Historical information

Murray Comrie Collection.

Information collated by Murray Comrie:
This photograph shows the Treloar Foundry with its chimney, employees and the Treloar home in Commercial Road Tarnagulla

H.W. (Henry) Treloar was a native of Redruth in Cornwall, where he was born in 1811. He worked as a blacksmith in his father's Cornwall foundry and then in 1840 went to work in Cuba as a foreman smith to the Royal Santiago Copper Mining Co. Returning to England in 1851 he remained for two years just as the reports of rich Victorian goldfields began to be heard there. He brought his family to Australia in September 1853, arriving in Geelong and then working in Heidelberg for eighteen months. He returned to Geelong to set up a business but after three months was drawn to the Maryborough goldfields, then Dunolly and then Sandy Creek (as Tarnagulla was then known), arriving in March 1855. He remained in Tarnagulla until his death.

He established the Foundry in Tarnagulla in 1855 and was known as the best 'mining' smith in the district. After the decline of mining he turned to production of agricultural implements and the firm built a reputation in the field, through devices such as the 'NONPARIEL' tree and stump extractor, double furrow ploughs, seed harrows and scarifiers. On 26th October 1878 the firm won three first prizes for their implements at the North Western Agricultural Show at Ingelwood.

The business of Treloar & Son was taken over by the James Bros in November 1894.


This photograph is a reasonable copy created from an older original, owned by Miss Doris Nicholls. Copy probably made by Murray Comrie in the 1970s.

Physical description

Monochrome photograph of five men and a young girl standing in front of a house with white verandah posts and two brick chimneys. In the background a much taller brick chimney is visible.