Early Images of the Australian Aborigines

Further information on the items displayed is available in the online catalogue

Early Images of the Australian Aborigines

An Exhibition of Material from the Monash University Rare Book Collection
14 October - 29 November 1993

A selection of items from the exhibition

Above

"Natives of Botany Bay" in PHILLIP, Arthur.
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. 2nd ed. (London, John Stockdale, 1790) Ferguson 90.

Above

“Hut in New South Wales” in PHILLIP, Arthur.
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. (Dublin, P. Byrne [et al] 1790) Ferguson 93.

Above

“Family of New South Wales” in HUNTER, John, An Historical Journal of theTransactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London, John Stockdale, 1793) Ferguson 153.

Above

DUMONT D'URVILLE, Jules Sebastian César, le Comte. Voyage Pittoresque Autour Du Monde (Paris, Chez L. Tenré, 1835) Two copies of Vol. 2 are on display.

Above

"A Native Chief of Baturst" [i.e. Bathurst] in Oxley, John, Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales (London, John Murray, 1820) Ferguson 796.

The colour portrait of a "Native Chief of Bathurst" appeared in John Oxley's Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, undertaken ... in the years 1817-18, a quarto, published in 1820. This is the work of the noted early Sydney artist, John William Lewin, more famous among book collectors for his illustrations of birds and Lepidopterous insects.

Above

"Burial Place near the Budda" and "The Opossum Hunt" in STURT, Charles, Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia during the Years 1828, 1829, 1830, and 1831 ... 2nd ed. (London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1834) 2 vols. Ferguson 1853.

"Cambo", "Native of the Bogan' and "The Murray, 27th of May 1836" in MITCHELL, Thomas, Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia with Descriptions of the recently Explored region of Australia Felix. (London, T. & W. Boone, 1838) 2 Vols. Ferguson 1838

Left

"Figures drawn on side wall of cave discd. March 26th [1838]", in GREY, George, Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia during the years 1837, 38, and 39, ... . Describing many newly discovered, important, and fertile districts, with observations on the moral and physical condition of the aboriginal inhabitants. (London, T. and W. Boone, 1841) Vol. I. Ferguson 3228.

Above

" Charley [and] Harry Brown" in LEICHHARDT, Ludwig, Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia from Moreton Bay to Port Essington ... during the Years 1844-1845. (London, T. and W. Boone, 1847) Ferguson 4571.

Leichhardt had three blacks on his first expedition, Harry Brown, Charlie Fisher, and an American negro cook named Caleb. Charlie Fisher had been a native policeman and tracker.

Above

"Kangaroo Dance of King Georges Sound", in EYRE, Edward John,
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, in the years 1840-1; ...
Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of their Relations with Europeans. ( London, T. and W. Boone, 1845) Ferguson 4031. Vol. II.

Above

"Messrs. Fitzmaurice and Keys dancing for their lives" in STOKES, John Lort,
Discoveries in Australia; with an account of the Coasts and Rivers explored and surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle in the years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. (London, T. and W. Boone, 1846) Vol. II. Ferguson 4406.

Above

“Facing the Enemy”, in WARBURTON, Peter Egerton,
Journey across the Western Interior of Australia (London, Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1875) Ferguson 18187

"Jenny, Native of Port Sorell, Van Diemen's Land" in STRZELECKI, Paul de, Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. (London, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1845) Ferguson 4168.

"Timmy, Native of the Eastern Coast" in FENTON, James, History of Tasmania (Hobart, J. Walch and Sons, 1884) Ferguson 9580.

Right

"Wooreddy, Truganina's Husband" and "Lalla Rookh, or Truganina, the Last Tasmanian Woman" in BONWICK, James, The Lost Tasmanian Race. (London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884) Ferguson 7253.

31	Left "Dance at the Conclusion of the Cavarra Ceremonies" in HODGKINSON, Clement, Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay; with descriptions of the natives, their manners and customs. (London, T. and W. Boone, 1845) Ferguson 4067.

Above

"War Dance. A Drawing by an Aboriginal of the Kingston Tribe."
in CONIGRAVE, John Fairfax, South Australia: a Sketch of its History & Resources.
A Handbook; compiled ... for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886. ([Adelaide, E. Spiller, Government Printer, 1886]) Ferguson 8593.

Right

"Night Fishing on the Lakes in Gipps Land" in HAYDON, George Henry, Five Year's Experience in Australia Felix. (London, Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1846) Ferguson 4305.

36	Left "Blacks stalking emeus" in BADEN-POWELL, George, New Homes for the Old Country, (London, Richard Bentley and Son, 1872) Ferguson 14299.

Right

"Native Australian Bee-Hunters" in ARTHUR, J. K., Kangaroo and Kauri: sketches and anecdotes of Australia and New Zealand. (London, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1894) Ferguson 6137.

"Ouzo-Mare of the Gwea-Gal Tribe, called Bulldog at Sydney" in HAMILTON SMITH, Charles, The Natural History of the Human Species, (London, Henry G. Bohn, [1848]) Not in Ferguson.

"Australian Race, Willilnga. A Native of the Interior of Australia" in PICKERING, Charles, The Races of Man; and their Geographical Distribution, new ed., (London, H. G. Bohn, 1851) Ferguson 14138.

47	Left HOWITT, A. W., The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. (London, Macmillan, 1904) The cover decoration on the book is rather startling; it shows "The Bret or dead hand". There was a custom among the Kurnai to cut one or both hands from a corpse and dry it.

"Vieille femme haranguant des natifs", in PERRON D'ARC, Henri, Aventures d'un voyageur en Australie neuf mois de sejour chez les Nagarnooks 2nd ed. (Paris, Hachette, 1870) Ferguson 14036.

"Ethno-Pornographical", in ROTH, Walter E., Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines. (Brisbane, Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, 1897) Ferguson 15115.

Left

"Two of the Natives of New Holland Advancing to Combat" in MURRAY-OLIVER, Anthony, Captain Cook's Artists in the Pacific 1769-1779. ([Christchurch], Avon Fine Prints, 1969)

This illustration appeared in Sydney Parkinson's Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in his Majesty's Ship The Endeavour ... (London, 1773).

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