The Holtermann Collection

Taken in the Hill End studio of the American and Australasian Photographic Company, this is Dr John O'Connell and his wife Theresa, née Cummins. They were married in Hill End on 6th June 1874. She was 24 and he was 71 and had just been appointed medical officer at Hill End Hospital, much to the dismay of the Hill End Observer, which decried “the notorious habit" of Dr O'Connell and his lack of “a firm, steady hand..." During the 1880s, he advertised a cure-all for those whose “debility, exhausted powers, premature decay, and failure to perform Life's Duties properly are caused by excesses, errors of youth, etc.," Unfortunately, Theresa died age 31 in Sydney, seven days after a stillborn birth in 1880.

Digital order no: a2823375

On Gay owned a drapery and general store in Clarke Street, Hill End, which he proudly advertised was part of a chain of similar stores on other goldfields. In his memoirs Remembered with Pride, miner Mark Hammond observed that “The appearance of the some of the Chinese had considerably altered from what it was … many of them were now adopting European costumes." As the Hill End gold rush declined, so too did local businesses and in February 1879, On Gay requested the registration of his empty house and garden. The Hill End Registrar noted beside his request “The Chinese do not think it safe without having a Registration ticket"

Digital order no: a2823541

Adelaide Montgomery and her fluffy dog were photographed in the Hill End studio of the American and Australasian Photographic Company. Her father died when she was three and she and her brother were raised by their mother Grace, who was a dressmaker. Adelaide met an unfortunate end in 1892 from an untreated illness, as she belonged to a sect that forbad medical intervention. Her mother omitted to report her daughter's death to the police, declaring that she was"only sleeping till the Lord should awaken her."

Digital order no: a2823342

Five year old August Gondolf poses on his horse tricycle in the studio of the American and Australasian Photographic Company, Hill End in 1873. The image is reminiscent of Claude Monet's 1872 painting of his son Jean on a similar expensive machine in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris. Young August was son of miner Peter Gondolf, a partner in the Oxon and Gondolf mine, which was situated on the ridge of Hawkins Hill, just outside the 'Golden Quarter Mile'. His fashionable sailor suit is topped with the hatband of HMS Cadmus, a 21 gun wooden steam corvette of the British Navy.

Digital order no: a2823746

Engineer and mill owner Seren Petersen, wife Maria and family crowded into the studio. Of their 12 children, the last five, including the youngest here, died before age two. The blur to the right is the photographer's assistant, accidentally captured during the exposure. Petersen's Battery at Oakey Creek was small but well positioned and in 1872 was able to crush 100 tons each week. The charge for crushing was 15s [$1.50] per ton. His throughput increased the following year, when he erected a tramway which conveyed quartz directly from Hawkins Hill. In 1874, Petersen was so proud of the efficiency of his gold extraction, that he offered a $1000 reward to anyone who could find 1 dwt/ton [1.5 g/tonne] from his tailings

Digital order no: a2824149

This photograph of a dead child, with a wreath of dianthus and surrounded by eucalypt leaves and roses, is a reminder of the high mortality of children in the nineteenth century. In the 1870s about a quarter of all children in Australia died before five years of age, usually from diarrhoeal and intestinal diseases from a lack of basic sanitation or infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and whooping cough. Families were large, averaging six children, so that the death of a child seemed commonplace. Not surprisingly, there are several post mortem photographs in the Holtermann collection.

Digital order no: a2824425