Prisoner George CHARLTON, photo by T. J. Nevin, September 1874.

Thomas J. NEVIN's photography: a prisoner mugshot and a New Town stereograph
George CHARLTON, prison records, aliases and monikers
SIMS' Excelsior coal mine, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart, Tasmania

The Mugshot
Prisoner George Charlton, photographed by T. J. Nevin, Hobart Gaol, September 1874.



Prisoner CHARLTON, George
TMAG Ref: Q15571
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Date and Location: Hobart Gaol, September 1874.

The numbering on recto "58" was applied in 1983 when this cdv was removed from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), Launceston, together with another three hundred or more 1870s mugshots taken at the Hobart Gaol by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin which were acquired by the QVMAG as part of the bequest from the estate of convictarian John Watt Beattie in the 1930s. When they were removed from Beattie's collection and taken down to the Port Arthur prison heritage site for an exhibition as part of the Port Arthur Conservation Project in 1983, they were not returned to the QVMAG. They were deposited instead at the TMAG where this cdv is currently held .



Verso of cdv of prisoner CHARLTON, George
TMAG Ref: Q15571
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Date and Location: Hobart Gaol, September 1874.

The verso information is incorrect. George Charlton was not photographed at the Port Arthur prison in 1874, he was photographed in the week ending 14th September 1874 on discharge from the Hobart Gaol by government contractor and professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin.

Police and Court Records
George Charlton aliases, monikers and misspellings:
George Charletan, Geordie, John Scott, George Chilton



6th July 1844
Convict transport Blundell arrived Hobart 6 July 1844
Charlton, George
Record Type: Convicts
Ship: Blundell
Place of origin: Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland
Origin location: Latitude and Longitude
Voyage number: 365
Index number: 11912
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1380271

3rd June 1858
Charlton, George
Record Type: Court
Status: Ticket of leave
Trial date: 3 Jun 1858
Place of trial: Hobart town
Offense: Burglary in the dwelling of Martha Wilcox with intent to steal
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 100095
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1504770

31st January 1868

TRANSCRIPTS

HAMILTON.-On the 29th instant, by J. F. Sharland, Esquire,
J.P., for the arrest of George Charletan [sic], per Blundell,
charged with house-breaking, and stealing £26 (since
recovered) the moneys of Mrs. Smith, Ouse.
Description.
50 or 52 years old, 5 feet 1 or 2 inches high , brown to
grey hair, light complexion, bald, wore a new black
billy-cock hat, brown vest (new), old brownish trousers,
striped jumper, and blucher boots, slight made, a miner,
an Englishman. He is likely to make for the coal
mines at New Town, where he formerly worked. He
was convicted 10 years ago for a similar offence at Mrs.
Williams's. See Crime Report of the 27th October, 1865,
page 174, prisoners discharged.( Tasmania Reports of Crime, 31 Jan 1868, p. 16)

14th February 1868

Vide Crime Report of the 31st ultimo, page 16. Referring to George Charletan charged with housebreaking, &c. He is likely to get on one of the crafts trading from Hobart Town to the Huon. He is known as Geordie. A Reward is offered for his arrest if effected within two months from the 5th instant.(Tasmania Reports of Crime, 14 Feb 1868, p. 24)

7th August 1868

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.
Vide Crime Report of the 31st January 1868, page 16.
Referring to George Charletan charged with housebreaking, he left the service of Mr. Kermode about a month ago, having been employed as cook to the Mechanics under the name of John Scott. He wore Bedford-cord trousers and a long blackcoat. Was heard of at Campbell Town about a fortnight ago. (Tasmania Reports of Crime, 7 Aug 1868, p. 124)

14th August 1868

Vide Crime Report of the 31st January, 14th February, and the 7th instant, pages 16, 25, and 124. George Charletan has been arrested by Sub-Inspector Stevens, of the Campbell Town Municipal Police. Vide Crime Report of the 17th April, 1868, page 60. (Tasmania Reports of Crime, 7 Aug 1868, p. 128)

15th September 1868

Trial id: 110237
Name: GEORGE CHARLTON
Sex of offender: MALE
First offence for which indicted: LARCENY IN A DWELLING HOUSE
Date of trial: 1868-09-15
Location of trial: HOBART TOWN
Judge: FLEMING
Verdict first offence: GUILTY
Sentence: 8 YEARS
Source: Prosecution Project
https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/

Conduct register - Port Arthur
Item Number:CON94/1/1
Start Date:01 Jan 1868
End Date:31 Dec 1869
Source: Archives Office Tasmania Ref: CON94-1-1_00004_L

George Charlton's name was misspelt as CHILTON, George per Blundell (folio 6) on this index to the Conduct Register, Port Arthur, 1868-1869, though correct on his record of payments while serving time at the Port Arthur prison, arriving there on 30th September 1868, sentenced to eight years, discharged on 14 September 1874.



George Charlton, CON94-1-1 Image 29
Conduct register - Port Arthur
Item Number:CON94/1/1
Start Date:01 Jan 1868
End Date:31 Dec 1869
Source: Archives Office Tasmania

16th October 1877



TRANSCRIPT:

GLENORCHY POLICE COURT.-Mr. Harry Gordon writes complaining that in our report of the last sitting of the Police Court at Glenorchy, a man named Charlton, charged with using bad language, was described as being a lodger in his house. Mr. Gordon says that he does not keep a lodging-house, and that Charlton was a farm servant employed by him.

Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) Tue 16 Oct 1877 Page 2

Coal Mines at New Town (Tasmania)
George Charlton had worked in the New Town coal mines in the 1860s, located at Kangaroo Valley, Hobart (now Lenah Valley), Tasmania, and was thought to make his way there again when he was sought for housebreaking and stealing at Ouse in January 1868. He may well have encountered Thomas J. Nevin in the vicinity while acting as guide and photographer for visiting tourist groups to the Lady Franklin Museum.



TRANSCRIPT:

HAMILTON.-On the 29th instant, by J. F. Sharland, Esquire,
J.P., for the arrest of George Charletan [sic], per Blundell,
charged with house-breaking, and stealing £26 (since
recovered) the moneys of Mrs. Smith, Ouse.
Description.
50 or 52 years old, 5 feet 1 or 2 inches high , brown to
grey hair, light complexion, bald, wore a new black
billy-cock hat, brown vest (new), old brownish trousers,
striped jumper, and blucher boots, slight made, a miner,
an Englishman. He is likely to make for the coal
mines at New Town, where he formerly worked. He
was convicted 10 years ago for a similar offence at Mrs.
Williams's. See Crime Report of the 27th October, 1865,
page 174, prisoners discharged.

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police
31st January 1868, p.16

Sims' Excelsior Coal Mine
Thomas J. Nevin offered more than just photographic services from his studio at 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart from 1868 to 1876 while operating as both a commercial photographer and government contractor. He organised events on the social committees of the Benevolent Society and the Loyal Odd Fellow's Lodge, and acted as the city agent for several businesses such as Sim's Excelsior Coal Mine, Kangaroo Valley, New Town . He took orders at his studio for coal deliveries from Messrs Sims and Stops'  mine which was located not far from the family house built by his father John Nevin on land in trust to the Wesleyan church in 1854 adjacent to  the Lady Franklin Museum. A lengthy geological report was published on Christmas Day in the Mercury, 25 December 1883 (p. 3) - (see Addendum below), on the coal mines and seams around kunanyi/Mt Wellington, including a description of the methods of mining at Mr Ebenezer Sim's Excelsior Coal Mine and an account of the formation of anthracite, shale and sandstone in the Kangaroo Valley area.

This photograph of the horse-drawn whim working the coal mine at Sim's Excelsior Coal Mine, Kangaroo Valley, New Town, was taken by Thomas J. Nevin in the late 1860s. He printed it as a stereograph on an arched buff mount.



Detail: single image of double image stereograph
Horse-drawn whim at Mr Sim's Excelsior Coal Mine, Kangaroo Valley, New Town, Tasmania
Stereograph on arched buff mount by Thomas J. Nevin, 1870s
"Thos Nevin New Town" studio stamp on verso
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection. TMAG Ref: Q16826.11





Verso: Horse-drawn whim at Mr Sim's Excelsior Coal Mine, Kangaroo Valley, New Town, Tasmania
Stereograph on arched buff mount by Thomas J. Nevin, 1870s
"Thos Nevin New Town" studio stamp on verso
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection
TMAG Ref: Q16826.11

Addendum
Extract from the report on carboniferous deposits in New Town near Hobart, Tasmania by the Inspector of Mines and Geological Surveyor, G. THUREAU, F.O.S., published in the Mercury, Christmas Day, Tuesday 25 December 1883, page 3:



TRANSCRIPT

THE CARBONIFEROUS DEPOSITS NEAR NEW TOWN.
The following report has just been issued from the Government Printing office :-
These occur at the north-eastern slopes of the spurs or foot-hills descending from Mount Wellington, and therefore within the western parts of New Town.
As the question whether the diamond drill could be recommended to be beneficially employed in that locality formed the principal part of my instructions, an extensive surface examination has been made in order to ascertain, from the lithological and palaeontological character of the carbonaceous strata and that of the contained seams of coal* whether boring to greater depths could possibly give good results or otherwise.
It is deemed necessary, before going any further, to give a few particulars as to the principal coal-yielding mines, in order to be able to refer to same in the following portions of this report.
Mr. Tim. Meredith's mine is worked by means of a horse-whim and a shaft 200ft. deep from the surface, in which the second seam of this district was intersected at 195ft. ; the coal varies from 1ft. 3in. to 2ft. 6in. in thickness, and is subjected to numerous faults and jumps, rendering it some-times difficult to recover the faulted or missing continuations of this seam. The main fault observes a bearing of south 67 deg. east, and a nearly parallel fault close by, south 40 deg. east. The coal is of a better quality generally at this greater depth than any other, as it is disposed of at from 22s. to 25s. per ton. Five men and a whim-boy are employed at this private mine.
-----------
* The word coal, continued throughout this report, though, as it is explained, it is not really the coal as known to consumers.
-----------
The Enterprise Coal Mining Co. (private) is the only one that employs steam winding machinery for working their mine. Their shaft is 110ft. in depth, and they are also working the second seam from the top, which averages 22in. of useful coal, the seam itself, with a parting of shale or "clod," being 2ft. 10in. thick. In the direction of the dip of the coal, or south 44 deg. west, they have extended their workings to a distance of 200yds., thus following the best description of the coal : and their experience has been that, towards Hobart, as exemplified in the adjacent Jarvis and Old Rosetta mines - now abandoned - the seams become very disordered, and that towards the south rises considerably and gets much thinner and therefore unremunerative. In following that seam from the shaft along its dip, the subterranean water follows the workings as they in-cline in that direction, necessitating the employment of an underground force-pump to permit the coal hewers to work. Fifteen to 17,000 gallons of water are raised daily from this mine, and the cost of cutting the coal is at the rate of 8s. per ton, fetching 22s. in the market.
Mr. Ebenezer Sims' coal mine, adjoining the last named, is wrought by means of a horse-whim. The coal occurs at 65ft., and at 70ft. or 80ft. below that measuring 18in. in thickness. From the upper seam, which is about 2ft. 6in. thick, 16 tons are raised by five miners per week on the average, which are sold on the " bank" at 7s. per ton, and at 22s. if delivered to consumers at their houses. The average dip is in the same direction as last, at the rate of 6in to the yard, indicating either a fault or other disturbance between this and the Enterprise Co.'s shafts. The coal in its undulating dip has been found quite irregular, "clumpy," and of but little value if inclining to the south-east ; there is also a considerable influx of water per diem, at the rate of from 18,000gals. to 20,000gals.
The region, in the near neighbourhood of the above described coal mines, now working or abandoned, presents some remarkable features, directly due to the close vicinity of "vents" of volcanic rocks, and the actual protrusion of dense basaltic dykes through the formations carrying the coal. The results of the penetration of the coal measures by these volcanic vents and dykes appear to have led to and caused, in the first instance, the conversion of the pre-existent true coal measures into carbonaceous shales and sand-stones, and of the seams of coal into "Anthracites."
As regards the former, they are of considerable thickness, as seen on the top of the New Town-road near the old tollgate ; their lower series exhibit occasionally very thin veins of black carbon-non-bituminous. The embedded seams, belonging also to the series of converted coals, -i.e., anthracites, -presents the usual appearance of black vitreous to half metallic and iridescent lustre, with a black streak ; they are not easily ignited, but burn with an evolution of great heat, very little smoke and smell, leaving residues after burning almost the same in bulk as the raw mineral itself before, combustion. They are non-bituminous, forming a natural stratified and compact, coke as the result of contact with and in the vicinity of igneous rocks. With an admixture of other suitable fuel they are very useful for the production of quicklime, and for smelting raw iron ores for rough cast-iron.
I did not succeed in observing or collecting any paleontological specimens of any kind.
The New Town anthracites, occurring in close contiguity to Mount Wellington, the extinct ' crater or centre of stupendous volcanic action, lose their character as such whenever they approach any of those more recent eruptive igneous rocks. It appears that from this great centre of pre-historic upheavals and convulsions, the adjacent or overlying strata was shattered and disrupted by fissures radiating from the former, and those clefts were filled with volcanic matter which converted not only the coal measures and scams of coal as described, but caused likewise many faults and other irregularities.
As a matter of fact the New Town carboniferous deposit may be regarded as the lower series or the remnants of coal measures that were altered or transmuted into non-bituminous deposits by the action of under-lying volcanic rocks or of analogous dykes traversing the country. Under these circumstances the permanency of the present seams of anthracite depend on the more or less frequent intrusion of those dykes, and consequently, as the latter occur at uncertain and irregular intervals and places, the output of this mineral is also subjected to the same... [etc etc - end of extract]

G. THUREAU, F.O.S.,
Inspector of Mines and Geological Surveyor.

Source: THE CARBONIFEROUS DEPOSITS NEAR NEW TOWN. (1883, December 25). The Mercury p. 3.
Link:https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9013224

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• Views and portraits for the Lands & Survey Department
• Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

The photographer's tent at Port Arthur: 1872 or 1874?

Professional photographers Alfred Bock, Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin visited the prison at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula on several occasions between 1866 and 1874. Bock photographed the prison's officers, Clifford photographed visiting dignitaries and the scenery, and Nevin photographed day-trippers, buildings and the handful of prisoners still located there between 1872-74 before they were transferred back to the city prison in Hobart. The bulk of the extant 300+ police photographs in public collections of prisoners taken in the 1870s he took at the Hobart Gaol and Mayor's Court, Hobart Town Hall. At Port Arthur, these three photographers Alfred Bock, Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin made use of makeshift arrangements in the Officers' Library and the Police Court washroom. On day trips they used a photographer's tent.

The A. H. Boyd furphy
Locally-born A.H. Boyd (1829-1891) was an accountant at the Port Arthur prison in 1853, superintendent of the Queen’s Orphan School (July 1862-October 1864) where he was dismissed for misogyny, a stipendiary magistrate at Huon (1866-1870), and Civil Commandant of Port Arthur (June 1871-December 1873), a position he was forced to resign because of allegations of corruption and nepotism implicating his brother-in-law, Attorney-General W. R. Giblin. He was not a photographer by any definition. A. H. Boyd had no reputation during his life time as a photographer, and no photographic work exists by A. H. Boyd. His “amateur photographer” status originated as a rumour spread by descendants, which was published as "likely" by an uniformed and gullible Chris Long (1985, 1995) from the singular circumstance of Boyd’s presence at the Port Arthur site in 1873, a date which only approximates the date “1874” written on the verso of several extant convict cartes (Davies & Stanbury, 1985; Kerr & Stilwell, 1992; Long, 1995; Reeder, 1995). Their assumption was that a cargo of photographic plates sent to Port Arthur in July 1873 was used by Boyd to take photographs of the prisoners there; research, however, has shown the plates were accompanied by T. J. Nevin’s partner Samuel Clifford and used to photograph the site’s buildings, visiting dignitaries, and the surrounding landscape (Tasmanian Papers Mitchell Library Ref: 320). It was assumed that the wet plate process was used by the photographer at Port Arthur, but Clifford was known for his proficiency in dry plate photography (Kerr, 1992). It was also assumed that other photographic equipment returned to Hobart in April 1874 – a tent and stand – was Boyd’s personal property, but the only property that was listed as Boyd’s were “1 child’s carriage, 1 package Deer Horns, 1 Hat Box, Leather, 1 package of Buttons [?]” accompanied by his wife who was a passenger. Because these assumptions were published as a “belief” in the A-Z reference, Tasmanian Photographers 18401-940: A Directory (1995: TMAG, Gillian Winter ed), several publishers and curators in the past decade have mistaken the “belief” about Boyd to be an attribution as photographer of convicts. The surviving photographs of Tasmanian convicts in public holdings from the 1870s to the early 1880s were taken by the commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol on contract to the Lands and Survey Dept and Municipal Police Office of the Hobart City Council and Hobart Gaol.

Contrary to these postulations by apologists promoting the prison's Commandant Adolarious Humphrey Boyd as the photographer of the extant 300+ police mugshots of prisoners taken in the 1870s (eg. Julia Clark 2010 and Warwick Reeder 1995, citing Chris Long 1995 after Edith Hall 1930), there was no "dark room" at Port Arthur specifically designated for the photographing of prisoners. If the same apologists wish to claim that Boyd possessed the photographic tent and headstand which were returned from Port Arthur to Hobart on the government schooner, the Harriet, on 2nd April 1874, listed on the way bill as goods destined for government stores, (Tasmanian Papers 320, Mitchell Library SLNSW), then Boyd had no building housing a "dark room". Those items could not have belonged to A. H. Boyd, because he would have had no need of a tent: according to his apologists, he had this so-called "dark room" in the garden, the "existence" of which they say is proof enough he photographed prisoners. Yet A. H. Boyd had no reputation as a photographer in his own life-time. No photographs ostensibly taken by him have ever surfaced, none have been profferred by either his descendants or their apologists who have rushed into print, and no document testifies to his training, skills, or official mandate. The "belief" in A. H. Boyd from these apologists is simply tourism spin originating from the Port Arthur Historic site and maintained there to this day to justify the fish-bowl furphy of  Port Arthur as a model of insular self-sufficiency.

The name of A. H. Boyd appears twice on the schooner Harriet's way bill list dated 2nd April 1874, four months after Boyd was forced to resign under allegations of corruption and replaced by Dr Coverdale as Commandant of Port Arthur. His name appears against cargo designated as “private”, some of which is identified by the owner’s name, eg. “1 Umbrella … Mr G. B. Walker”. The photograph stand and tent are NOT identified by the owner’s name. The second appearance of Boyd’s name specifically brackets four items which included “1 child’s carriage, 1 package Deer Horns, 1 Hat Box, Leather, 1 package of Buttons [?]”. These FOUR items were bracketed as Boyd’s personal property, but the photograph stand and tent DO NOT appear here. Therefore, the stand and tent cannot said to be Boyd’s personal property: to argue for attribution to Boyd as the photographer of Tasmanian prisoners, reduxed as "convicts" by the tourism industry, on the basis of unproven ownership of two pieces of photographic equipment, demonstrates the absurdity of such a claim. A cursory glance at the Tasmanian Names Index (AOT) shows hundreds of Boyds alive in Tasmania in the 1870s, and not one of those Boyds has ever been documented as a photographer in their own lifetime or subsequently. Even A.H. Boyd’s predecessor in the position of Commandant at Port Arthur, another but unrelated Boyd, James Boyd, who was the owner of stereoscopic equipment auctioned from his house in Battery Point in 1873, has never been documented as either an amateur or skilled professional photographer.

The Port Arthur prison was well and truly closed by 1877. It was not until the tourist boom of the 1890s-1910s,when the prison was little more than a desolate ruin, renamed Carnavon and heavily promoted to intercolonial visitors as central to Tasmania's history, that a "dark room" mentioned in Edith Hall's children's story The Young Explorer might have existed in reality. Edith Hall (nee Giblin) claimed to be the niece of A. H. Boyd who visited him at Port Arthur while he was Commandant (1871-83), and her "story" - although generically fiction - has been interpreted as documentary proof of Boyd taking photographs of prisoners. In all probability, Edith Hall saw a copy of this stereograph of the Government cottage with the little girl (below), and gazing upon it among the dozens taken at Port Arthur by Bock, Clifford and Nevin held in the Tasmanian State Archives, took up her pen and wrote a story for children in the 1930s to give them a happier version of old Port Arthur. She may even have imagined herself as the young girl in the stereograph (below) as she gazed upon it, immersing herself with no small degree of narcissicism in the photograph's narrative possibilities. Her story, The Young Explorer,  (typescript deposited at Tas Archives 1942)written in the 1930s when she was in her sixties is indeed an imaginative children's fiction about pretty girls in pretty frocks visiting the site. She does not identify anyone by name in the story; she fabricates a character called the Chief who was always "on the lookout for sitters." Her description of a room where the child protagonist, the young explorer, was photographed (and rewarded for it) hardly accords with a set-up for police photography. The photographing of prisoners is not mentioned in either the story or the accompanying letter forwarded to the Archives. In the context of the whole story, only three pages in length, the reference to photography is just another in a long list of fictions (many about clothes and servants) intended to situate the child reader in a place where the convict stain so central to the legacy of Port Arthur has been cleansed. Edith Hall's story is a composite of general details that concord more with the imagery in the postcards sold by Albert Sergeant in the late 1880s, and Port Arthur as the premium tourist destination of the 1920s, than with the site during its operation in 1873. In short, it is a piece of historical FICTION.



E.M. Hall. The Young Explorer, typed script courtesy SLTAS
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2010 ARR

Photographers producing postcards and mementos of Tasmania's penal heritage might have had at their disposal a "dark room" at Port Arthur in the last decade of the 19th century, but in the late 1860s and early 1870s, photographers at the site made do with makeshift studios and what they could transport with them by schooner.

The Tent
This stereograph (below) of a tent pitched on the lawn in front of the Government Cottage, with one gentleman in a top hat standing at a short distance, facing a young girl and another gentleman in a top hat outside the tent's entrance, bears traces of multiple printings in different formats. The darkened round corners of the print suggest it was printed first in a double oval or binocular stereoscopic mount, and reprinted with squared corners. The dress fashion of the men and girl suggests day trippers in their Sunday best rather than the work-a-day dress of prison officials or local employees. If Nevin had taken this photograph in early 1874, the tent listed on the government schooner's way bill definitely belonged to him, because he was away at Port Arthur and not in Hobart when the birth of his son Thomas James Nevin jnr in April 1874 was registered by his father-in-law Captain James Day, the only birth registration of his children he did not personally sign.If the photograph was taken in April 1874, the man standing next to the girl could be identified as G.B. Walker, brother of historian James Backhouse Walker (1821-1899), who appears on the way bill of 2nd April 1874 as a passenger, accompanied by his cargo of one umbrella. The girl could then be identified as G. B Walker's daughter, and the man facing them, possibly Dr John Coverdale, by then incumbent of the Cottage behind them. However, if Nevin photographed this group two years earlier, on 1st February 1872, the more likely date, the girl and bearded man standing in front of the tent could be identified as Jean Porthouse Graves, the man as barrister Byron Miller (her future father-in-law), and the clean-shaven man facing them, solicitor John Woodcock Graves, Jean's father. This stereograph is currently held at the antiquarian booksellers, Douglas Stewart Fine Books, who also held Jean Porthouse  Graves' family album containing several Nevin stereographs, now part of the KLW NFC Imprint collection.





The verso of this stereograph bears no studio stamp. The inscription "Government Cottage Port Arthur Tasmania" was possibly written by a contemporary of the photographer, either the purchaser or subsequently by a collector. If it was sourced from the personal or family collections of Edith Hall, or any related member of the Boyd family, it would carry personal names, but it doesn't, although something pencilled along the roof-line of the cottage appears to have been erased. To the original inscriber, the subject of this photograph was the building, and not the people or even the tent. The intended purchaser was probably an intercolonial visitor to Hobart, who needed the reminder that the photograph was taken in Tasmania.

The catalogue entry for this stereograph online at Douglas Stewart Fine Books - "Government Cottage, Port Arthur, Tasmania CLIFFORD, Samuel (1827-1890) (attributed)" - highlights another problem of attribution regarding Thomas Nevin's work. It seems that any Tasmanian stereograph of the 1870s which bears no identifying photographer stamp is assumed to be the work of Samuel Clifford, whether by state archivists, museum workers or dealers. Photographers Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin travelled around the island in partnership during the 1860s-1870s, producing prodigious numbers of commercial stereographs. One of their visits on passing through Bothwell was reported at length in The Mercury 26th September 1874. Many of their stereographs of identical views carry Clifford's stamp on one, Nevin's on the other. Dozens of Nevin's stereographs were not stamped at all if they were printed in quantity for the Lands and Survey Dept. Some of his stereographs held at the TMAG feature the same groups of people taken on the same day in the same place, where one stereograph carries his studio stamp, and the other carries no identifier. Whoever reproduced this particular stereograph of the tent at Government Cottage, Port Arthur with squared corners from the original, leaving the double oval mount visible, not only produced a less than appealing copy, they may have taken pains to disguise the original photographer's name; one can safely assume, however, that such an amateur reprint would not have issued from Thomas J. Nevin's studio.



Source: These are scans of the copy currently displayed online at Douglas Stewart Fine Books. A black and white copy of the single image, undated and unattributed, is held at the Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office.



Photograph - Port Arthur - Government Cottage (copy of photo)
Description:1 photographic print
ADRI: PH30-1-8672
Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office

No-one other than Thomas J. Nevin could have taken the original of this stereograph. If he did not photograph these day-trippers at Port Arthur in April 1874, he most certainly photographed them on Thursday, 1st February 1872, when he was enjoined by the Tasmanian Attorney-General who was also his family solicitor, W. R. Giblin, to proceed to Port Arthur with local and intercolonial VIPS accompanying British author Anthony Trollope.  Giblin had issued Nevin with rolling government commissions  and contracts in 1868 for the Lands and Survey Dept. The negatives he used would have been prepared with the tannin dry plate process, supplied in quantity by Samuel Clifford to his cohort, so a source of continuous flowing water was not the urgent necessity it was for using wet collodion plates. The day before, on 31st January 1872, Thomas Nevin had photographed several members of the same visiting VIP group on a day-trip to Adventure Bay. He printed those dozen or so negatives in different mounts, in some instances the same negative as variously a cdv, a stereograph and a plain unmounted print according to the wishes of the trippers. This one (below) was printed in the same double oval stereograph mount as the original of the stereograph (above) featuring his tent. John Woodcock Graves, Jean Porthouse Graves and Byron Miller appear on the extreme left of each single image.



Stereograph in double oval buff mount with T. Nevin blindstamp impress in centre
Verso is blank. Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR
Taken at the TMAG November 2014 (TMAG Collection Ref:Q1994.56.5

Above: Group photograph of the colonists at Adventure Bay 31st January 1872
Figures on lower left, recumbent: John Woodcock Graves jnr and Sir John O’Shanassy
Between them: John Graves’ teenage daughter, Jean Porthouse Graves
Above her in topper: Robert Byron Miller
On right: sitting with stick, Hon. Alfred Kennerley, Mayor of Hobart
Head in topper only on extreme right: Sir James Erskine Calder.

ADDENDA
This portable photographer's darkroom is held at the Museum of New Zealand:



Name Portable Darkroom - main piece
Production 1870-1880
Classification photographic equipment
Materials wood
Dimensions Overall: 480mm (width), 755mm (length), 115mm (depth)
Registration Number GH007796
Link: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/435217

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• Fraudulent Pretensions
• The QVMAG. Chris Long and A. H. Boyd etc etc

The Glenorchy Landslip 1872

GLENORCHY LANDSLIDE  June 1872
PRISONER CORNELIUS GLEESON
STEREOGRAPHS 1872

Thomas Nevin was married and a first-time father by June 4th, 1872 when heavy rains and the great landslide at Glenorchy destroyed houses, farms, businesses and streets and tore boulders and vegetation from the slopes of Mount Wellington. He was living at his city studio, The City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart with his wife Elizabeth Rachel Day and their new-born daughter May (Mary Florence) who was born just a fortnight earlier on the 19th May 1872 (she died to the day exactly 83 yrs later, on 4th June 1955). That Tuesday night of the great flood in Glenorchy, photographic stock at Nevin's old studio in nearby New Town was probably saturated by the heavy rain, if water damage on some of his extant photographs taken a few months earlier in January 1872 at Adventure Bay, is any indication. But his anxieties would have been far greater concerning his parents living in the cottage his father had built at Kangaroo Valley on land above the Lady Franklin Museum, in the northern foothills of Mount Wellington.

Within days of the landslide, Thomas Nevin was out and about taking photographs of the damage on commission for the Lands and Survey Division of the Hobart City Council, most likely in the company of Mr. Hull, Council Clerk for the district. These three extant stereographs are held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Both stereographs in yellow mounts bear verso the Royal Arms insignia studio stamp issued to Thomas J. Nevin by the Attorney-General, W. R. Giblin and Surveyor-General J. Erskine Calder in 1868 for use on government commissions. The same stamp appears on police photographs of prisoners (convicts), of the Royal Mail coach operated by Sam Page, of full-length and mounted cartes-de-visite of staff members of the Hobart City Council, their wives and children, and on photographs such as these of streets, landscapes, mining operations, caves and geological formations. The third stereograph in a buff mount is the same photograph of Humphrey Rivulet as the one above it. It bears no stamp, and was probably printed for private or experimental use.



Water flow caused by the landslip at Glenorchy, June 1872
Stereograph in arched yellow mount
Thomas J. Nevin, June 1872.
Verso stamped with Nevin's Royal Arms insignia issued by Lands Dept.
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.2. Verso below



Verso:Water flow caused by the landslip at Glenorchy 1872
Stereograph in arched yellow mount
Thomas J. Nevin 1872.
Verso bears Nevin's Royal Arms insignia stamp issued by Lands Dept.
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.2. 



The Landslip at Glenorchy June 1872
Humphrey Rivulet showing passage of the debris flow.
Stereograph in arched yellow mount
Thomas J. Nevin June, 1872.
TMAG Ref: Q1686.20. Verso stamp same as above on Q1994.56.2.



The Landslip at Glenorchy June 1872
Humphrey Rivulet showing passage of the debris flow.
Stereograph in arched buff mount
Thomas J. Nevin 1872.
Sames as TMAG Ref: Q1686.20. Verso blank.
TMAG Ref: Q16826.36. Verso below.



Historical accounts of the Glenorchy Landslip 1872
Tasmanian Geological Survey Record 2007/01
A compilation of historical accounts of the 1872 Glenorchy landslide
C. Mazengarb, G. J. Dickens & C. R. Calver

Read the full document HERE

EXCERPTS
These excerpts are courtesy of the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources Mineral Resources Tasmania. A single image print held at the Archives Office of Tasmania of another of Nevin's photographs of the landslip was published in this report, viz:.



Title:The landslip on Mt Wellington near Glenorchy
In:Tasmanian scenes P. 33, item 66
Publisher:[ca. 1873]
Description:1 photograph : sepia toned ; 11 x 19 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001124075482
Source: W.L. Crowther Library

From the Introduction:

"Late at night on Tuesday 4 June 1872, after about 24 hours of heavy rain, a large landslide took place on the steep northern slope of Mt Arthur (at approximately 517 300 mE, 5 252 400 mN — coordinate datum GDA94). The slide — incorporating a huge volume of floodwater, boulders, broken trees, sediment and other debris — was channelled rapidly down Humphrey Rivulet and disgorged onto the plains of what is now the city of Glenorchy. A number of houses and farms were damaged or destroyed. Miraculously, no lives were lost, although one drowning had occurred during the floods of the preceding afternoon.

The descriptions of this event are consistent with it being due to a debris flow, a fast-moving torrent of water, mud and debris. The 1872 Glenorchy landslide remains the largest and most damaging debris flow recorded in Tasmania since European settlement. If a similar event was to be repeated today, the impact on the now densely built environment of the city of Glenorchy would be severe. Similar debris flows could also reach Hobart from the slopes of Mt Wellington, and although likely to be highly unusual (infrequent) events, debris flows are a significant geological hazard in the greater Hobart area, as shown by recent geohazard mapping (Mazengarb, 2005)...."
Source: Tasmanian Geological Survey Record 2007/01 A compilation of historical accounts of the 1872 Glenorchy landslide by C. Mazengarb, G. J. Dickens & C. R. Calver

Page 5: The Mercury, Wednesday 5 June 1872



Prisoner Gleeson's commendable heroics
Mercury 5th June 1872

TRANSCRIPT

WELLINGTON BRIDGE.
This bridge narrowly escaped being burst up in consequence of the accumulation of debris, consisting of timber, and other things, which had to be removed by special means. Aldermen Nicol and Rheuben were particularly active on the occasion, and Superintendent Propsting, Constables Green and Hollis, and others, did substantial service in superintending and assisting to clear away obstructions. At the request of the Public Works Committee, the Hon. Colonial Secretary gave orders for two gangs of prisoners from the gaol to work at the bridge, and these, headed by a man named Gleeson, behaved with much daring, indeed risking their lives, to seize the debris as it rushed, borne on the torrent, towards the bridge, and hand it ashore. The attention of the Colonial Secretary was specially directed to Gleeson and the other men who acted so praiseworthily in behalf of the citizens. Besides the Aldermen already named, we noticed Aldermen Crisp, Risby, and Belbin taking an active interest in the various operations. The timber and other articles rescued from the water were stacked in the road, and showed how much good had been effected in removing such formidable obstructions. The names of the constables referred to, and other members of the force who rendered good service in this and other localities, and of the prisoners mentioned, will be submitted in a formal way to the authorities, with a view to the recognition of their services, and, in the case of the prisoners, to some indulgence, which they well merit.

Cornelius Gleeson was discharged on 26 June 1872, at the Hobart Gaol from a 6 months sentence, residue remitted, originally charged on 12th February 1872 with being on premises for an unlawful purpose. It is entirely possible that his sentence was remitted on merit because of the leadership he showed in heading a group of fellow prisoners from the Hobart Gaol to catch and clean up the debris at Wellington Bridge (Elizabeth St.) during the great deluge of June 4th 1872 which swept through the city and resulted in a huge landslip at Glenorchy. The Mercury mentioned him twice in this report of the floods, June 5th, 1872. Despite the promise of indulgences for these heroic deeds, Gleeson continued to offend. Eighteen months later he was sentenced at the Supreme Court Hobart for the crime of burglary and larceny (2 December 1873), for which he earned an eight year sentence and a mugshot taken by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol.



Print of Thomas Nevin's original mugshot (glass negative) of Cornelius Gleeson (1873)
Reprints by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

Page 7: The Mercury, Wednesday 5 June 1872

GLENORCHY.
Very serious disaster has to be recorded in this locality,
and the devastation, we regret to say has been attended
with loss of life, a man named Moran in the
employment of Messrs. Wright and Co. having been
carried away by the flood in the endeavour to save the
property of his employers by removing some logs
which threatened it. The properties of Messrs. Wright,
Reed and the Rev. Mr Symons, have also suffered
much injury, the whole of the extensive hop grounds of
Mr Stephen Wright being completely inundated. The
residence and grounds of the Rev. Mr Symons was
almost entirely submerged, the water being up to the
eaves of his cottage and he and his family being
compelled to seek refuge at the residence of Mr H
Hopkins, New Town.

Pages 9, 10 : The Mercury, Thursday 6 June 1872

GLENORCHY — IMMENSE LAND SLIPS.
In addition to the few particulars which we gave in our
yesterday’s issue, we have now to record a far more
disastrous visitation in this locality. The residents in
the vicinity of O’Brien’s Bridge [locality 3, fig. 1] were
at a late hour on Tuesday congratulating themselves
on the belief that the worst danger had passed, and
hailing with satisfaction the gradual subsidence of the
waters in the creek, when at about half-past ten o’clock
a dreadful dull rumbling sound, a heavy smothered
crash, and a deafening roar of flowing waters, gave
evidence of some unusual convulsion of Nature. Those
who had not retired to rest started to their feet in alarm,
whilst many who had sought repose after the fatigues
and anxieties of the day’s work in protecting their
premises from destruction, hurriedly attired
themselves and issued from their dwellings anxious to
ascertain the cause of the shock. The night was
intensely dark, and the inhabitants of the village were
soon all astir congregated in groups, and dull
forebodings passed rapidly from one to another as to
the unknown, invisible danger which threatened
them. Preparations were at once made for the saving of
life and property, those having tenements on the low
lands leaving them and taking with them such
property as they could secure. About an hour after the
sound was heard that caused so much consternation,
the waters were heard approaching with a dull
rumbling sound. An immense wall of it was seen in the
darkness to be coming on, bearing onward with
irresistible force everything with which it came in
contact. Eyes which had now become accustomed to
the darkness, saw borne on the foaming torrent, huge
masses, consisting of trees uptorn by the roots, and
bearing with them branches of others, tangled
undergrowth, dead timber, masses of rocks, portions
of broken buildings, and other debris all mingled,
tumbling one over another in a most grand but terrible
confusion. Houses substantially built were carried
away like wooden matchboxes, and the furious flood
burst from the inadequate creek channel, and forced
for itself new passages over the cultivated ground.
Land which had hitherto had entire immunity from
inundation was suddenly covered to a depth of many
feet; and trees, dead timber, and other drift, finding
obstructions, piled itself in gigantic heaps, resembling
hastily constructed barricades. The light of morning
was never more anxiously awaited then by the
watchers through that fearful night, and when dawn
broke it revealed surroundings which told in the most
forcible way of the desolation which has been wrought
in the few previous hours. Hundreds of acres of
ground which a day to two before had gladdened the
eye of the traveller as he passed through the
picturesque village, and admired the trim and neat
appearance of the gardens and the luxuriance of the
hop grounds and orchards, were now a desolate waste
of mud and silt, with sheets of turbid water lying in
patches over their surface, and trees of immense size
cumbering the ground at short intervals. A glance to
the left disclosed the cause of the previous night’s
alarm. Those familiar with the scenery at the foot of
black-browed Wellington at once discovered an
appearance entirely dissimilar to that which had
hitherto met their eyes as they had daily wandered
round the horizon. A great land slip had occurred. One
immense mass of fallen earth of a dusky brown
intermixed with a yellow clayey material met their
view, and another similar, but a much smaller one, was
to be seen where, the previous evening, only verdure
clad hills were visible. It is impossible to adequately
describe the altered appearance of the locality and the
dire destruction which has visited the property
holders. On the estate of Mr. Murray thousands of tons
of wood are to be seen spread over the ground. His
property of Murray field [locality 5, fig. 1] has suffered
to an extent which at present it would be difficult to
estimate. His manufactory has been thrown down, and
the vinegar and candle works and appliances by which
he carried on his business, entirely destroyed. The
bridge has been severely assailed. At the present time a
huge denizen of the forest some six feet in
circumferences lies stretched entirely across the creek
and jammed against the bridge. One of the centre stays
has also given way, but the bridge still seems tolerably
secure. When the flood came down, the bridge was
completely submerged, the archway became choked
with the debris, and the water escaped over both sides
and covered the road to a depth of several feet. Of the
sudden and furious discharge of the destroying
element, the land slips, were, it is conjectured, the
primary cause. Of the extent of these, various and
widely different estimates have been made, but that
they have been of very great extent, admits of no
doubt. They occurred amongst the subsidiary hills at
the base of Mount Wellington, and about six miles
from O’Brien’s Bridge. The earth has not slipped in one
mass, but in two distinct divisions on either side of the
gully which forms the source of the creek crossing the
road at O’Brien’s Bridge. Those familiar with the
conformation of the country in the locality of the hills
mentioned, will understand that behind those hills,
and lately enclosed by them was a natural basin, and it
is supposed that during the heavy rains a vast area of
water was here collected, which forced away the
immense wall of earth and carried down with it the
masses of trees, rocks, dead logs, and debris, which
created such destruction as it deluged the low lands in
the ungovernable fury of its onward course. This view
of the catastrophe is borne out by the fact that over the
dark soil of the land slip which presents itself to the
spectator, and even at a distance of six miles the water
may be still seen in several places where it has cut its
way into the fallen bank of earth and still continues to
flow in reduced volume over it. It would of course with
the very insufficient data which we at present have at
command, be impossible to judge with any degree of
accuracy of the extent of these land slips. From
observation the first would appear to extend in one
direction for nearly a mile, and the area of earth has
been variously estimated to contain from 200 or 640
acres of land. The second slip on the further side of the
creek is of much smaller proportions, and not much
more than half of the magnitude of the other. In order
to convey some idea of the noise produced by the land
slip, it may be mentioned that it was distinctly heard at
Risdon ferry some nine miles distant.
In the hurry of collecting particulars of yesterday’s
floods in this locality, a mistake occurred by which the
name of a man drowned at O’Brien’s Bridge was given
as Moran, and he was stated to have been in the
employ of Messrs. Wright. The unfortunate man who
lost his life was named Andrew Ranaghan, and he was
employed by Mr. Murray as foreman. In the
endeavour to save his master’s property, he was, on
Tuesday afternoon, with some others, engaged in
attempting to make more secure a wooden
embankment which kept the water in the creek from
flooding the premises [locality 9, fig. 1]. With this
object he took a chain, and clambering over the barrier
was in the act of fixing it on the side abutting on the
creek, when the barrier suddenly gave way, and falling
on the poor fellow he was borne down under the turbid
waters, never rising to the surface. He was an excellent
swimmer, but, of course, could not bring his powers
into use. The poor man leaves a wife and eight
children. We have been unable to gather the whole of
the particulars of losses in this locality, but append a
list of the principle ones. Mr. Murray has been by far
the greatest sufferer, the whole of his manufacturing
works being destroyed, his lands submerged, and
thousands of tons of fallen timber and other debris
scattered over his ground. A large portion of Mr. Thos.
Laing’s premises were carried away. Mr. R.
Shoobridge had a portion of his house destroyed, and
his grounds partially inundated. Mr. Edwin Morrisby,
miller, has had his private bridge and mill race washed
away. His brother, Mr. Tasman Morrisby has a portion
of his garden destroyed. Mr. Isaac Wright has suffered
extensively; the walls of his tannery [locality 10, fig. 1]
are gone and the tan pits filled with debris. Mr Stephen
Wright, on the opposite side of the creek, had five acres
of hops destroyed [locality 11, fig. 1]. A house occupied
by Mr. Cane, on the estate of Mr. Murray, was
completely knocked in, and Mr. Cane had only time to
make his escape without an opportunity of dressing.
The Rev. Mr. Symons was not so severe sufferer as was
reported to us yesterday, the water only rising a little
over the doorstep. Of Mr. John Oswald’s four-roomed
cottage not a vestige is left, and an enormous tree now
marks the spot which, on Tuesday evening was Mr
Oswald’s bedroom. Of the wholesale devastation
which is visible on every side it would be extremely
difficult to convey an idea, and the dwellers at
Glenorchy and in the vicinity of O’Brien’s Bridge will
long have cause to remember sadly the floods of June
1872, and the landslips at Mount Wellington.
We regret to state that the splendid garden of Mr. H.
Cook was flooded by the waters of the creek, which
washed away a quickset hedge and then overspread
the garden, which is about 3½ acres in extent.
Yesterday the whole area of the land presented the
aspect of a foaming sea. All the valuable trees are
destroyed. Mr. Cook was a large sufferer by the flood
of 1854, but the damage now sustained is
unprecedented and greatly discouraging.

Page 11: The Mercury, Friday 7 June 1872

THE FLOODS.
GLENORCHY — THE LAND SLIPS.
The marshy state of the ground and the numerous
mountain torrents render it impossible to get
sufficiently near the scene of the recent land slips in
this locality, and hence no accurate estimate can be
formed of their extent. A stream of water still continues
to pour over the dislodged earth, but its volume has
materially diminished. The damage to Mr. Murray’s
manufacturing buildings [locality 5, fig. 1] has been
found to be not so severe as at first reported. The
buildings used for the manufacture of candles and
vinegar have not been destroyed but are still standing,
although the former are surrounded by a densely
packed mass of dead timber. A portion, consisting of
one corner of the building used as a soap manufactory
and store-house was carried away, but this, it is
anticipated, may be easily repaired. Mr. Calloway, Mr.
Murray’s manager, has a large body of men vigorously
engaged in removing the timber and other
obstructions, and expects to be able to proceed with the
manufacture of candles on Monday morning next. On
the night of the great flood two young men employed
by Mr. Murray, and a son of Mr. Calloway, had a most
miraculous escape. They were watching the waters of
the creek when the great wave of water came down
and overtook them. They were knocked down several
times, and with difficulty regained their feet. Two of
the young men found security on some higher ground,
and had already reported to Mr. Calloway that his son
had been overtaken by the waters. Young Calloway
had, however, clambered on to a cattle shed, and from
this afterwards climbed into a gum tree, and remained
in this perilous position some three hours. During this
time his parents were in a most anxious state, but were
at length re-assured by their son announcing his
safety. No efforts could, however, by made to relieve
him till the waters abated. Mr Calloway describes the
descent of the waters as most terrific, the noise caused
by the enormous boulders as they came crashing down
the creek, being likened to the discharge of a hundred
pieces of heavy ordnance. Trees from 50 to 100 feet
long and six or seven feet diameter at the butt, are
strewn all over the ground. An embankment built to
protect Mr. Murray’s property, the piles having been
shod with iron and secured with iron rods, and which
was considered an impregnable barrier to any flood,
was carried away for over thirty yards of its course,
and it was when this gave way that the lives of the
young men mentioned above were placed in jeopardy.
Some of the houses on Mr. Murray’s estate have been
miraculously preserved by the barricades of wood
which accumulated before them. Large logs coming
down became in many places fixed and by this means
other timber piling itself caused the diversion of the
water, and saved, besides Mr. Murray’s buildings,
several dwelling houses. This was observable in two or
three instances, the piles of timber forming closely
packed walls around three sides of many of the
cottages. Mr Murray’s garden, which before the flood
was in a most flourishing state, and contained many
choice and prolific fruit trees, has had the top soil
washed away, boulders and drift timber remaining.
The hut of a man named Craig was knocked through
by heavy trees in three places. At Mr. Stephen Wright’s
as we mentioned yesterday, immense injury has been
done, and further examination discloses greater
disasters. The top soil has been carried away over a
large area, and the ground, in many places strewn with
rocky boulders, has a slight resemblance to the
ploughed field on Mount Wellington. The creek at this
point has made for itself an entirely new channel,
running through the properties of Mr. Isaac Wright,
and Mr. Cook, instead of in its old course [locality 10,
fig. 1]. A number of men were yesterday engaged in
putting Mr Isaac Wright’s tanneries in order, and
others in clearing the road and bed of the creek at
O’Brien’s Bridge. A party of men were out searching
for the body of the unfortunate man Andrew
Ranaghan, but without success. Barrett’s store was one
of the places flooded on Tuesday night, about a foot of
water going into the shop Tuesday night, about a foot
of water going into the shop and filling the cellars. The
road at this point is still covered some inches deep with
sludge.

Page 12: The Mercury, Monday 10 June 1872

THE LAND SLIPS.
A correspondent writing from Glenorchy on Friday,
says:—
Yesterday four of us started to follow up the gully
down which the fatal O’Brien’s Bridge deluge poured.
Those who knew the gloomy, densely wooded ravine
prior to the descent of the water, will be astonished
when they see it again. From the bed of the creek, for
perhaps 80 yards up, each hill-side has been swept of
every tree, and the ground is covered with silt and
sludge in which stones, rocks, fragments and nearly
whole trunks of trees lie tossed together in supreme
confusion. For over a mile from the foot of the great
slide the course of the water had a slope of at least 30
degrees. The timber met with along here, presents a
singular uniformity of appearance. Every branch and
root has been shorn close to the stem, the bark stripped
off, and a large proportion of the surface wood
feathered up into fine splinters. One green trunk,
about 30 feet long, and perhaps 4 feet through at the
base, attracted our particular attention. It is split for
about half its length, and three considerable logs
remain wedged in it. A little above where this log lies,
my companions judged the torrent must have been at
least 150 yards wide, and perhaps 70 feet deep [locality
12, fig. 1]. The edges of the stream are lined with
shattered timber. Large trees, standing many yards
above the water mark have been struck high up, their
branches rent and bark torn off, apparently by the logs
which the water hurled along. One spot, on the left as
we ascended, seems to have been passed over by a
water spout. Trees have been torn up and smashed, the
naked trunks of others left, blotched with muddy
splashes, and large mud-covered stones scattered
among them, yet there is no sign of water having
overflowed the ground.
What is spoken of here as the “small landslip” appears
to be on the clearance made by the surging of the water
when its course was arrested by the hill which faces
that down which it poured. The so-called small slip is
exactly opposite the large one. If the winding course of
the valley permitted, it would be seen from the main
road that each side, for some distance downwards, is
bared almost as high up from the bed of the creek.
The aspect from the foot of the great slide is
inexpressibly grand and awful. Its distance from
O’Brien’s Bridge lends it an appearance of smoothness,
which leaves the observer quite unprepared for what
will meet his gaze when he enters upon the scene itself.
By the time we reached this spot, our party was
reduced to two. Mr._____ and myself climbed to
within what he thinks was 150 yards of the head of the
great slide, when a fog began to shroud the top, and
obliged us to descend. The course we had traced by eye
from below bade fair to lead us right out, and it was
disappointing to be obliged to return without reaching
the top. The journey up and down is one not likely to be
forgotten.

Page 12: The Mercury, Tuesday 11 June 1872

THE LAND SLIPS. — A visit to the locality of the
recent Glenorchy disaster, made yesterday, showed
the course taken by the devastating torrent, which
swept down upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of the
district on Tuesday night last. The aspect of the
gigantic convulsion which has occurred, viewed from
the road at O’Brien’s Bridge, conveys but a faint idea of
the wonderful magnitude and destructive effect
produced a few miles distant, the apparently smooth,
level surface, which presents itself to the eye of those
travelling along the road being, on a nearer approach,
changed to rugged, rocky, and uneven banks, while
the mountain sides are utterly denuded of vegetation,
and rent and channelled by the many torrents which
have occurred down their dusky sides. The site is of the
grandest, although most terrible description. A
pressure on our space compels us to hold over a
detailed description, which will appear in to-morrow’s
issue.
etc etc

This stereograph was taken of the swollen creek at Kangaroo Valley in the aftermath of the floods. The verso is stamped with Nevin's government contractor's stamp with Royal Arms insignia, though much faded.



New Town creek in flood, June 1872
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin
TMAG Ref: Q16826.22



Verso: New Town creek in flood, June 1872
Stereograph by T. J. Nevin
TMAG Ref: Q16826.22

Sources of original newspapers articles
The Mercury, Wednesday 5 June 1872
The Mercury, Thursday 6 June 1872
The Mercury, Friday 7 June 1872
The Mercury, Monday 10 June 1872
The Mercury, Tuesday 11 June 1872
The Mercury, Saturday 15 June 1872
Notes on the landslip at Mount Wellington, Tasmania (Wintle, 1872)
Guide to Excursionists (Anonymous, 1879)
Round the Fireside: Reminiscences of an old Glenorchy Resident (Hull, 1940)

Read the full document HERE



The landslip area is clearly visible as two large indentations below a flattened Mt Arthur, with Mount Wellington behind and the Derwent Entertainment Centre (white building) in foreground in this photograph taken from the River Derwent on board the MONA vessel passing Elwick Bay. Photo copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2015.

UPDATE May 2017
The Tasmanian Department of State Growth Mineral Resources section issued an updated version in March 2016 of their earlier report issued in 2007 to include two stereographs taken by Thomas J. Nevin of the Glenorchy landslip in 1872, held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collections - read the updated report issued in March 2016 here (our link). The report compares the waterfall shown in this particular stereograph taken by Nevin with a present day photograph of the same waterfall (pages 14-15):



Caption: "Figure 6. A stereoscopic pair of photographs of upper Humphreys Rivulet, attributed to Thomas J. Nevin, showing a broad zone of stripped vegetation caused by the passage of the debris flow; and also showing significant super-elevation on the right (see later section for discussion). (Stereograph reproduced with the permission of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.) "

"The stereograph in Figure 6 (Nevin, 1872b) shows a waterfall in the bed of Humphreys Rivulet with a broad zone of bare slopes stripped of their vegetation by the passage of the debris flow down the Rivulet (see later section). The site of this photograph is well established by the position of this waterfall, which is still recognisable in the present day (Figure 7)."


Caption: "Figure 7. Present day view of the waterfall on Humphreys Rivulet that appears in the 1872 stereograph shown in Figure 6."

Source:

1872 Glenorchy debris flow
Tasmanian Geological Survey Record 2016/02 2
Historical assessment of the 1872 Glenorchy debris flow: a basis for modelling the large debris flow hazard from the Wellington Range, Hobart.
M.D. Stevenson, R.N. Woolley and C. Mazengarb
Tasmanian Geological Survey Branch
Mineral Resources Tasmania
Department of State Growth March 2016

ADDENDA
The stereograph scans (above) were supplied by the TMAG in June 2015. The photographs (below, front and back) were taken on a visit to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart on November 10th, 2014. Both stereographs in yellow mounts bear the Royal Arms insignia studio stamp issued to Thomas J. Nevin by the Attorney-General, W. R. Giblin and Surveyor-General J. Erskine Calder in 1868 for use on government commissions.





Stereographs by Thomas J. Nevin, June 1872
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

A stereograph produced with Samuel Clifford's rare blindstamp of another scene of destruction from the landslip is held at the State Library of Tasmania.

It is well known that the blue gum tree (Eucalyptus
globolus) is amongst the toughest of Tasmanian woods,
a fact due to its labyrinthine grain, and yet a vast
number of these trees (many of which must have
attained a height far above 200 feet) had been snapped
as short in the middle — to use an expressive
vulgarism — as a carrot.

(Wintle, 1872; page 17 of  Report op.cit.2007)



State Library of Tasmania
Debris of the floods and landslip 1872
Stereograph with blindstamp impress of Samuel Clifford
ADRI:NS2929-1-9

Nevin's photographs at the Art Gallery NSW exhibition 2015

STEREOGRAPH of STUDIO etc ELIZABETH St.
MUGSHOT of PRISONER WILLIAM RUSSELL



Stereograph by Thomas J Nevin bottom of page 270
Catalogue for the exhibition The Photograph and Australia, Judith Annear (ed)
Art Gallery of NSW, 21 March - 8 June 2015.
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2015 ARR

The Stereograph
Of the many dozens of stereographs taken by Thomas J. Nevin in the late 1860s which are held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collections, this particular one was chosen for display at The Photograph and Australia exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW, 21 March - 8 June 2015.

The Exhibition catalogue on page 296 lists the stereograph with these details:

"Thomas J Nevin
Elizabeth St 1860s
stereograph
7.3 x 7 cm (each)
8.5 x 17.4 cm (card)
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Q1994.56.12"

The old TMAG database (online until 2006) listed this stereograph with these details:

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Ref: Q1994.56.12
Sepia stereoscope salt paper print
T . Nevin [Artist] 1860s late
Hobart from near 140 Elizabeth Street on corner Patrick ? Street.
Nevin & Smith photographic Studio in buildings on extreme right [refer also to Q1994.56.33]
Impress on front: T Nevin/ photo

The reference to another stereograph of a similar view in the old TMAG database entry (above) is to this one, Q1994.56.33, (below) which depicts the same line of buildings, including Thomas Nevin's studio located at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, just "three doors from Patrick Street" according to press advertisements by the studio's former operator until 1867, Alfred Bock. The studio at No. 140 with the business name of The City Photographic Establishment and the shop and residence were separated by an entrance leading to the glasshouse at No. 138½, visible in both captures this side of the pavement overhang as the street begins its descent to the wharves.

This stereograph (below) was taken at a different time from the one displayed at the AGNSW, and possibly taken with a different stereoscopic camera. The horse and cart, the man in a light suit standing next to a lamp post on the corner of Patrick and Elizabeth Street, and the side of the building partially displaying the merchant's name "Lovell (?) " who sold pianos - all are missing - yet this second capture adds no more to the line of buildings on the other side of the street than the one above, despite being photographed from a greater distance. Both stereographs were framed in an arched buff mount.

This second stereograph was not stamped by Nevin, unlike the one above which carries his blindstamp impress lower centre between the two images. The stamping of one, and not the other of a similar set-up, appears to have been his common practice. When Nevin took two or more photographs depicting similar scenes, he stamped one either recto or verso, and left the second one blank. Compare this pair of two slightly different stereographs of Elizabeth Street with his pair of  two slightly different stereographs of visitors/surveyors to the Salt Caves at Victoria, Huon Valley.

The reasons behind this practice may vary from experimentation with one, so no need for a stamp, and satisfaction with the other according to the client who commissioned it on commercial terms, hence the stamp. Further copies of the same photograph or those of similar subjects were included as a further possibility for the same commission fee. One stamped photograph per batch of 100 or per a yearly fee was required by photographers to register copyright of a particular trademark with the Office of the Registrar of Patents, Customs House, Hobart. Tasmanian photographers' copyright of their work was regulated by the Registration of Trade Marks Act 28, No. 6, Victoria, from 1864. Only two copies of their trade mark, applied to the "goods" they were intended to protect were required to be deposited with the Registrar. The applicant was issued with a one year Provisional Certificate, and if no objection was raised, the copyright endured absolute for a period of 14 years. Nevin registered copyright of at least six commercial trademarks and at least one of his trademarks, registered under colonial warrant and featuring the Supreme Court's Royal Arms insignia, was held jointly when commissioned by the Hobart City Council. This pair of slightly different stereographs of the same scene taken at different times, like those taken at the Salt Caves, are most likely estrays from the Lands and Survey Department, supplied at the request of  James Erskine Calder, Surveyor-General.



Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
140 Elizabeth St. Hobart showing Nevin's studio, formerly Alfred Bock's, "three doors from Patrick St."
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Ref: Q1994.56.33.
Photo taken at TMAG 10th November 2014
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR



Verso: Stereograph by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1868
140 Elizabeth St. Hobart showing Nevin's studio, formerly Alfred Bock's, "three doors from Patrick St."
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Ref: Q1994.56.33.
Photo taken at TMAG 10th November 2014
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

The Mugshot
One reviewer of the exhibition The Photograph and Australia has noted the lack of mugshots apart from Ned Kelly's rap sheet bearing two photographs. Others which were included were not identified as such. This vignette by Thomas Nevin of William Russell, who was imprisoned for two months in 1882, is a case in point, despite the fact that the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery submitted it as a prisoner mugshot with the detail of Russell's prison sentence written on the verso, albeit unattributed.



Exhibited at the AGNSW 2015

Details per page 299 of Catalogue, The Photograph and Australia

"William Rusille (?) /native/free (?) /2 months c 1874
carte-de-visite
10.3 x 6.3 cm (card)
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Q15623"

The AGNSW exhibitors have transcribed information from barely legible details on the verso of this photograph, but added the date "1874" through a common misconception. The date "1874" ascribed to this photograph is an error. It is a date which has been routinely applied to all carte-de-visite mounted photographs of Tasmanian prisoners/convicts held in public collections when nothing is known of the prisoner's history at the time the photograph was taken. It is an error caused by an early 20th century exhibitor who wrote "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" across the versos of the extant 300 or so cdvs of "convicts" purely in the interests of government-sponsored penal heritage tourism in the 1920s to coincide with the making of the film For The Term of His Natural Life at Port Arthur, based on Marcus Clarke's 1874 novel.



Recto and verso of mugshot of William Russell
There is no date inscribed on verso.
TMAG Collection: Ref: Q15623

This prisoner, Willliam Russell, was photographed once on incarceration in February 1882 at the Hobart Gaol. He was tried at Hobart on 17th February 1882 for unlawfully beating, sentenced to two months, and discharged on 19th April 1882. He was listed as Free, born in Tasmania ca. 1856, and bearing an unusual tattoo on his upper right arm: "EYGM". The police gazette* record of his age and height was corrected a week later on 28th April 1882.

This photograph, the booking shot, which was printed first as a vignette (cloudy background), was reprinted in an oval mount two month's later, in April 1882, when William Russell was discharged. For such a short sentence of two months, when the prisoner's physical appearance is unlikely to have changed, a reprint of the booking shot rather than a new photograph seems to have satisfied police requirements. The unusual feature of this photograph and many others printed for gaol records right up to the last of Thomas Nevin's involvement with prisoner identification photography in 1888 is the use of an oval mount typical of his earlier commercial practice. Only the full frontal gaze had changed from the earlier pose with the prisoner's eyelines deflected to left or right of the frame.

Taken by Constable John Nevin and Thomas J. Nevin, February 1882, Hobart Gaol.





*Source: Tasmania Reports of Crimes Information for Police, J. Barnard, Gov't Printer.