1872
Glass photonegative
JH Osborne, painter and signwriter of Gulgong, also supplied decorative wallpaper. It seems he painted faux marble headstones as well. Osborne’s bark-clad establishment was located at 2 Medley Street, at the sparsely populated northern end of town, which explains the conspicuous display of his sign-writing skill.
City artists find their place, fix a mean affair
of bark and tin, nailed up or tied with string
Easily flattened, hauled on a dray, as they
follow ‘the rush’ to the next new town
Paint important names in letters tall and bold
for butchers, bakers, cooks or carriage-makers
Zimmler’s Chemist and tobacconist ‘replete
with most Genuine drugs and Purest Chemicals’
Dispensing care and advice without a licence
They buy up whitewash, canvas, calico in rolls,
Wait for an order from a Sydney store for paper
paint, dyes in the latest colours. Tombstones
fashioned in faux marble for a decent burial
Imagination and Ingenuity guaranteed at No 2.
All skills provided for men who try their luck
follow the rainbow across a bumpy plain
after J. H. Osborne, painter and sign-writer, Gulgong - a2822301
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