Monthly Archive for May, 2010

The Night of Marshalling Yard, originally uploaded by FrancisPhotography.

The beautiful image above has been selected as a highly commended shot for our Trainspotting exhibition in the night shot category. It was taken by Gouxian Zhou, Wuhan, China and is titled ‘The night of Marshalling Yard’. The photographers states:

Wuhan North Marshalling Yard, one of the largest in Asia, started
operations in central China’s Hubei province in May 2009.

The other highly commeded photos that were selected for this exhibition in the same category are:

Adrian Roberts, Sydney, Australia with Sleeping giant, Thompson Junction, Zimbabwe

Richard J D Willock, Petersfield, England with Night mail

Lee Baxter, Bargo, Australia with Gleewart Express

Andrew Warren, Thornton, Australia with Dusk train-see our Trainspotting page as Andrew sent his image as a postal entry and not via Flickr

Brad Coulter Jnr, Newcastle, Australia with Belford Crossing.

Warren Miller, Sydney, Australia with Ghum Station, West Bengal

Oliver Jaeschke, Zuerich, Switzerland with Coming and going

The winner of this category is Robert Parnell, St Clair, Australia with his image Ghostly glow. Robert states:

A 9 second time exposure of the only ambient light in the surrounding area — a modern LED railway signal shining in the cool winter air. A speeding freight train has interrupted the chilly stillness for a few moments, and created this scene at the lonely Stuart Town Station.

Congratulations to all these photographers.
© All rights reserved the individual photographers

Although this image from the early 1900s is as depicted a “Carpet Snake” the markings on the snake indicate that it is a diamond python. It must have been hard for early farmers to have dealt with snakes whilst clearing land. The pesky reptiles can be quite deadly, especially when things like antivenom were not commercially produced in Australia until the 1930s.

Luckily diamond pythons like the one pictured are not venomous. They are actually quite beautiful animals, and many Australians keep them as pets. I wonder what the early Australian farmers would think about that.

Post by Erika Dicker, Assistant Curator

Photography by Kerry & Co, Tyrrell Collection
No known copyright restrictions

With teen solo sailor Jessica Watson having sailed back into Sydney Harbour after her round the world voyage I thought this image was appropriate for the blog. The circa 1910 photograph depicts a Sydney Harbour scene of eighteen footers racing in choppy water with Fort Denison in the background. The scene will be vastly different as the 16yr old Jessica sails through in the coming weeks.

Post by Erika Dicker, Assistant Curator

Photography by [Arthur Phillips], Phillips Collection
No known copyright restrictions

The image above by Richard Whitford of Sydney, Australia, titled ‘Frozen Valley’ has been selected as the winner for the Powerhouse Museum’s photographer’s choice award. This image is also highly commended in the steam category and is featured in our Trainspotting exhibition. This was actually a very hard decision for the Museum photographers as they picked quite a number of the images as the potential winner but Richard’s image received the most votes.

This is the caption that Richard has provided us for the exhibition.

On the weekend of 15 & 16 February 2010, the Heber Valley Railroad near Salt Lake City, Utah, was running a ‘winter photo freight’ special steam-hauled train. I took the plunge, booked a seat, headed over and was treated to this scene of 2-8-0 steam locomotive No 618 in the stunning Wasatch Mountain Range skirting the frozen Deer Creek Reservoir.

The Powerhouse Museum photographers were impressed by this image because:

it captures a wonderful sense of space, with the train mysteriously appearing through the mist. It’s so surprising to discover that a railroad runs through this remote landscape, let alone that a photographer was there to capture it so well.

Congratulations to Richard on his winning image!

Photography by Richard Whitford
© All rights reserved

This image accompanied the acquision of two miniature bikes in 2008.

For over thirty years the monkey circus delighted and entertained visitors at Taronga Zoo, overlooking Sydney Harbour. Edworthy was one of several firms that supplied bicycles to the zoo over those years. After a critical review in 1967, the Zoo embarked on its current philosophy of emphasising scientific research, conservation and education. Attractions including elephant rides, miniature trains, a merry-go-round and the monkey circus were removed. The monkey circus closed in October 1967. Zoo’s have come a long way since then!

Photography by Mr W.H. (Bill) Saunders.
© All rights reserved
Post by Erika Dicker, Assistant Curator