Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Carcoar Hotel and the Public School in Belubula Street, Carcoar

Carcoar Hotel and the Public School in Belubula Street, Carcoar

1873
Glass photonegative

Beaufoy Merlin’s photographic perambulations between Dubbo and Bathurst led him to Carcoar on the road to Cowra. His photographic van is parked at the foot of the slope opposite the Carcoar Hotel and the Public School in Belubula Street. The Sydney Morning Herald 26 February 1876 described Carcoar as 'one of the oldest and, for its size, wealthiest inland towns in the colony. During the past two months its inhabitants have been benefited considerably by the great influx of population to this gold-field, but ordinarily the place is exceedingly quiet and monotonous.

Selling houses Australia - By Carolyne Bruyn

I give the ephemeral its sense of place

its portable permanency

in a cabinet of wonders.

I invite the curious to look inside

the frame, the still, deserted sub-division,

to finger mud, the hurried splinter walls

and they whisper of dust and what could be

a celebration of the moments

of apprehension and the fugitive response

to a new beginning, spare and visionary

if somewhat final. One time only

the image speaks for itself and I

speak for the image.

We have chosen the best but not

the worst of what there is. Be quick.

Hope is already landed here and there;

it thrives in snatches.

But my cabinet of wonders will be on its way

if no one is willing to take it in.

-  after Belubula Street, Carcoar, 1873 a2824841