This timeline was produced for the exhibition The photograph and Australia (Art Gallery of NSW, 21 March – 8 June 2015). It presents key moments in the history of the photographic medium and of Australia since the colonial period.
This timeline was produced for the exhibition The photograph and Australia (Art Gallery of NSW, 21 March – 8 June 2015). It presents key moments in the history of the photographic medium and of Australia since the colonial period.
1770
Captain James Cook of the Endeavour lands at Botany Bay, an area inhabited by the Eora people, having viewed the transit of Venus and in search of the ‘Great South Land’
1779
Joseph Banks, botanist on Cook’s 1770 voyage, recommends Botany Bay to an English parliamentary committee as a suitable site for a penal settlement
1788
The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, bearing 543 convict men and 189 convict women
1789
A smallpox epidemic kills nearly half of the Aboriginal population around the Sydney settlement
1802
In England, Thomas Wedgwood uses light-sensitive chemicals to capture silhouette images on paper
1803
The settlement of Van Diemen’s Land (modern-day Tasmania) begins
1805
‘Australia’ (suggested by the explorer Matthew Flinders) becomes a widely used name for the southern continent
1807
The camera lucida is invented by William Hyde Wollaston in England
1824
A penal colony is established at a site on Redcliffe Peninsula and in 1825 moved to the Brisbane River, site of modern-day Brisbane
1825
Tasmania is declared a separate colony from New South Wales
1826
In France, Joseph Niépce produces the earliest fixed images using a camera
1829
The Swan River colony is established by the British in modern-day Perth
1839
Daguerre’s process is presented to the public in Paris and patented to restrict commercial use Fox Talbot’s photogenic drawing technique is published in England
Tasmania’s Cornwall Chronicle publishes news of the photogenic techniques of Fox Talbot and Dr Andrew Fyfe
Convict transportation from Britain to Brisbane ceases
1840
In England, Fox Talbot develops the calotype process
1841
Captain Augustin Lucas produces the first daguerreotype in Australia in a demonstration on Bridge Street, Sydney
English photographer Robert Hunt publishes the first treatise on photographic methods
1842
Australia’s first professional photographer, George Goodman, opens a daguerreotype portrait studio on George Street, Sydney
The Illustrated London News, one of the world’s earliest illustrated periodicals, is first published
1843
First elections for Legislative Council in New South Wales are held
1847
Douglas Kilburn makes daguerreotypes of Kulin people, which are engraved and published in England in 1850
1848
The Australasian Anti-Transportation League, the first popular national movement, is established
1849
Convict transportation from Britain to Port Phillip (in present-day Victoria) ceases
1850
The German photographers William and Thekla Hetzer introduce the calotype process to Sydney
In France, LD Blanquart-Evrard invents the albumen photograph
Convict transportation from Britain to New South Wales ceases
1851
Six nations (Canada, America, France, Russia, Germany, Britain) exhibit photography at the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in London
Britons Frederick Scott Archer and Peter Wickens create the ambrotype using the wet-plate collodion process
In response to popular demand, the British government separates the colonies of Queensland and Victoria from New South Wales
Gold is struck in Bathurst, New South Wales, and Ballarat, Port Phillip District
1852
The Illustrated Sydney News becomes Australia’s first illustrated newspaper
1853
Frenchman Adolphe Martin invents the tintype
Douglas Kilburn demonstrates the stereoscopic process in Hobart
Convict transportation from Britain to Tasmania ceases
1854
French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri creates the first carte de visite
Exhibitions of works to be sent to the Universelle Exposition de Paris 1855 are held in Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne, creating an early showcase for photography
The ambrotype is introduced to Australia by James Freeman
Polish naturalist and artist William Blandowski leads an expedition to northwest Victoria, the earliest known Australian scientific expedition to include photography
The Eureka Stockade is erected by goldminers at Ballarat
The wet-plate process reaches Australia
1855
Australian photographers exhibit at the Universelle Exposition de Paris 1855
French photographer Taupenot develops the dry-plate or collodio-albumen process
The portable stereoscopic camera arrives in Australia
John Sharp and Frederick Frith take the first paper panorama using the wet-plate process in Australia, a five-part view of Hobart nearly one metre long
Due in large part to the gold rush, the Chinese population in Australia reaches 50 000
1856
Male landowners and tenants over 21 years are granted the right to vote in the self-governing territory of South Australia, followed by Victoria (1857), New South Wales (1858) and Tasmania (1896). Britain retains control over foreign affairs and defence
1857
In Sydney, the Freeman Brothers are the first to adopt the English practice of publishing mosaic group portraits of distinguished citizens
1858
The tintype process reaches Australia under the name ‘melainotype’
Fothergill’s process, an early dry-plate process, is introduced to Australia
1859
William Blackwood introduces the carte de visite to Sydney
John Walter Osborne invents the world’s first commercially viable photolithographic process while working as a photographer in the Department of Crown Lands and Survey of Victoria Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species is published
1860
The Lambing Flat riots, a series of anti-Chinese demonstrations in the Burrangong region of New South Wales, drive 1000 Chinese miners off the fields
Solar photographic enlargers are marketed in Australia from the 1860s
1861
The colony of South Australia grants propertied women the right to vote in local elections, and in parliamentary elections in 1894. Western Australia follows suit in 1899
1867
Victorian government photographer RLJ Ellery begins photographing the Moon
1868
Convict transportation to Western Australia from Britain ends, ceasing all convict transportation to Australian colonies
A team of Aboriginal cricket players tours England
1869
An Act for the ‘Protection and Management of Aboriginal Natives’ is passed by the parliament of Victoria
1870
The first Aboriginal children are enrolled in public schools in New South Wales
1871
Richard Leach Maddox pioneers gelatin emulsion in Britain, paving the way for the gelatin negative
1872
The first Amateur Photographic Society of New South Wales is formed
Photographs of the Moon are taken with the Great Melbourne Telescope and sent to Britain
Mugshots are made the standard photographic format for recording criminals and suspects in New
South Wales police departments
1875
BO Holtermann commissions from Charles Bayliss the largest ever wet-plate panorama, each of the negatives measuring 90 x 160 cm
1880
The gelatin dry-plate process is introduced to Australia, and the first commercially produced plates are manufactured and sold by Philip J Marchant in Adelaide
The bushranging Kelly gang is captured at Glenrowan, Victoria
1883
The first photographs of the Orion Nebula from the southern hemisphere are taken by Joseph Turner using the Great Melbourne Telescope
1884
Henrietta Dugdale forms the first Australian women’s suffrage society in Melbourne
1885
The first transparent negative roll is introduced by the Eastman company in the United States as an alternative to fragile glass plates
1888
The first Kodak camera, capable of taking 100 photographs before being returned to the manufacturer for processing, makes photography accessible to millions of amateurs
1890
HC Russell takes the first photographs of the Milky Way in Australia using the Star Camera at the Sydney Observatory
1893
Glossy gelatin-silver paper reaches Australia
1894
Andrew Barrie’s Talma studios in Melbourne are the first to use electric lighting
1896
One-guinea Pocket Kodak cameras are available in Australia. Over 3000 are sold within two months
1899
Crown Studios in Sydney introduces colour photography to Australia with the three-exposure Joly and Ives process
Three-minute automatic photo booths are established in Sydney
1900
The Kodak Brownie, the first mass-marketed camera, is released
The New South Wales Department of Public Works undertakes a photographic record of The Rocks area in Sydney after an outbreak of bubonic plague
1901
The British self-governing colonies of Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia are federated into a single nation, forming the Commonwealth of Australia
The Immigration Restriction Act privileges British and other ‘white’ migration to Australia, commencing the White Australia Policy
1902
The Commonwealth Franchise Act grants voting and standing rights to women in Australian federal elections
1905
Picture postcards achieve popularity, combining photography, printing and postage
1907
Autochrome process, invented by Louis Lumière in France in 1904, is introduced to Australia
1908
Melbourne company Baker & Rouse merges with Kodak to form Australia Kodak Limited, which opens a manufacturing plant in Abbotsford, New South Wales
1909
Harold Cazneaux’s solo exhibition at the New South Wales Photographic Society’s Sydney rooms marks the growing acceptance of photographers as artists
1911
The Australian Commonwealth appoints JP Campbell as its first official cinematographer Frank Hurley is appointed official photographer to Douglas Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition
1914
World War I begins
1916
Harold Cazneaux, Cecil Bostock and James Stening form the Sydney Camera Circle, advocating a national photographic aesthetic utilising local sunshine
1917
Frank Hurley is appointed Australia’s first official war photographer for the Australian Imperial Force during World War I
1918
World War I ends
1921
The Western Australian Edith Cowan is the first woman to be elected to any Australian parliament. In 1943 Dame Enid Lyons and Senator Dorothy Tangney are the first women to be elected to federal parliament
1934
Associated Press starts its wire photo service in the United States
The illustrated Walkabout magazine begins publication in Australia
1935
Art in Australia publishes Max Dupain’s images informed by the functionalist aesthetic of the New Photography movement, signalling the beginning of modernist photography in Australia
1937
Kodachrome 35mm roll film becomes available in Australia
1938
Pix magazine, the first Australian weekly to employ North American–style presentation and photojournalism, is launched in Sydney
The Contemporary Camera Groupe is formed by Max Dupain
The Australian Aborigines Advancement League stages a day of mourning to mark the sesquicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet
1939
World War II begins
1940
Damien Parer, Australia’s first combat cameraman, travels to Palestine with the Australian Imperial Force
Photographer Frank Hurley documents the Australian Imperial Force in Palestine
1942
Photographer Max Dupain enlists in the Camouflage Unit, Department of Home Security
1945
World War II ends
1946
Australian Geoffrey Powell publishes Photography: a social weapon, arguing photographers have a responsibility to draw attention to social realities
1947
The Institute of Photographic Illustrators, aimed at raising the standard of photography, is formed in Sydney
In the United States, Edwin Land invents the Polaroid camera
The Cold War begins
1948
The 35mm Nikon camera is introduced in Japan
1949
The White Australia policy is relaxed by the Menzies government, starting the gradual abolition of racially motivated immigration policies
1952
The Melbourne Argus is the first daily newspaper in the world to publish colour photographs
1955
Jack Cato’s The story of the camera in Australia is published in Melbourne
Frank Hurley’s Australia: a camera study is published in Sydney
1956
In the United States, Xerox introduces the first office photocopier
The Second Indo-China War (known in Australia as the Vietnam War) begins
1957
The United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) launches Sputnik I and II, the first satellites
1959
The exhibition Family of man, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), tours Australia, and includes the work of Australian photographers David Moore and Laurence Le Guay
1961
The Great Melbourne Telescope is rebuilt at Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra, with a 1.25-metre glass mirror and new controls
1963
Kodak makes the first Instamatic cameras and colour Polaroids are introduced
Mervyn Bishop begins a cadetship at the Sydney Morning Herald, later becoming Australia’s first Indigenous press photographer
1964
Push-button telephones and the Picturephone service come into use
1966
Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 lands on the Moon, as does the United States’ spacecraft Surveyor I which transmits more than 11 000 television images of the terrain
1967
Australia’s first satellite WRESAT 1 is launched from Woomera Rocket Range in South Australia
A federal referendum removes discriminatory references to Indigenous people from the Australian Constitution
1968
The Earth is photographed from the Moon
1969
Pictures of the Apollo XI crew’s Moon walk are relayed to the world by the Parkes radio telescope
1971
Neville Bonner becomes the first Indigenous parliamentarian
1972
The National Gallery of Victoria opens the first curatorial photography department in an Australian art museum
1973
The Australian Centre for Photography opens in Sydney and engages John Szarkowski, director of photography at MoMA, New York, to participate in a nationwide tour
A USSR space-probe lands on Mars, and the United States’ Mariner transmits detailed pictures of Venus and Mercury
1975
Steven Sasson at Eastman Kodak develops the first digital camera using an image sensor
The Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
1976
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act allows for the return of Commonwealth lands to traditional owners
1977
Japan launches a geostationary satellite to provide cloud-cover pictures of Australia to the Bureau of Meteorology
Light vision: Australia’s international photography magazine is founded in Melbourne
1981
Photodiscourse: critical thought and practice in photography, edited by Kurt Brereton, is published by Sydney College of the Arts
1982
Sony demonstrates Mavica, the first commercial camera with electronic picture-storage rather than film
1983
Peter Dombrovski’s photograph Rock Island bend is used as a campaign image for conservation groups protesting against the damming of the Franklin and Gordon rivers in Tasmania
Photofile magazine is launched by the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
1986
NADOC ’86 Exhibition of Aboriginal and Islander Photographers, the first exhibition by Indigenous photographers, is shown at Aboriginal Artists Gallery, Sydney
1987
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative Gallery is established by Brenda L Croft, Tracey Moffatt and Michael Riley to promote urban Aboriginal art
1988
The Bicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet is celebrated in Australia, spurring massive protests and the largest ever demonstrations for land rights
Gael Newton’s Shades of light: photography and Australia 1839–1988 and Anne-Marie Willis’s Picturing Australia: a history of photography are published
1989
The first portable digital camera, the Fuji DS–X, is commercially marketed in Japan
1991
Dissolution of the USSR and the end of the Cold War
1992
The Great Melbourne Telescope is rebuilt for the MACHO project, a search for the evidence of dark matter
1993
Michael Aird’s Portraits of our elders is published in South Brisbane
Wayne Ludbey’s photograph of Aboriginal footballer Nicky Winmar’s historic protest against racial taunts is published in the Age
The Native Title Act is founded to facilitate the recognition and protection of traditional land ownership
1994
The internet moves out of universities and into commercial use
1999
Australians vote ‘no’ in a referendum on whether Australia should become a republic
2000
The world’s first camera phone, the J-Phone, is released in Japan
The development of new Photoshop software techniques leads to the rise of the internet meme
2001
The federal government refuses to allow the Norwegian freighter Tampa, carrying rescued asylum seekers, into Australian waters
2002
Allegations supposedly proven in 2001 by widely circulated photographs that asylum seekers rescued by the Tampa had thrown children overboard to ensure passage to Australia, are dismissed
2004
Social networking sites Facebook and Flickr emerge with image-database functions
Kodak Australia closes its manufacturing plant in Melbourne
2007
Apple releases the first generation iPhone
Google Street View is launched, providing panoramic images of cities in the United States taken using nine directional cameras at a height of around three metres
2008
Photographs of Australian cities are added to Google Street View
2010
The photo-sharing application Instagram is launched and attracts over a million users within its first six months
2011
Google Inc engineers the reverse image search, which allows internet users to trace the origin of and information about photographs used for advertising and other purposes
Snapchat, a photo-messaging application, is developed by Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy, students at Stanford University
2013
Over 300 million photographs are uploaded to Facebook every day, more than 20 times the total number of analogue photographs held by the United States’ Library of Congress
‘Selfie’ is included in the online version of the Oxford English dictionary
2014
Google Glass, a wearable computer with a head-mounted optical display, goes on sale