Photograph (#1)

Photograph of the northern section of Old Smithfield township during its heyday.

The photograph was taken circa July 1877, early in the morning as evidenced by the long shadows from the east. The photographer (probably William True Bennett) was standing on Macdonald Street, Old Smithfield township, looking northwest, away from the Barron River towards the 900-metre-high Red Peak. On the far left is Alf and Annie Martin's Bee Hive Hotel, then Craig & Cochrane's store and Harris Hymes Solomon's drapery in the left middle distance. Running along the centre of the road is the wooden tramway, which Solomon constructed to move goods from the two wharves on the Barron River to the stores along Macdonald Street. James Sparge's horse and cart moved up to 40 tons of stores a day along the tramway, at the rate of 4/-s. a ton. On the far right of the photograph is Thomas Henry Williams' store.

This image is in the Cairns Historical Society collection and is a cork-backed table placemat. The image shown here is a scan of that placemat. The whereabouts of the original glass-plate slide taken by William True Bennet is unknown.

This image is a copy of a glass-plate photograph, which was most likely taken by the travelling American photographer William True Bennett (1836, Michigan-1910, California) between June and early August 1877.1

William True Bennett (photographer).

Bennett has been called 'the father of photography in Queensland'.2

He arrived in Brisbane in 1857 and stayed for 20 months before returning home to fight in the American Civil War. In 1871 he arrived back in Brisbane and leased the Queensland Theatre. He was declared bankrupt in March 1876, whereupon he moved to north Queensland and worked as a travelling photographer. Sometime between June and early August 1877 he made a trip to Cairns and Smithfield.

In late August 1877 he went to Mackay and opened Bennett & H. Leslie & Co. Photographic Studio on Sydney Street, where he exhibited "several well-executed views of Northern scenery ... which were of sufficient artistic merit to entitle him to a fair share of patronage".3 This image of Old Smithfield Township may have been part of that exhibition.

In November 1877 he staged another exhibition of photographs of 'northern scenery' at Metcalfe's Photographic Galley on Queen Street, Brisbane, which was owned by fellow American Daniel F. Metcalfe. The exhibition included photographs of Trinity Bay, Cairns, Smithfield, the Hodgkinson goldfield, Thornborough and Cooktown.4

Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser, Saturday 25 August 1877: 2.

The Week [Brisbane], Saturday 15 November 1877: 15.

• ^1. Design & Art Australia Online, https://www.daao.org.au/bio/william-true-bennett/biography/ ↩

• ^2. The Telegraph [Brisbane], Friday 21 Mar 1879: 2. ↩

• ^3. Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser, Saturday 25 August 1877: 2. ↩

• ^4. The Week [Brisbane], Saturday 15 November 1877: 15. ↩