Dr William Bland

Australia’s first photograph, c.1845

Fixed in Time

This is the earliest known surviving photograph made in Australia—by George Goodman, the first professional photographer in the colonies. The daguerreotype was also the first form of photograph.

The process involved a highly polished sheet of silvered copper being sensitised in iodine vapour, exposed and developed in mercury vapour. The mercury adhered to the unexposed silver, forming the highlights. It was a slow process and Goodman’s exposures were around 30 seconds, so that sitters were clamped in place during the procedure.

Goodman was aware that most people knew nothing about photography and charged a guinea for his portraits—with another guinea for each additional person in the image! Not surprisingly, Goodman made a healthy profit, despite the economic depression of the 1840s.

Dr William Bland, a Royal Navy surgeon, had been transported to New South Wales for murder, after a pistol duel in 1813. He ran foul of Governor Macquarie, but was elected to represent Sydney in the first elected government in the Colony in 1843.

A prominent surgeon, humanitarian, social reformer and inventor, Bland became first president of the Australian Medical Association in 1859.
Display item Dr William Bland

 

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