Charles Bayliss

(England, Australia 1850–1897)

Title

Homestead, Dunlop Station, Darling River, from the album New South Wales Royal Commission: Conservation of water. Views of scenery on the Darling and Lower Murray during the flood of 1886.

Year

1886

Media category

Photograph

Materials used

albumen photograph

Dimensions

20.9 x 28.2cm image/sheet; 21.9 x 29.1cm card; 26.2 x 34.0cm paper (irreg.)

Signature & date

Not signed. Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 1984

Accession number

74.1984.16

Location

Not on display

Further information

The photographs taken by Bayliss along the Darling and Lower Murray rivers in 1886 were made for the Lyne Royal Commission into Water Conservation in New South Wales. Bayliss and six others travelled by paddlewheel steamer down the Darling River to Adelaide, studying land conditions and taking evidence from locals. The ultimate aim of the commission was to develop strategies for water conservation and distribution to avert ‘the disastrous consequences of the periodical droughts to which the Colony is from time to time subject’, a project still unrealised 120 years later.1

Ironically, the expedition was made at a time of flood. This photograph shows the river bursting it banks and flooding the outer paddock of the homestead. The commission’s steamer is visible, moored at the upper left. The Dunlop Station, between Wilcannia and Bourke on the Darling River, played an important role in the history of shearing in Australia. In 1886 it covered nearly 180 000 acres and employed more than 100 people at mustering time. The first complete shearing by mechanical means took place here two years after this photograph was taken.

1. 1884 report in Jeffcoat K & Byron S 1991, 'Down the Darling: the Charles Bayliss photographs', Department of Water Resources New South Wales, Parramatta p 8

Bibliography (7)

7079 (Editor), Photography: Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, 2007, 48 (illus.).

'Picturing the past' by Jill Sykes, pg.38-9, Look Aug 2007, Aug 2007, 39 (illus.).

Josef Lebovic Gallery (Australia, estab. 1977) (Author), Colonial Photographers, Sydney, 1984. cat.no. 116

Sandra Byron (Australia) (Author), Kevin Jeffcoat (Australia) (Author), Down the Darling - The Charles Bayliss Photographs, Sydney, 1991, 26, 27 (illus.).

Robert McFarlane (Australia, b.1942) (Author), Critic's Choice, Sydney, 1994. no catalogue numbers

'Arcadia: Nineteenth Century Australian Photography' by Robyn Donohue, pg. 22-23., Look Oct 1998, Oct 1998, 22 (illus.).

Robyn Donohue (Australia) (Author), Arcadia - nineteenth century Australian photography, North Sydney, 1998, (illus.). no catalogue numbers

Exhibition history (5)

Colonial Photographers, Josef Lebovic Gallery, 24 Mar 1984–28 Apr 1984.

Critic's Choice, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 22 Apr 1994–10 Jul 1994.

We Are Family, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Oct 1994–20 Nov 1994.

Arcadia: nineteenth century Australian photography, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 02 Oct 1998–13 Dec 1998.

A modern vision: Charles Bayliss photographer 1850-1897, National Library of Australia, 11 Jul 2008–26 Oct 2008.