Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Mair Street, Ballarat West

Mair Street, Ballarat West

1874
Glass photonegative

This otherwise unremarkable view of Mair Street, Ballarat West, is notable for the long shadows cast on the roadway by the winter sun. They reveal the silhouettes of photographer Charles Bayliss with his 10 x 12 inch [25 x 30 cm] camera on tripod, together with his horse and photographic van. Also in Ballarat at this time was Bernhardt Holtermann, who was visiting the School of Mines and probably checking on his Exposition photographer.

From Bendigo Advertiser, 3 May 1879

Ballarat proper is divided into constituencies... by the Leigh or Yarrowee. Ballarat West and Ballarat East lie on the respective sides of this natural boundary. The West, besides wearing the city coat of arms, is the fashionable and aristocratic end. The East has never been able to rub off "borough " from its plate, and so has to bear the snobography of its more fortunate, but at the same time jealous, neighbour. [Bendigo Advertiser, 3 May 1879, p1]