Australian Aboriginal cricketers

1867
Albumen photoprint on cardboard with lithographed letterpress
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1951
DL Pf 140

The 16 portraits that make up this composite image were taken by colonial surveyor Patrick Dawson at his photographic studio in the Victorian town of Warrnambool in the months before the team’s departure for England. Each player was individually photographed – five of the Aboriginal team members were posed with cricket bats or stumps but most with weapons such as boomerangs, spears, clubs and shields. The captain, ex-English player Charles Lawrence, holds a ball.

Dawson assembled the individual portraits into a composite, which he also issued as a cased-ambrotype for a small-scale souvenir. The players are identified on each of the individual portraits, along with their team managers at the top and bottom. Two of the photographed players (Harry Rose and Tim Draw) did not end up going on the tour, and were replaced by Jim Crow Jallachmurrimin and Charles Dumas Pripumarraman.