless something happens to improve science education, people are going to be hit in the way that they do care about, which is money.

Mike McRae: Concerning your travels through the southern states of the US you've remarked on how friendly and warm the people are. Obviously having a belief in evolution isn't really necessary for people to live happy and fulfilling lives. What do you think these people are missing out on?

Matthew Chapman: I think they're missing out on a grander view of the universe on one end, that actually if you look at the religious myths that people like to believe in, of God slapping it together in six days and resting on the seventh day, compared to the concept of the Big Bang, if one could absorb the concept of that enormous amount of time that the universe has had to develop, that is a much grander view of life. That's at the top end of it.

At the bottom end, I think that not having a scientific rational view makes life harder to live, and when you have problems you're probably less able to deal with them and sort them out. I think there are many practical things that have to be done to do with the environment where science will be very valuable and necessary in issues that have to be understood in a scientific way if we're to survive and be healthy. I think that's what they're missing out on; a proper understanding of reality.

Mike McRae: Evolution seems to present for many a fear of humans not being overly special as far as living things go. How do you think these individuals would rationalise the discovery of life arising on other planets into their religious perspective?

Matthew Chapman: [laughs] With great difficulty. Well, maybe not, maybe they'd say, well, God is working in a different way on this planet and now he's developing it in the Darwinian way whereas here he did it in seven days. I don't know. I think it's really the difference between Christianity and Buddhism; Christianity puts man at the centre and Buddhism is much more to do with getting peace in life out of seeing how small and insignificant you are. I think I favour that approach more but that's just because I'm a self-loathing Brit. (laughs)

Robyn Williams: Matthew Chapman, Darwin's great-great-grandson was with Mike McRae of CSIRO in Canberra. Chapman's films can be looked up on his website, but I recommend his book as well, Trials of the Monkey.

Chris Darwin, who lives in the Blue Mountains, is also part of the family, as is Randal Keynes who wrote the book Annie's Box. Chris, have you ever met Professor Keynes?

Chris Darwin: I know Randal Keynes, so I've met him...actually we had dinner with him last time I was over in London. Matthew Chapman, I didn't ever realise he was a relative, although I think I'd heard of him because of his film work because he was pretty successful, but I didn't even realise he was a relation. But there is actually a list now of all the descendents. Lots of them, I should say, presumably he's on the list.

Robyn Williams: Any others in Australia?

Chris Darwin: I don't think so. Apparently Fitzroy, who was the captain of the ship, apparently there's a Fitzroy in Australia.

Robyn Williams: Very sadly of course Fitzroy killed himself in the end, didn't he.

Chris Darwin: Yes, and some people say that Charles may have even contributed to the angst that he clearly had.

Robyn Williams: Of course Fitzroy was a creationist and he was very much a Bible believer in the conventional sense, and so he was horrified to have been so involved himself, to some extent, on The Beagle adventure.

Chris Darwin: Absolutely, and at the Oxford trial he apparently was wringing his hands as he left the Oxford debate, saying...I've forgotten what he said. He did say something desperate, I've forgotten exactly what it was, but 'oh dear, I'm partly responsible.'

Robyn Williams: Going back to Randal Keynes, the book Annie's Box...well, that's what it's called in Australia and Britain...you've presumably read it?

Chris Darwin: Oh dear! (laughs) This is going to be embarrassing because you're going to ask me next if I've read The On Origin of Species aren't you? He is! Oh no! I tell you what, it's so embarrassing, I have sat down on a number of occasions, mostly because every now and again people say...sometimes on radio programs and this is even worse, 'Have you ever read it?' So I had to say once 'no' and I said (to myself) 'you've got to read this'. And it's embarrassing to say and people think it's so unfair of me, but actually I have never found a better way...if you have problems sleeping, On The Origin of Species, I reckon...I'm not being mean to Charlie because he was just so convinced the audience of his theory...it's just evidence after evidence after evidence and I can't get through it. And I promise you I would have tried to read it five times. Have you read it?

Robyn Williams: No! I've read parts, let's be fair, and I've also read the film script of Origin, as it's called, by John Collee based on Annie's Box, Randal Keynes' book, which of course is going to be the movie out this year, so that's called Origin as well and it looks very exciting indeed. No, I have read parts of Origin and I must say the output of Charles Darwin has been absolutely gigantic. If you look at the material that's on worms, for example, or on all those invertebrates, and the orchids, and on it goes. So have you looked at any of them?

Chris Darwin: I have read Voyage of The Beagle cover to cover. It actually is a good read as well. But as for all the other ones, no.

Robyn Williams: Do you know anything about his politics? Was he a Whig or was he a Tory?

Chris Darwin: That's a good question. I'm going to go for Whig but I'm only guessing.

Robyn Williams: He is a bit Whiggish, but of course there's a slightly dark side where they talk about social Darwinism as if only the elite should pass muster and the rest can really go to the wall, and eugenics, which was a bit of a mistake in the middle of the 20th century, which seemed in some people's ideas...like, Julian Huxley, of all people, a very liberal person, who was head of the British eugenics movement. So there were some things that applied Darwin's ideas which were, as I say, on the dark side. But as for his actual politics...

Chris Darwin: I think you're probably onto something. I think we can't be too unfair on him, Charlie, because he was a man of his day. But suddenly...when you read about what he said in Australia, for example. Have you got some quotes? There are some pretty frightening quotes which I'd prefer not to be read out loud, but I think it does show that he was not of the view that...there was a view in those days that if you were from the criminal class, that was pretty much where you were going to stay. And then suddenly he came to Australia and found all these people who had been criminals ten years ago were land owners, large tracts of land, and he found it a bit shocking I think.

Robyn Williams: Frank Nicholas from the University of Sydney has written extensively...you know Frank of course...

Chris Darwin: Yes.

Robyn Williams: ...and you walk in the Blue Mountains together on Darwin's Walk, don't you.

Chris Darwin: Yes, we do. We did that last week actually. Darwin's Walk is a lovely walk. It's basically a stroll that Darwin took almost before breakfast, and it ends up at this just gob-smacking view as the Wentworth Falls creek falls over the cliff. He came along this walk and was suitably blown away. It's rather exciting because this guy...Charlie had been travelling for four years at this stage around the world, he'd seen some pretty amazing sights, so he wasn't someone who was going to be easily impressed, and he was a bit tired frankly of travelling, and you can see it when you read The Voyage of The Beagle. But when he got to the edge of Wentworth Falls he started gushing with all sorts of words like 'magnificent' and 'splendid' and all these sorts of great words. So it's a nice walk, an easy walk as well, which is fun. I do guide it actually.

Robyn Williams: And that is your actual job, you're a guide?

Chris Darwin: Well, not just that walk but really I take people canyoning and abseiling and some rock climbing. So that's what I do most of the time.

Robyn Williams: Involved in the Australian bush.

Chris Darwin: Yes.

Robyn Williams: And you occasionally come across Darwin's particular walk. Do you necessarily announce it when you're taking people through?

Chris Darwin: Oh yes, you can't be too shy. Generally when I do Darwin's Walk, which I've only done four times or something, they pick me as the guide because...if someone rings up and says, 'We want to have a guide for Charles Darwin's Walk,' they say, 'Have I to someone for you! I've got the direct descendent.' And generally the hardest bit to start off with is actually convincing the clients you're not a fraud. They go, 'Can we see your passport?' or 'Have you got your driver's licence.' So it's quite funny.

Robyn Williams: And apart from that, when it's not 2009, in a normal year, do you think much about Darwin?

Chris Darwin: It's very hard to tell. Everybody has a sort of lift in life; some people have got a nice voice like you have, some people are beautiful, and some people are funny and some people have great brains. My lift in life has been Charles Darwin, it's been so useful to me. So I suppose I do. And I definitely think about the way he thinks because you have any challenge, whatever it is you're doing, there is something incredibly attractive and powerful about his particular style of deep thought which I definitely try and use, and I find it very useful to do so.

Most people think in a shallow way, they maybe go back a couple of links in the logical chain, if ever. But Charles was a man who went back ten logical steps and found some, he would claim, errors in the logical chain. I definitely try and do that. So in answer to your question 'Does he affect me day to day?', yes, he does because he just makes you think and ask that lovely question which was the question he was constantly asking himself as he travelled the world all his life; why? That was his word.

Robyn Williams: Chris Darwin on 'the word' and his ancestor Charles. Chris Darwin lives in the Blue Mountains.

[end of transcript]

EXHIBITIONS

Darwin Exhibition at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra

Photo © Pinnacle Times for TP 2009 ARR

Truganini's time as a bushranger

2009-02-13T07:55:00.004+11:00

Listen Now - 08022009 |Download Audio - 08022009

Source: ABC Radio National Hindsight 8th February 2009

One of the most familiar names in the story of Australian colonisation is that of the Tasmanian Aboriginal woman 'Truganini'. But for most people the story begins and ends with a single, very famous photo, along with a label describing her simply as the last of the full-blood Tasmanian Aborigines.

Not only was that label deeply misleading, we now know that Truganini's life is one of the most significant foundation stories of European settlement in Australia. But there's still one story that few people know about and about which little has been written—it's the extraordinary tale of Truganini's time as a bushranger.

TRANSCRIPT

Newspaper: Intelligence reached town yesterday of a horrible outrage committed at the Coal Mining Company's station at Cape Patterson by two of the Van Diemen's Land Blacks ...

Shirley Westaway: The first I knew of Truganini in Victoria was when I found she was a member of a party where one of our ancestors had been wounded.

James Boyce: I don't know why Truganini pursued the acts of resistance that she did at Port Phillip, but you don't see your family members being killed before your eyes, you don't see a whole way of life ravaged, your community broken up without a massive effect on you.

Lyndall Ryan: We have to remember that Melbourne is pretty well surrounded by a war zone by the early 1840s. The colonists could not be trusted to leave the Aborigines in peace.

Newspaper: The warrants for the execution of the Van Diemen's Land Blacks, now in jail under sentence of death for the crime of murder, have arrived by the...

Lyndall Ryan: Isn't it extraordinary, the first hangings in Victoria are two Tasmanian Aborigines.

James Boyce: When we talk about them as political actors, when we talk about them as creating their own destiny, not just as victims, we need to do it remembering the reality of the options they had before them. And most of the time they don't have any options.

Lyndall Ryan: If Truganini had been convicted she would have been the first woman to have been hanged in Victoria.

Greg Lehman: I see her as representing a beginning, because the women of her generation, they were the beginning of the new Tasmanian Aboriginal world.

Michael Shirrefs: Like many people of my generation growing up in the 1960s and '70s, my knowledge of a person called Truganini began and ended with a single photo, the image of an old woman, with the caption 'Last of the full-blood Tasmanian Aborigines'.

It said nothing of who she was, why she was the last, what happened to her, what happened to the others, in fact it left everything up to the imagination. And while I felt a certain pity for this woman with the defiant stare, without any more information I was left to assume, and I assumed that Truganini was a passive victim.

We now know that labelling Truganini as the last of her people was, at best, deeply misleading and simplistic, because the descendents of these Tasmanian Aborigines continued, not on their tribal lands, but mostly on the islands to the north of Tasmania in Bass Straight. And thanks to a great many researchers and historians, we also have a much clearer picture of the extraordinary role that Truganini played in the unfolding drama of 19th century Van Diemen's Land.

But even finding all that about Truganini didn't prepare me for the discovery that she had travelled to Port Phillip—site of the present-day Melbourne—and that she'd eventually run off to an area of Victoria that I know well, where she became a bushranger, an outlaw. Suddenly the two-dimensional passive victim had become a three-dimensional, complex and very real human being. And suddenly, she was in my world, my landscape.

But to understand how she got here we need to know where she came from. Her story starts on Bruny Island, just south of Hobart.

Beverley Davis: I'm Beverley Davis and I've been on Bruny for about 35 years, and I'm the coordinator of the historical society. And with my husband's family's background, the Davises, who've been here since the first...well, they were the first family to settle on Bruny Island in 1824, certainly one of the major subjects that I got really involved in was the Aboriginal occupation before settlement on Bruny, in particular for Truganini who was born on Bruny in 1812 which was after there were already things happening as in woodcutters and explorers had been and gone with her forebears and interaction, and she would have heard all these stories. So she had a foot in both worlds because she could really communicate with everyone.

Michael Shirrefs: James Boyce is an historian based in Hobart, and he's the author of a book called Van Diemen's Land.

James Boyce: The context in which Truganini is born is after the British have arrived, and the Bruny Island people have already had long experience with Europeans, longer experience with Europeans than almost any other Aboriginal people on the Australian continent. Adventure Bay on Bruny Island has been a refuge for whalers and South Sea explorers going back to the 1770s. And the numbers that are coming, it's not just...most people are familiar with the French explorers and the most famous of the British explorers like Captain Cook, but they're only the minority of the visitors. The largest number of visitors are the South Sea whalers. Many of them are American, particularly to Adventure Bay where ships would call in for fresh food, for fuel, for timber, for fresh water, just for rest, safe anchorage time out. And it was a well-known place of refuge. So the Bruny Island people are pretty European savvy, but around the time Truganini is born it's moving into a much darker phase.

Beverley Davis: By the time George Augustus Robinson came to the island in 1829 he had contact with Truganini as one of the first people to see at the little ration station they'd set up to attract the Aborigines to be somewhere they could find them when they came here. And certainly by then she was a teenager and very attuned to her surroundings and knew all the tricks of the trade with finding where the food was and gathering eggs and certainly diving and swimming for the shellfish.

Lyndall Ryan: I'm Lyndall Ryan, I'm an historian, and I've written a book called The Aboriginal Tasmanians. Truganini was 18 when she met Robinson on Bruny Island in 1829. She was living with a whaling community...there was a whalers camp at Adventure Bay. And the first Aboriginal person that Robinson met on Bruny Island was Woorraddy and his wife died and one of his children died and he was very keen to get a new partner, and he mentioned to Robinson that there was this woman that he was very interested in and her name was Truganini.

So Robinson went to the whalers camp and encouraged Truganini and a couple of the other Aboriginal women to some to his new camp that he was setting up, and he kind of arranged for Woorraddy to take Truganini on board. So in a sense Robinson was playing a paternal role in trying to consolidate his friendship with Woorraddy who was the most important Aboriginal person for Robinson at that stage.

So when Robinson decides that he really needs to go over to the west coast to meet other Aborigines, he gets the idea from Woorraddy and Truganini. They both have relatives around the south-west and the west of the island, and a group of people from Port Davey visited Bruny Island during the winter of 1829 but they became ill and many of them died. But Robinson realised that this was a way forward to make contact with Aborigines on the other side of the frontier, and that Truganini and Woorraddy were going to be key people in performing diplomatic service to make contact with these people on the other side of the frontier. And they remain with Robinson for the next four to five years while he performs this extraordinary task.

Michael Shirrefs: These expeditions became known as the Friendly Missions, and they were George Augustus Robinson's antidote to the escalating war being waged by settlers, convicts and the military against the indigenous people of Van Diemen's Land.

James Boyce: Truganini decides to join Robinson, along with a number of other Aborigines, partly to...presumably because the number of options are getting even less...almost all her own people are dead by this time, either been killed or died from disease. There is some evidence from what she said later in life that she did believe that this was the last chance to save her people. She had very few options, and she can either stay on Bruny Island which is being overrun by a vagabond collection of whites and all the brutality that went with that, or she can go with Robinson. And Robinson was a friendly...someone who treated her with some degree of respect.

And that first expedition of nine months right up through the west coast, an extraordinary journey that we know about through Robinson's own journal, is a journey of peace. There's no attempt to remove or deceive Aboriginal people, they just meet with them and talk with them, and relationships and trust are formed, and presumably a degree of relationship and trust is formed between Truganini and Robinson.

Lyndall Ryan: And certainly Truganini saves Robinson's life in 1832 when he's stranded at the Arthur River on the wrong side of the river and Aborigines are throwing spears at him and she ferries him across the turbulent Arthur River on a raft and gets him safely to the other side. And it's really this story that gets into the Hobart press that brings Truganini into the public world in Tasmania, and it's from that moment we begin to get the first drawings of Truganini that are made by Benjamin Duterrau and then later by Thomas Bock. So from that moment Truganini kind of enters colonial history in Tasmania through this extraordinary act of saving Robinson's life, and it's from that moment that, in a sense, the colonial public takes an interest in Truganini. Who is this beautiful young woman? What is she doing? How did she save his life? And what is going to happen to her next?

James Boyce: That first expedition has no outcome, but what happens is we have the Black Line then, and the whole fighting escalated to another degree. And some Aborigines of the settled districts in Robinson's subsequent expeditions agree to temporary (it's clearly temporary) removal until the fighting abates. But the real tragedy is the fighting ceases then in the new year of January 1832, ceases virtually altogether, and only about a third to a quarter of the Aborigines removed by Robinson had been removed at that time.

And then the clearances of the west coast began, this area of still intact Aboriginal Tasmania, even though the British didn't want the land and didn't want the resources. In the area that they were evacuating from, the few sheep that were there were being pulled out because it was too wet. Macquarie Harbour, the main British settlement there, the penal station, was being closed because it was too remote. So the British were pulling out, and at the same time Robinson and Arthur decided on this terrible policy of removing every single last Aborigine from the island, whether they'd been engaged in fighting the British or not, whether they were any threat to the British or not.

They wanted an island...the mainland of Van Dieman's Land to be free of every last one. And Robinson is put on this awful contract...you know, suggests this awful contract and it's agreed to, where he gets this massive bonus if he clears every last person, there's not one left. It's a shocking crime in the annals of...by any standards, in the British Empire in the 19th century.

Lyndall Ryan: We have to remember that Arthur ordered Robinson to go and bring in the groups on the west coast in 1832, 1833 and 1834. And while James Boyce argues that this was a form of ethnic cleansing...a view that I don't necessarily agree with because they believed that to leave the Aborigines there, they would simply be killed by the settlers who were completely uncontrollable. They'd be killed by sealers, by whalers, by escaped convicts, by stockkeepers. In other words, the colonists could not be trusted to leave the Aborigines in peace, and that if they did not take the opportunity to bring in the rest of the Aborigines, even if a number would die from disease, it was better that they died in the arms of God than being killed out there on the frontier by the colonists. And we have to remember, that was what drove Robinson.

So when they get to Flinders Island, when the Friendly Mission is finally over by early 1835 and the remaining Aborigines are all on Flinders Island...when I say 'all', by that stage there's about 160 I think and they're rapidly dying, it's a shocking story. Truganini is very smart; she realises very quickly that life on Flinders Island is not going to see her survival. She's quite critical of Robinson on Flinders Island, she's complaining that everyone is dying and he's not delivering the future that she believed he had promised them. Robinson feels quite beholden to Truganini and Woorraddy, they're the key people whom he listened to most, because the other leaders who have already died, Mannalargenna died almost as soon as they arrived on Flinders Island.

So Woorraddy and Truganini are pretty important to Robinson to make him realise that he's got to save these people, he's got to do something more with them. And almost as soon as he arrives on Flinders Island he's trying to find ways to get them off. His view is that if he could take them across to the new settlement at Port Phillip where he is about to be appointed Chief Protector of the Aborigines, then maybe the remaining Tasmanian Aborigines might survive a bit longer. That doesn't really happen. But when Robinson does go across to Port Phillip he is allowed to take Truganini and Woorraddy and a number of other Aborigines who'd been part of the Friendly Mission. I think there were about 13 or 14 altogether who go across to Port Phillip with him.

Peter Christiansen: My name is Peter Christiansen, I'm an historian, and my area of interest is the Aboriginal protectorate era in the Port Phillip region. Once they get to Port Phillip it's a bit of a different scenario. There's not that much for the Tasmanian people to do. So Robinson, having managed to convince the authorities to bring these people across, loses interest in them, I think partly because he can't find a role for them and also the independence. The Tasmanian Aborigines are able to negotiate a settlement of friendship with the Kulin peoples, the clans of the Port Phillip region.

The Kulin would not welcome enemy strangers from outside their borders, but the Tasmanians are obviously seen as not a threat, and perhaps because of their skills as negotiators know how to make friendships with other Aboriginal clans that they hadn't previous met. And this means that the Tasmanians have a degree of freedom moving in and around the Yarra Valley, down the Mornington Peninsula and into Western Port, which could only have been given if they had the friendship of the local Aboriginal people.

Lyndall Ryan: Unlike many other historians, I don't think that Truganini had a particularly close relationship with Robinson. She placed Robinson in a position where he had obligations to her rather than she having obligations to him. I think she saw him as a father figure who was expected to deliver, and when he ceased to deliver she looked around for other ways to survive. She formed close connections with other younger Tasmanian Aborigines, particularly the two men Pevay [Jack] and Timmy [Bob] who were definitely very bold, brave young warriors. And with two other women, Fanny and Matilda, they kind of form quite a group of young Tasmanian Aborigines who are determined to kind of make lives for themselves.

So when they finally abandon Robinson's home in Melbourne, I'm very firmly of the view they were very purposeful in going to the Western Port area because it was there that they believed there was a whaling camp, and I think that Truganini believed there were whalers there who had abducted her sister ten years before. In a sense she was looking for her sister, and she may have identified one of the whalers who had abducted her sister. And what happened next, in my view, was retribution for that abduction a decade earlier.

Peter Christiansen: In October 1841 the Tasmanians turned bush ranger. They travel to Cape Patterson, they attack a miner's cottage. They then encounter a number of runaway sailors and kill two of them. Prior to this the Tasmanians had visited the area and scouted it quite thoroughly. They had been duck hunting in this region, they knew the trails. So there's an element one can see almost perhaps of planning here. This area was a fair distance from Melbourne, it would be difficult to track them, and the settlers, the coal miners at Cape Patterson were quite isolated, so the actions of the Tasmanians seemed to be to a degree premeditated.

Newspaper: Port Philip Patriot, Thursday 14th October, 1841.
Intelligence reached town yesterday of a horrible outrage committed at the Coal Mining Company's station at Cape Patterson by two of the Van Diemen's Land Aborigines, named Bob and Jack, brought over here by Mr Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines.

Peter Christiansen: Word of the outrages at Western Port is taken back to Melbourne, and Lieutenant Governor La Trobe organises a police party to go in search of the Tasmanians.

Reading: Ensign Rawson, Sunday October 10th, 1841.
Mr Powlett, Commissioner for Crown Lands, with two policemen arrived at about five o'clock. Pick up a large party consisting of two coal miners and their wives and four whalers from Massie and Anderson's in a boat with the intelligence of the murder of two of their party...

Peter Christiansen: There's an isolated settlement at Cape Patterson where William Watson and his wife and daughter and son-in-law are living. The Tasmanians wait for the men to go off to work and then they approach the hut, they intimidate the women and they start ransacking the contents. Truganini approaches Mrs Watson and her daughter and she convinces them to leave the hut. She bends down and one of her companions also bends down and gets the white women to climb on their backs so they can ferry them across a nearby creek to safety. Jack and Bob continue ransacking the hut and then burn it to the ground. When William Watson returns he's outraged, and of course the Tasmanians are now on high alert because they realise that there's a chance that Watson would shoot them if he sees them.

After the incident with the coal miner Watson, the Tasmanians encounter a group of runaway sailors and I believe that they assumed that these are other coal miners possibly hunting them. They attack two of these sailors, they shoot them. One dies through a bullet through the head, another falls to the ground with a chest wound, and Truganini helps finish him off with a blow from a wooden club.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Thursday 14th October, 1841.
Received letter from His Honour of the murder of two white men by two Van Diemen's Land natives.

Reading: Ensign Rawson, Wednesday October 13th, 1841.
Left in the bush...called in, pausing at the old government settlement where there was a station some 18 years ago. A Mr Westaway had been located here for a few days. He had pitched a tent...

Shirley Westaway: I'm Shirley Westaway, a local historian in South Gippsland. The first I knew of Truganini in Victoria was when I found she was a member of a party where one of our ancestors had been wounded.

Reading: ...we went with him to his tent where, to his astonishment, he found it had been robbed of everything, even though he had never been out of sight of it.

Shirley Westaway: The attack on George occurred after he discovered that arms and other property had been stolen from his store and as he went to search for them, he and Bates were both shot.

Peter Christiansen: This second incident with shots being fired at Europeans only heightened the concern and fear that the authorities and the settlers had about the Tasmanians and what they might do in the Western Port, Cape Patterson region.

Newspaper: A party of the Border Police, accompanied by Mr Thomas, the Assistant Protector, and several settlers with a party of natives...

Reading: William Thomas, Thursday 27th October, 1841.
Chief Protector gives me order to wait on Commissioner of Crown Lands and make arrangements to proceed in quest of the Van Diemen's Land Blacks. Wait on Mr Commissioner Powlett, made following arrangements: three policemen, two Blacks, Beruke and Lively (Commissioner Powlett wishes me to go as he will not be able to leave), and any that I think proper to take and swear them in as constables...

Peter Christiansen: Powlett and Rawson find that they don't really have the capacity to run down Truganini on their own, they need the Kulin and they need Thomas the mediator to help them. The Kulin realise this and realise they have a power and they also have a degree of respect. So there's a certain equality too in the hunting party. You can't pull rank over the black people because you rely upon them, and if you need someone then you have to be a bit pleasant to them.

Reading: William Thomas, Thursday 28th October, 1841.
Left Melbourne accompanied by two policemen and one Black. An understanding was entered into between Mr Powlett and myself that his dray would meet us and a further party at Dandenong that night and that himself and Ensign Rawson should accompany us by ten o'clock following morning.

Reading: Ensign Rawson, Saturday October 30th, 1841.
Started at 8am. About 12 on horseback including the Blacks, the cart with the tent following. We had not gone far when I was astonished by the Protector Thomas, who had seldom been on horseback before, come flying past without his hat and a gun that he was carrying for some reason entangled in his bridle and looking the very picture of despair. Just as we came in sight of the station we saw him again laying on his back.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Tuesday 2nd November, 1841.
Proceeded to Edward Ruffy, by new road marked trees, beautiful run. Rode on to Sawtell's. Thomas had been thrown from his horse. He said it was the fault of his gun. He had no business with one.

Reading: William Thomas, Sunday 31st October, 1841.
At daybreak found that six horses had strayed. Found four of them but mine and Mr Hobson's were still absent and not found. A horse was offered me by Mr Allen but being very ill from the fall I preferred to walk and joined the walking party, preceded by Blacks.

Reading: Ensign Rawson, Sunday October 31st, 1841.
The three principal guides rejoiced in the names of Mr Lively, Mr Langhorne and Pigeon. An old man dressed in a green frock coat, no inexpressibles and a beaver hat arrives with an immense musket and, further to encourage him, had him lent one of my pistols.

Peter Christiansen: It would seem that, if anything, maybe the Kulin were a bit sympathetic to the Tasmanians. The Tasmanians were not a recognised enemy and that they had made their peace with the Kulin when they had come over with Robinson, so there weren't incidents between them. But the Kulin are not family, they're not clan, they're not kin, they're not close friends. So the obligation to them is limited. Their first obligation is to their own people, and the Tasmanians are outside that kinship network. So there is no shame or wrongdoing in their eyes in helping to bring them in. They're not working against their own people, these are people from a different land who've been brought into their territory.

Reading: William Thomas, Monday 1st November, 1841.
Mr Commissioner Powlett prevailed upon me to take a days rest which would perhaps render me more capable of travel after my fall.

Peter Christiansen: The Kulin spend a number of weeks hunting the Tasmanians around the Cape Patterson region, and Truganini and her companions are very familiar with this area and that could be one of the reasons why it takes a while to track them down.

Michael Shirrefs: And these veterans of the Friendly Missions in the wilds of Van Diemen's Land knew how to use landscape to elude capture—anything that would hide or blur the trail; swamps, grazing cattle, creeks, the tidal movement on the beach. And all this, combined with the uncertain motivations of the Kulin trackers, as well as the complete lack of bushcraft on the part of most of the others involved in the hunt, meant that the search for Truganini and her companions lasted for five weeks, in spite of the fact that they were moving in a relatively small area.

Lyndall Ryan: Well, the chase can be seen in a number of ways. It can be seen as a kind of 'Keystone Cops', in a way. Obviously the parties that go out after the Aborigines are not as well organised as they could be. I think there is a sense in which Thomas, who is one of the Sub-Protectors, is seen to be incompetent, that he's not used to carrying firearms, that he's not used to riding horses and so on, and I think there's a sense where the local stockkeepers feel that this is their country and they know it better and that Thomas is hopeless and a liability. And I think that Thomas is really very concerned that these Aborigines are going to be shot and he's got to really look after their interests.

It could be read also as incompetence on the part of the police, of Powlett not really having full control over what is going on, not being able to manage, he's not a good manager. And I think another way in which it could be read is to see the Tasmanian Aborigines as heroes, kind of making their statement, determined to get retribution for past wrongs.

Peter Christiansen: The Kulin were keen to be rewarded with firearms. What actually does happen after Truganini is captured along with her companions is that Lieutenant Governor La Trobe decides to institute a native police, and the Kulin trackers who brought in the Tasmanians would form the basis of this native police force.

Reading: Ensign Rawson, November 19th, 1841.
Came to another creek, water not so brackish and found where the Blacks had camped two nights before. About four miles further we came to a fire still burning. The Blacks left us here while they went off to reconnoitre. About 9pm they returned and said they had seen their fire about a mile off.

Saturday November 20th, 1841.
Arose about four, a cold morning, a heavy dew falling. Having examined our arms to see all was right, we marched in silence in single file, the Blacks leading to point out the way, which lay under a range of sand hills about a mile from the sea. We advanced for some time, till we began to think the guides had lost the tracks, when just as the sun was rising, they pointed out the smoke of a fire rising above a few shrubs about 20 to 30 yards below us.

Peter Christiansen: So the Kulin and the police party, in a rather ragged line, stormed the encampment. A number of shots were fired. A dog that was with the Tasmanians put its head up at the wrong moment and was killed. A number of the Tasmanians escaped into the scrub, but Rawson found a blanket on the ground which he removed to reveal Truganini. He pulled her to her feet, took her to the edge of a clearing, put a pistol to her head, and suggested she call on her companions to surrender, which she did.

Reading: ...we thus had the whole party and to our astonishment only one wounded, which was owing to the thickness of the underwood.

Newspaper: Port Philip Patriot, Thursday 25th November, 1841.
At a late hour last evening we received intelligence of the capture of the black marauders whose numerous depredations had rendered them the terror of the settlers in the neighbourhood of Western Port. They were apprehended by the...

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Thursday 25th November, 1841.
Heard that the Van Diemen's Land natives were captured.

Friday 26th November, 1841.
AM. Van Diemen's Land natives arrived in Melbourne and were lodged in the watch house and subsequently examined at PM.

Reading: William Thomas, Tuesday 30th November, 1841.
Attend police office, saw one of the three sailors who ran away from the ship at Port Albert, the two killed being his companions. Discussed rewarding the Blacks who helped us to capture the Van Diemen's Land Blacks.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Tuesday 30th November, 1841.
Attended all day at police office, the natives fully committed for murder, the three women before and after the fact.

Peter Christiansen: Robinson is aware that any judgement (say, a death sentence) in regard to Truganini and her companions has to be authorised by the Lieutenant Governor Charles La Trobe. So Robinson approaches La Trobe and lobbies him on behalf of Truganini and her companions to have their lives spared.

Lyndall Ryan: Once they're brought back to Melbourne for trial, Robinson really does try to help them and he's quite happy to perjure himself to save them. After all, he knows what the settlers have been doing. And we have to remember that the Aborigines are not allowed to give evidence on their own behalf, they can't appear in the dock, they're treated as children who are not allowed to give evidence. This had been a really big problem in Tasmania when four Tasmanian Aborigines were hanged in the mid 1820s. So Robinson is going to do everything possible to try to save them. It's going to be very hard to save the two boys because they're quite open about what happened and what they've done, and they're quite proud of what they've done, we must remember that. They felt that they were avenging a past wrong.

And if Truganini had been convicted she would have been the first woman to have been hanged in Victoria. It is some years ahead before the first woman is going to be hanged, and I think there's a greater window of opportunity for Robinson to speak on Truganini's behalf, how she had saved his life, which she had certainly done, and that Redmond Barry had more opportunity to develop a case in her defence, and Judge Willis was much more sympathetic to the women than he was to the two Aboriginal boys and it's clear that the jury were as well. It would have been very difficult...I think that the colonial authorities would have been most reluctant to hang an Aboriginal woman, and I think an Aboriginal woman who was as well known as Truganini.

Peter Christiansen: Robinson appeared before the court. He told the jury that the two men, Robert and Jack, were men of high character. He said that Truganini and her female companions were totally subjected to the will of their menfolk and therefore not responsible for their actions. This of course is totally untrue but the jury took Robinson at his word. They deemed that the charges (notwithstanding Truanini's statements) against the women were unproven. The men were convicted. Truganini and her female companions were released into the custody of George Robinson with the understanding he would arrange for their immediate return to Van Diemen's Land.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Monday 20th December, 1841.
Attended the trial of Van Diemen's Land Blacks. Three women discharged, two men found guilty.

Tuesday 21st December, 1841.
AM. Sentence of death passed on Bob and Jack. I was present. Called on His Honour's office, went with Reverend Thomson to visit the prisoners. They requested I and doctor pray prayers God. God made them, Jesus Christ son of God...gave them two shillings.

Friday 14th January, 1842.
Went to town to His Honour. The judge and Sharp were there. Judge wanted a Black to hang the two Van Diemen's Land natives and procession to church. His Honour left it to me. Visited the two men. They complained still that they should not have taken the bush, only that the settler did not give them their wages and the stockman bounced them.

Newspaper: Port Philip Patriot, Monday 17th January, 1842.
The warrants for the execution of the Van Diemen's Land Blacks, now in jail under sentence of death for the crime of murder, have arrived by the Sea Horse, and will be carried into effect on Thursday morning next in the rear of the new jail.

The news was immediately communicated to the unfortunate wretches, but they received it with the most perfect unconcern, being indeed apparently ignorant of their awful situation. This will be the first execution in Australia the Happy, and we fervently hope it will be the last.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Tuesday 18th January, 1842.
Convict asked if the Van Diemen's Land natives' heads could be had.

Thursday 20th January, 1842.
6am. Went to town in the boat to jail. A large concourse of people at the jail and border police in the jail yard. Reverends Mr Orton and Wilkinson were the unfortunate culprits. The victims were dressed in white trousers, white stockings, white shirts, ditto caps, and shaved and washed. Peter Brune went with me. They were in a state of mental suffering, they prayed fervently. Mr Orton wept. I disproved of dressing up the victims. Jack first put them on. Bob refused but was prevailed upon. I was much affected.

Mr Thomson said he should not baptise Bob because he had no knowledge of the notion of the instructions, although he said he knew the fundamental principle; Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. My van was at the jail to take them to the gallows. I left with Peter and went to grave, two of which was dug in new Aboriginal ground. An immense crowd also at new jail. After they had hung an hour, I went and met the cart. Peter followed, the only mourner.

Reverend Mr Orton spoke to the people at the grave, sung a hymn. Watson and wife were at the execution and grave. I was distressed by the tragic scene. Reverend Mr Thomson said Bob wept bitterly all the way from the jail and at the foot of the gallows. Jack went up first. Bob looked up at Jack and wanted to speak and at last by an effort said, 'Why did Jack leave Mr Robinson?' On the steps he again said, 'Try and save me,' and cried bitterly. Mr Thomson said nobody could save him. Poor fellow, God pardon you, for Christ's sake. Mr Orton said he had no doubt that they had gone to heaven. They were our brethren.

Newspaper: Port Philip Patriot, Monday 24th January, 1842.
At an early hour on Thursday morning, myriads of men, women and even children were to be seen wending their way in the direction of the new jail on the eastern hill, in the rear of which a temporary gallows had been erected for the execution of the Van Diemen's Land Aboriginals, Bob and Jack, convicted of murder at the late criminal session of the Supreme Court, all apparently anxious to gratify that feeling of morbid curiosity which renders an execution a treat to the lower orders of the British.

Lyndall Ryan: I find the press coverage of those incidents of what they call 'the horrible outrage'...it's very anti-Aboriginal. The Aboriginal women are never referred to as women, they're referred to as 'gins' and all of that language. And it's much more profoundly anti-Aboriginal than even the Tasmanian press during the Black War. So by the late 1830s, early 1840s, attitudes to Aborigines more generally had hardened, and to the Tasmanian Aborigines in particular had become very intensely anti-Aboriginal. So I think we must see the reports in the Port Phillip press as, I think, very biased indeed. They're not really interested to know how things happened.

Michael Shirrefs: With the executions over, there still remained the issue of Truganini and the two other women, Fanny and Matilda. Having been spared the gallows but ordered to be returned to Flinders Island, it's still six months before the authorities make the arrangements, at which point it's up to George Augustus Robinson to say goodbye to his long-time friend and companion.

Reading: George Augustus Robinson, Wednesday 6th July, 1842.
The four Van Diemen's Land natives carriaged in my cart to shore and embarked on board The Adelaide for Flinders. Gave the four Van Diemen's Land natives presents. They wept and parted in tears.

Lyndall Ryan: He reports in his diary that they are in tears, that he's given them presents and...I think he's devastated. What he had believed in is being sorely tested. And it would be very interesting to follow through from that in his diary about what happens next in his life. Is he as engaged in trying to save the Victorian Aborigines from then on until his term comes to an end in 1849? I think it's a turning point in his life, and I think he feels that he has been betrayed by the colonial authorities because then the colonial authorities are not really supporting him in trying to save the Victorian Aborigines, and now the very people whom he first met in 1829 are being sent to Flinders Island where he is uncertain what is going to happen to them. It's interesting that Truginini survives beyond that.

And the other sadness is when Robinson finishes his term of duty in Port Phillip in 1849, he goes back to Tasmania to look at his property and visit members of his family, and he visits Oyster Cove in 1851, and Truganini doesn't even acknowledge his existence. And I think that was pretty hard for him. It's not a great story, is it. Or it's a great tragic story.

Michael Shirrefs: One of the most glaring absences from this epic tale is the voice of Truganini herself. Words are recorded from conversations she had early on with Robinson, and late in life with people like the Tasmanian Surveyor-General James Calder who was a prolific writer and who showed a great interest in the Tasmanian Aborigines. But nothing is really known of her feelings about these events in Victoria.

One quote, attributed to Truganini by James Calder during a conversation he had with her in her last years at Oyster Cove, does hint at the choices she was faced with, right at the start:

Truganini quote: I knew it was no use my people trying to kill all the white people now, there were so many of them always coming in big boats.

Michael Shirrefs: But the many omissions in the way these histories were recorded are reflected in the fact that even the descendants of these Tasmanian Aborigines were unaware of the sort of detail that historians are only now starting to piece together.

Greg Lehman is Manager of Aboriginal Education in Tasmania. He's a writer and a member of the Aboriginal communities that continued off Tasmania's north coast.

Greg Lehman: I didn't know much about Truganini. I grew up in the north-west coast which is a long way away from down here, and my family didn't know much about Truganini, and all I knew was what I was getting from the history books in the classroom which of course were about the last Tasmanian and all that sort of thing. I didn't really get anything about Truganini until such time as I moved to Hobart and started to meet other people from Aboriginal community and start talking and sharing our reaction, if you like, to those myths.

The story of Truganini in the Aboriginal community, to my way of seeing it, is it's a picture that we've had to put together from the missing parts. So it's sad because you've got to wonder in your heart why those pieces are not there. I don't know whether it's people didn't care or what was available was very convenient to the story that people wanted to tell.

And the other thing, I think if you open up a book with that photograph of Truganini with the words underneath it 'The last full-blood blah blah blah', the response you'll get from a lot of people in the Aboriginal community today is people will get angry, they'll get pissed off. And that's why you get a lot of people who say they don't want to talk about Truganini because those words and that picture are used against us...not so much these days but certainly throughout all of our lifetimes sitting around this table we've all had that thrown at us. Truganini has been used against the family and the descendents of our own people to deny us who we are. So it's not just a sad history of absence and missing pieces, she's actually been used as a weapon against us. So it's a hard one.

For me, I reckon Truganini represents in the mainstream, in terms of how she's been portrayed in school curriculum and stories and general knowledge, she's been made to represent the end, an ending. And I think the key difference for me is that I see her more as representing a beginning because the women of her generation were the ones who had the children that we're descended from, they're the ones who passed on the knowledge that we still keep and hold, and honour. They were the beginning of the new world, if you like, the new Tasmanian Aboriginal world.

Beverley Davis: When Truganini's trial was over she returned to Wybalenna where the other Aborigines were on Flinders Island, and then later the survivors were transferred to Oyster Cove which was in sight of Bruny Island. Truganini came back to especially the Neck beach where she could collect shells, and did that for many years until she was quite elderly. When Truganini died I'm sure most people realised that her grave was robbed and all that sort of thing.

James Boyce: She told a Church of England clergyman about her fear that her body would be dug up by these terrible so-called scientists. And I think what is important...people often think, oh, that was what British people did at the time. This was not what British people did at the time. This was considered with horror by ordinary people. The great fear of ordinary British people as well...actually, Aboriginal beliefs and British cultural beliefs are not in conflict over this. The great fear of the ordinary people of British, their biggest fear, is not execution, not death, even if it's by hanging, but having your body mutilated after death, because people were sentenced to that. Judges would sentence you not just to being hung, but to really, really get you was that also your body would be handed over for dissection, for mutilation. There was a belief amongst ordinary British people that they wouldn't be at peace, their soul wouldn't be at peace. This was traditional understanding, and it's the new science, if you like. And so the ordinary people of Hobart are horrified about the mutilation of these Aboriginal bodies.

Beverley Davis: So it was many years before she had a proper memorial and it was exactly 100 years after her death that she was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel off the Neck beach. So that was very fitting, and that was her wishes when she died, that was what she wanted to happen.

Michael Shirrefs: I'm walking over the park at the top of Mount Nelson which is a sister hill to Mount Wellington in Hobart. It's got a nice vantage point. The weather is quite damp and blowy. It's a sweet little park, but quite hidden from view, in a way. It doesn't feel like it would be widely known, and even talking to people in Hobart who know the Truganini story, even academics didn't even know the memorial was up here, which is saying something.

So I've come across this little clearing with rocks set into the ground, big old granite rocks, looking out over the view through the gum trees, and a couple of bench seats with moss on them. And the strangely small memorial on the side of the rocks. It's quite tiny, and the words on the side of it: 'Truganini, died 8th of May, 1876. Truganini Park, 8th May, 1976.' So, 100 years later. 'Dedicated to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people and their descendents.'

Guests

James Boyce
Historian and author of Van Diemen's Land

Peter Christiansen
Historian and author of the essay 'The Western Port Outbreak, 1841', published in Heat 08 - And So Forth

Beverly Davis
Coordinator of the Bruny Island Historical Society and the Bruny Island History Room

Greg Lehman
Manager of Aboriginal Education in Tasmania, writer and a member of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community

Lyndall Ryan
Historian and author of The Aboriginal Tasmanians

Shirley Westaway
Local historian in South Gippsland, Victoria

Further Information

The Bruny Island History Room

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Acknowledgments
Thanks go to the National Library of Australia, The Mitchell Library, The State Library of Victoria, Tony Brown, Julie Gough, Richard Flanagan, Zulfikar Abbany, John Reid, James Freemantle, Selena Sullivan, Jan Wozitsky and Elva Press.
Publications

Title: The Western Port Outbreak, 1841
Author: Peter Christianen
Publisher: Giramondo Publishing
Published in 'Heat 08 - And So Forth' ISBN 0-920882-05-7

Title: Van Diemen's Land
Author: James Boyce
Publisher: Black Inc, 2008
ISBN 9781-8639-5413-6

Title: The Aboriginal Tasmanians
Author: Lyndall Ryan
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 1996
ISBN 9781-8637-3965-8
Presenter

Michael Shirrefs
Producer

The Baldwin Bequest

2009-02-11T09:33:00.001+11:00

One of thousands of letters left to the Museum.

Source: ABC news online
Posted Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:00am AEDT
Updated Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:13am AEDT

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is sorting through a treasure trove of antiques and artefacts at a house in Hobart.

The 1920's Battery Point home was left to the museum by wealthy benefactor Henry Baldwin.

Mr Baldwin died in 2007.

It was his dying wish that his home and contents be transformed into a museum.

He also donated another two properties and $2 million dollars, making it one of the largest bequests to an Australian museum.

The Director of the Museum and Art gallery Bill Bleathman says his staff are cataloguing thousands of items and have found rare china, historically significant furniture and unique book collections.

"It really reflects early colonial life in Tasmania right through to current day."

"It's just a treasure trove and the staff here, every day I'm amazed at the things they find.

"It's up to us to deliver his, what he thought would be a lovely way for the community to remember him, but to get an added benefit from him having been in Hobart," he said.

Project Officer Anthony Curtis says Mr Baldwin's toy collection is fascinating.

"When he was a child he (had) quite an extensive train set collection.

"(One) clockwork train, it's a model of a steam locomotive was made by Hornby in the UK."

"It's probably about 1920, 25, it's in very good condition."

The museum will be open to the public in two years.

[end of news item from abcnewsonline]

Australia Day or Invasion Day

2009-01-26T21:45:00.003+11:00

Aborigines mark 'invasion day'

Source: ABC News online

Tasmanian aborigines march in Hobart to protest against 'invasion day'.

Members of Tasmania's aboriginal community have marched through Hobart to protest against what they call 'invasion day'.

About 100 aborigines carried flags, placards and wreaths as well as a mock coffin which they say symbolised what happened when Europeans arrived in Australia more than 200 years ago.

The group walked to Parliament House chanting, "You stole our land, you stole our rights and we won't celebrate invasion day."

A spokeswoman for the group Nala Mansell McKenna says the point of the march was to educate the wider public.

She says now that Mick Dodson has been made Australia of the Year, the Prime Minister should listen to his views on changing the date of Australian Day celebrations.

Motoring luxury 1924

2009-01-26T19:59:00.009+11:00

Source of image above: State Library of Tasmania
Title: Rokeby area, August 1926
ADRI: AUTAS001126254564

The old and the new mobility 1920s ...

Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Reference: PH30/1/6307
Title: Miss Cleburne
Subject: automobiles, carriages, cars
Locality: Risdon
Date: 1922

Advertisement in The Mercury 1924

Title:Studebaker Special Six, 1924 model
Location:Queensland
Date:ca. 1924
Creator:Unknown
Description:A 1924 Studebaker Special Six, powered by a 288 cid., 55 bhp. side-valve six, with optional wire wheels. The chassis was imported from the USA, but the tourer body is probably Australian designed and manufactured. The 1924 Special Six was distinguished by having a new, sharply creased bonnet line and radiator, but retaining the shallow cone shaped headlamps of previous years.
Is part of:The Garage: a photographic album of Queensland motoring. For further information http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/garage

Around North Hobart

2009-01-16T20:20:00.002+11:00

Examples of 19th century architecture around North Hobart

Photos © Pinnacle Times for TP 2008 ARR

Click on images for full version

Theft of Smithies Cradle Mountain photos

2009-01-15T22:54:00.000+11:00

What is it about Fred Smithies that attracts thieves?

This item appeared in the Advocate, January 3, 1994 (page 5), reporting the theft of Smithies' photos which happened while the annual memorial service to his friend, the founder of Cradle Mountain -Lake St Clair National Park, Gustav Weindorfer, was in progress:

If this wasn't enough, the only copy of J.G. Branagan's biography of Fred Smithies published in 1985 which was held by the ACT Library (Canberra) is listed as "MISSING" ...

Couretsy of the State Library of Victoria

Smithies, F. Waratah from Mt. Bischoff picture
Date(s) of creation: [ca. 1930-ca. 1939] transparency : glass lantern slide ; 8.5 x 8.5 cm.
Reproduction rights owned by the State Library of Victoria Accession Number: H37687/44 Image Number: b15772

This extract is from the -

AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY

J. G. Branagan, Frederick Smithies, O.B.E. (Launc, 1985);

Mercury (Hobart), 12, 18 Jan 1978, 15 Oct 1979

SMITHIES, FREDERICK (1885-1979), bushwalker and photographer, was born on 16 August 1885 at Ulverstone, Tasmania ...

A close friend of Gustav Weindorfer, he thoroughly traversed the Cradle Mountain district, making the first winter ascent of the mountain in 1924 with Weindorfer and Charles Monds and the 'skyline tour' in 1936....

Smithies publicized the Tasmanian wilderness and promoted the establishment of reserves through talks, broadcasts, written accounts and photographs. Highly rated as a photographer, he hand-coloured his own lantern slides, took stereoscopic pictures and was an early user of 16mm motion picture film and of the waistcoat (a form of candid) camera.

From the 1920s he gave lantern lectures in various States on behalf of the Tasmanian government to encourage tourism; in 1935 he organized the Tasmanian display at the Melbourne Centenary Exhibition. Treasurer of the Launceston Art Society in 1912-72, member of the Northern Tasmanian Camera Club and the Stereoscopic Society, Smithies helped to form the Northern Tasmanian Alpine Club in 1929 and was later patron of the Launceston Walking Club.

He also belonged to the Royal Society of Tasmania, Tasmanian Club, 50,000 League, Young Men's Christian Association and the National Trust (Tasmanian branch). He was a justice of the peace from 1942. Chairman of the Scenery Preservation Board (1941-71) and member of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair, Barrow Reserve and Northern Scenery boards, he was appointed O.B.E. in 1946.

May Pollard, star of operetta 1880s

2009-01-15T11:59:00.000+11:00

William Cawston's Studio, Launceston 1860-1866 and 1881.
CAWSTON & SONS, St John St. Launceston 1888-1891

Notes from PICMAN (State Library of NSW) entry:

"May Pollard was the daughter of James Joseph Pollard who formed `Pollard's Liliputian [i.e. Lilliputian] Opera Company' in Launceston, 1880. The company performed popular operettas, touring Australia and the colonies, with May as one of the leading singers. She later starred in many operettas produced by J. C. Williamson when she grew up --

Reference: Companion to Theatre in Australia / Phillip Parsons (ed.). Sydney : Currency Press, 1995, p.460.

Source: PICMAN, State Library of NSW:

Location Number: REF1 792.0994/6 Mitchell Library"

May Pollard in moustache (John Bishop Osborne, ca. 1885-1890)

BISHOP OSBORNE, John. 76 Murray St. 1879-93.

John Bishop Osborne was a leading photographer of actors and the theatre scene in Tasmania.

This cabinet panel is of a cross-dressing May Pollard. She worked as an actor with the J. C. Williamson company in productions such as "The Yeomen of the Guard", which opened in April 1889, at Melbourne's Savoy Theatre.

This notice appeared in a New Zealand newspaper for one of her tours, 1890:

"ROYAL OPERA COMPANY

Messrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove's Royal Comic Opera Company are expected to reach Dunedin on Tuesday Evening, and will open their season at the Princess Theatre on Wednesday next in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado". This is to be followed by "Patience", "Dorothy", "The Yeomen of the Guard", and "Princess Ida".

The company is one of the strongest the firm has ever sent to the Colony, including as it does several artists who have made a reputation in London. Those who make their first appearance in Dunedin are Miss Clara Merivale, a young English prima-donna; Mr Laumane, the tenor from the Carla Rosa Company; Mr William Elton, a celebrated comedian, and one of the greatest favourites who has appeared in Australia; and Mr Imao, a powerful baritone. With these and such olds favourites as Mr. Howard Vernon, Misses Fanny Liddiard, May Pollard and Katie Potter, and Messrs W. Johnson and Thomas Grundy. It will be seen that if talent can command success the present venture should be one.

A full chorus is being brought over, and also a strong orchestra under Mr. Leon Caron. The manner in which the firm stage their productions as regards scenery and dresses is so well known as to require no mention."

Otago Daily Times. Saturday, March 1st, 1890

Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria

The Tasmanian Mail Centenary Edition 1904

2009-01-11T13:47:00.016+11:00

An overview of the "picture paper" popularity, in a special 70th anniversary edition of The Mercury, July 5, 1924

Above: The banner of The Tasmanian Mail, a weekly journal of politics, literature, science, agriculture, news and notes, which included a section of photographs taken by local photographers such as Williamson of special events. Photographs of international events and places were also published. It was first published in 1877 as "South and North" before changing to The Tasmanian Mail and changed again to The Illustrated Tasmanian Mail in the 1920s with two women heading the editorial staff: Miss C. Cummins and Miss I. McAuley. The Mail set the trend for the popularity of the "picture paper." Another photographic weekly of the 1930s was The Weekly Courier.

Click on all images for readable versions

Tasmanian Mail Photographic Competition
Title: A Farm Among the Mountains in the Chudleigh District
First Prize Class III
Photographer: F. Styant-Browne

Above: Ode on the Centenary of Tasmania by W.H. Dawson

Below: Notices in The Mercury, February 1904

Click on images for readable versions

Harness racing at Elwick

2009-01-09T05:46:00.012+11:00

Around the course and stables at the Elwick Racecourse, Hobart, on December 22, 2008, the day of the Wrest Pont Tasmania Cup, an event in the v75 Carnival.

Photography © Pinnacle Times for TP 2008 ARR

Photography © Pinnacle Times for TP 2008 ARR

Wild Oats XI wins again in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race

2009-01-02T06:33:00.001+11:00

Source: The Official Site of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

0950HRS, 28 DECEMBER 2008

Wild Oats XI has lived up to its pre-race expectations and at 0934, 14secs AEST this morning sailed into the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race history books.

Wild Oats XI finished with an elapsed time of 1 day 20 hours 34 minutes and 14 seconds.

In 15 knots of north nor'east breeze and with a sizeable spectator fleet escort, the mighty Sydney-based 30m maxi owned by Bob Oatley and skippered by Mark Richards achieved something no other boat has in the race’s 64 year history – four consecutive line honours wins in the 628 nautical mile ocean classic.

Wild Oats XI overcame a number of setbacks including a torn spinnaker soon after the 1pm start on Sydney Harbour on Friday, a too-close encounter with a shark last night that could have caused serious damage to their rudders and yesterday’s valiant fight back by Skandia to lead the high tech Wild Oats XI for most of the day.

The record for the most line honours wins in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is held by Morna/Kurrewa IV, the same boat which sailed to seven line honours victories under two different owners and two different names, the last time in 1960 as Kurrewa IV.

Last year Wild Oats XI equalled Morna’s record three-in-a-row, set in the 1940s, and this year she has taken her own slice of history with her fourth back to back win.

Wild Oats XI is also the current movable ballast record holder with a time of 1 day 18 hours 40 minutes 10 seconds set in 2005 when she took her first line honours win having only been on the water a matter of weeks.

Wild Oats XI’s elapsed times

2005 (record) 1:18:40:10

2006 2:08:52:33

2007 1:21:24:32

2008 1:20:34:14

There have been no further retirements with 96 still racing south and Skandia the next due to finish, at 10:34

Errol Flynn family memorabilia donation to TMAG

2008-12-04T21:22:00.005+11:00

Photo of Rory Flynn
Source © Amy Wilentz

Source: with Fran Kelly on Breakfast
ABC Radio National December 2, 2008

listen now | download audio

Australia could soon see a new and unexpected side to home-grown silver screen legend Errol Flynn.

Errol Flynn was born in Hobart in 1909, and his daughter Rory has now donated her father's memorabilia to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

The bequest includes love letters written to his second wife Norda Eddington, Rory's mother.

Guests

Rory Flynn
Daughter of Errol Flynn

Tasmania The Movie

2008-11-28T20:02:00.009+11:00

In this week of the release of the maxi epic movie AUSTRALIA, little Tasmania has produced a very funny spoof of the genre, in the interests of tourism, of course.

WEBSHOT only:

Visit the site: TASMANIA - BIGGER THAN AUSTRALIA http://www.tasmaniathemovie.com/trailers/

Lonely Planet named Tasmania's Bay of Fires the 2009 hottest destination

2008-11-26T05:57:00.003+11:00

Source: Bay of Fires copyright Loic Le Guilly

Video

Windows Media	Broadband	Dial-up
Real Player	Broadband	Dial-up

Bay of Fires

Lonely Planet has named Tasmania's Bay of Fires as the hottest travel destination for 2009

Calls for Tasmania’s Bay of Fires to be protected

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 25/11/2008
Reporter: Airlie Ward

International guide book Lonely Planet has named Tasmania's Bay of Fires as the hottest travel destination for 2009. The Bay of Fires covers almost 30 kilometres of Tasmania’s north-east coast and there are calls for the area to be declared a National Park to ensure it remains untouched by development.

Transcript

KERRY O’BRIEN: As a holiday destination it's hardly a household name, not yet anyway, but a remote spot on Tasmania’s north-east coast has been named the world's hottest travel destination for 2009 by the international travel guide, Lonely Planet.

The Bay of Fires covers almost 30 kilometres of pristine coastline and is a wildlife haven. But what effect would a surge in tourism have on its fragile ecology?

There are calls for the area to be declared a national park to ensure it keeps the very values for which it received the international recognition.

Airlie Ward reports.

HEATH GARRATT, BUSHWALKING GUIDE: It's an amazing spot, isn't it? You can't miss the beauty of this place.

AIRLIE WARD: Tucked away in Tasmania's remote north-east is a holiday heaven, the Bay of Fires.

Sparkling turquoise blue waters, pristine white beaches as far as the eye can see, capped off by the distinctive fire orange lichen covered granite rock. They are not the reason for the bay's name

HEATH GARRATT: Captain Cook's second ship that came past here in 1778. He saw the Tasmanian Aboriginal fires and named it as such.

AIRLIE WARD: On top of this spectacular landscape, there's an abundance of wildlife.

To locals like bush walking guide Heath Garratt, it's no surprise 'Lonely Planet' named it as the world's hottest travel destination.

HEATH GARRATT: To be honest, I thought it was a no brainer, it's a gorgeous spot.

AIRLIE WARD: The most secluded part of the bay is the northern end, and it's likely to remain untrammelled by an influx of tourists. Here the Bay of Fires Lodge is the only building and it’s surrounded by a national park.

HEATH GARRATT: We have a limit on our groups of 10 people per group. I think it's important, especially with group tourism to keep the numbers low.

AIRLIE WARD: Further south it's a different story, the bay is already a popular destination for tourists like Karen and Mark Hall.

MARK HALL, CAMPER: Back in Sydney this would be booked out year round.

KAREN HALL, CAMPER: I could not believe it. Then we pulled up, beautiful blue ocean, clean beach.

MARK HALL: Yes.

KAREN HALL: We could sit in the van, look out the window and we could see all this, it was so lovely.

AIRLIE WARD: In peak season the population escalates from 2,000 to 10,000, and the 'Lonely Planet' award has some locals in the nearby town of St Helens rubbing their hands in anticipation.

MARIKA SPARKES, BUSINESS OWNER: I think it's a positive thing for the town; it can only be a positive thing for St Helens and the surrounding area.

AIRLIE WARD: But there are also fears the bay's new found fame could be its undoing.

RAOUL HARPER, BREAK O'DAY COUNCILLOR: The challenge is really coming down to land management, and how, if tourism increases in the area, how we can go about managing those impacts. While also providing experiences for tourists to enjoy the area.

ROBERT LEGGE, BREAK O'DAY MAYOR: I don't want to see a Surfers Paradise on the beach at Bay of Fires.

AIRLIE WARD: Already the area is struggling to provide amenities.

There's no running water and eight toilets across dozens of camping areas.

ROBERT LEGGE: Let's be honest, the hygiene is not good. This is something we have to look at. People go for walks in bush. Cradle Mountain, what you drop you take out. Yourself, carry it out. This might well have to be practice brought in.

AIRLIE WARD: Local Mayor Robert Legge wants the area declared a national park, which would curtail development and mean visitors pay. Any fees collected will go toward preserving the natural environment.

ROBERT LEGGE: If we are going to treat it as a world icon, we have to make sure it's world standard.

BOB BROWN, AUSTRALIAN GREENS LEADER: There should be an expanded Bay of Fires national park, and protecting this stunning area from the white tube brigade.

AIRLIE WARD: Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown recently won the annual politicians photography prize, the Pulitzer for his snap of the bay.

BOB BROWN: Tasmania's fortune is because of its wildness and scenic beauty; they come together remarkably at the Bay of Fires.

That's why 'Lonely Planet' listed it.

AIRLIE WARD: Many like Brendan Baird, and Michelle Dower who came from Victoria to beat the Christmas rush couldn't agree more.

MICHELLE DOWER, TOURIST: I hope it doesn't get too commercialised.

BRENDAN BAIRD, TOURIST: So, don't tell anyone about this spot here, because this is our spot. If we find anyone here, we are not going to be very happy about it.

BOB BROWN: As the world is looking for remote, quiet, isolated, beautiful, natural places. So it needs to be kept like it is. And there's the test.

KERRY O’BRIEN: Airlie Ward with that report.

Vertigo: a bushfire tale

2008-11-21T12:36:00.004+11:00

A recently published novella, Vertigo (Black Inc. 2008), by Tasmanian writer Amanda Lohrey, contains a vivid account of a small community surviving a coastal bushfire.

It also contains several black and white thumbnails of photographs of fires along the east coast of Tasmania which were taken by Lorraine Biggs, e.g. the one below appears on page 120. Why these barely legible and very small images are included is not clear, as they do no justice to Lorraine Biggs' originals, and they belie the intention of the author to keep the locality of the story non-specific.

In an interview with Ramona Koval, ABC Radio National, The Bookshow, 10 November 2008 , Lohrey talks about these photographs:

EXTRACT from TRANSCRIPT:

Ramona Koval: So did you write and she...did the photos...when you said, 'I want a photograph of this or that or the other?' or did she have the photographs?

Amanda Lohrey: Some of the photographs she had. She had photographed the bushfires. So, for example, there's a marvellous photograph in the novella of a fireball. To my knowledge the only photograph of an actual fireball that's in existence, certainly the only one we've ever seen, and we've looked. A quite awe-inspiring image with a thrilling beauty to it.

So she already had some photographs, and then I told her about what I was doing, it was still in the draft stage, and the kinds of things I would like, that I would like some photographs of birds because birds feature quite strongly in the narrative. So she took some more photographs, and then I gave her the manuscript to read in draft and we sat down and we chose a long list of the ones we liked, and then we showed them to the publisher. So it was a kind of group effort. We came up with a small collection that we all liked.

Above: a Lorraine Biggs thumbnail, p.120.

Below: pp 114-115 "...the side gate is alight, ..."

Photos © Pinnacle Times for TP 2008 ARR.