Photo of the Day

This image taken by Henry King shows the return of the New South Wales Contingent in June 1885 after their deployment to Sudan to support the British campaign. The troops are seen arriving at Circular Quay watched by a large crowd of onlookers, many with umbrellas.

The contingent consisted of an infantry battalion of 522 men and 24 officers and an artillery battery of 212 men. It had departed with great fanfare on 3 March 1885. The New South Wales Contingent were the first troops accepted from the self governing colonies to fight with the British. The war was short lived and the Australian troops saw little action, working primaily as guards on a railway line which was being constructed across the desert. In May 1885 the British government decided to abandon the campaign. The New South Wales contingent sailed for home on 17 May 1885.

The troops arrived in Sydney on 19 June 1885 and spent 5 days in quarantine at North Head where one man died of Typhoid. After disembarking the troops marched to Victoria Barracks and stood in the pouring rain to hear speeches by various dignitaries (who were presumably under cover).

Photography by Henry King studio (85/1285-464)
No known copyright restrictions

Reference: Australian War Memorial, Sudan (New South Wales Contingent) March-June 1885

This image came to the Museum with the Tooth Collection, a large collection of material acquired from the Tooth and Co Brewery in the 1980s.  It was probably taken at Kent Brewery which was located on Broadway in Sydney. When this Brewery closed in 2005, it had occupied the site for 170 years and was by far Sydney’s oldest functioning factory.

This image arrived with very little information, no date or photographer details.  To help work out what was happening in the shot I asked a friend with brewing expertise to have a look. Roger advised:

 … it is a cold storage tank which is most likely used in the “lagering” process of the famous KB Lager they used to make. Lagers, unlike ales, are stored almost at freezing for weeks or months to smooth and improve the flavour.

So what this bloke is most likely doing (from the position of his left hand), is tightening up the hose coupling to the cooled lagering tank ready to transfer the beer from the lager tank to the blending tank.  By the look of the other hoses and tanks, it looks like all tanks are probably feeding to a common tank or vat for blending and adjusting before going to the pasteurising plant for bottling.

The clear plastic tube behind him running vertically is the tank contents gauge which should be attached to the black scale you can see on the tank end.  The two hatches you see are access holes for backwashing and steam cleaning.

Roger also commented on the run down look of the plant. Corrosion is clearly visible on the tanks and valves and many of the hoses look a bit worn. He notes that modern food and hygiene standards would never allow these conditions!

Post by Lynne McNairn, Digital Media

Thanks to Roger Sherack, brewing enthusiast, for his information about this photograph.

Photographer unknown, Tooths Collection (86/4409-1)
© All rights reserved

This is another image in a series of photographs by the Sydney based photographer Henry King, that document the parade of the New South Wales Contingent through Sydney on their departure for the Sudan on 3 March 1885. This photograph shows the troops as they near the steamers which would take them to war. The ships are the white hulled SS Australasia (in front), and the twin funnelled SS Iberia.

The image is probably taken from Fort Macquarie, which was located roughly where the Opera House stands today and looks across Circular Quay to the docks near the Rocks – where the overseas terminal is located today.

 Tragedy at the heads

The departure of the troopships was marked by tragedy. Two women, including the wife of one of soldiers, were killed when  the SS Iberia collided with another steamer,  the Nemesis near Sydney Heads.  The Nemesis was crowded with passengers seeing off the troops.

Photography by Henry King studio (85/1285-459)
No known copyright restrictions

This transparency is a rare example of early colour photography in Australia. It was made using the Paget process which was introduced in 1912 and employed the use of a finely lined ‘taking’ and ‘viewing’ screen to break up the image into its constituent colours. The viewing screen and copy of the negative were then bound to produce the final positive. Amateur and professionals were able to use this process which remained in use throughout the 1920s and 1930s.  This example appears to have been from the earlier part of this period.

The three colour processes like the Paget plate, Autochrome and Dufaycolor all employed the use of bound glass transparencies to produce their positive images and this limitation saw them replaced in the late 1930s with single pack negatives like those made by Kodak. This photograph is one of a broader group of examples of early photographic processes donated to the museum in 1960.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, 2011

Photographer unknown, Powerhouse Museum collection H6653-7/5

No known copyright restrictions

I

This detail from a larger image in the Tyrrell collection, (see below) gives us a glimpse of a photographer in the field in the late 19th century.

The advent of the dry plate process in the late 1870s  the  made outdoor photography much easier. Pre-prepared dry plates could be exposed on location and printed later in the studio. Landscape photography became more popular and studios like those of Kerry & Co made a good profit from the view trade in prints and later, postcards.

Photography by Kerry & Co, Tyrrell Collection

No known copyright restrictions

This is another image taken by the Sydney based photographer Henry King of the New South Wales Contingent parading through Sydney on their departure for the War in Sudan on 3 March 1885. The photo is taken from the same vantage point as the previous images and shows another group of men possibly sailers.  Also in the image, on an adjoining balcony, is another photographer using a full plate camera  to record the scene. It was a significant day for the colony as it was the first time that soldiers from the self-governing colony were accepted to fight for the British Empire.

The Sydney Morning Herald on 4 March 1885 reported the event with great pride and a pointed dig at imperial attitudes:

This day marks an entirely new departure as regards the relations between the old country and her colonies. Hitherto the colonies have been regarded by many politicians at a drag upon the home country ; and statesmen have been heard to say that the colonies of England were a source of weakness to her, and not of strength.

The fallacy of such statements was demonstrated beyond dispute by the events of yesterday. If ever there was in the history of the world an occasion where everything that had been arranged was performed to the letter, if ever there was a day when a programme literally arranged was carried out satisfactorily, it was yesterday, when the chosen troops of New South Wales, the picked men of the colony, embarked for the purpose of assisting the British arms in the Soudan.

Photography by Henry King studio (85/1285-463)

No known copyright restriction

This photographs shows some dart players at St George Leagues club in the late 1960s. It was created by David Mist for his 1969 publication, Sydney: a book of photographs and forms part of a montage about clubs in Australia.

This wide shot shows the scale of the club’s facilities and the numbers of members taking part in one of many activities, the most popular and lucrative being poker machines.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photography by David Mist

© All rights reserved

According to the Sydney Evening News, when Mr Frances Adams, General Manager of the Australian Joint Stock bank departed with his family for Europe on the 9^th of April in 1892, some 200 gentlemen, officers of the Bank and their friends, were on board the steamer Leveret accompanying the RMS Ormuz to The Heads to bid Mr Adams and his family a final farewell. The Adams family were reportedly ‘overwhelmed’ with flowers and their departure was accompanied by cheers from the smaller vessel, which returned to Circular Quay around 1.30pm.

It appears that the celebrations may have continued on into the afternoon. The image above looks ordinary enough: a group of men posed together, but a closer look reveals something strange going on in the trees behind, (see detail below). No less than three photographs were taken on this occasion and in each photograph two of the men are positioned in the trees wearing different clothing and posed in different positions. The other two photographs will be posted over the coming weeks.

Photography by unattributed studio, Tyrrell Collection

No known copyright restrictions

This is another image taken by the Sydney based photographer Henry King of the parade of the New South Wales Contingent through Sydney on their departure for the Sudan on 3 March 1885. It is taken from the same vantage point as the previous image and shows  troops in dress uniforms with bayonets  gleaming, marching down Oxford Street alongside Victoria Barracks.  The contingent consisted of an  infantry battalion of 522 men and 24 officers and an artillery battery of 212 men.

The colonial government had declared a public holiday and the public crowed every vantage point to watch the parade. Men and boys can be sitting on top of the high stone wall around Victoria Barracks and well dressed men, women, children and even a dog are pictured lining the road.  At the time, the  send-off was described as the most festive occasion in the colony’s history.

Post by Lynne McNairn, Digital Media

Photography by Henry King studio (85/1285-461)
No known copyright restrictions

Reference: Australian War Memorial, Sudan (New South Wales Contingent) March-June 1885

This photograph was taken by one of our visitors and features the tricycle that hangs in our transport gallery.  This is collection item A10782 a tricycle made in England circa 1875 from wood, leather, horse hair and metal.

We feature photographs taken by our visitors on Photo of the Day so if you have any that you would like to share then please add them to our group on Flickr, Me and the Powerhouse Museum.

Photography by Jellibat
© All rights reserved

Object: Gift of Anne Schofield, 1984.