Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Couple on the veranda of their house with large front garden (from a distance), Hill End

Couple on the veranda of their house with large front garden (from a distance), Hill End

1872
Glass photonegative

Thomas Browne (better known as Rolf Boldrewood) was Gulgong's Gold Commissioner during the period of Merlin and Bayliss photographs. Boldrewood's description of the domestic miner in his novel The Miner's Right seems universal.

The thrifty miner who possesses the treasure … of a cleanly managing wife, is enabled to surround himself with rural privileges. A plot of garden ground, well fenced, grows not only vegetables but flowers …

From Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette, 11 November 1887

THE MINER'S WIFE.

The sun is brightly shining,
And the gardens looking gay,
but the heart within is pining
For the husband that's away.
Oh ! dangerous is his calling
In this weary world of strife,
And accidents appalling
Oft wreck the Miner's Wife.

By Golden Square,
Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette, 11 November 1887