Victorian Collections logo
The Beechworth Burke Museum
From the collection of The Beechworth Burke Museum
837 Items featured online

Photograph, Circa 1858

  • Black and white photograph of a row of business buildings on a rocky, sloping hillside, with a view across to residences and open land. Businesses from left to right (up the slope): J.E. Bishop, Coach Builders; Straughair Duncan, Engineers, Blacksmiths & Farriers; Straughair Duncan, Beechworth Foundry; Wholesale & Retail Est. 1855 (?), Family Store Mackenzie; T. Pratten, Grocer - ?? & ?? Dealer,

    3053 (cropped)

  • Uncropped black and white photograph (top half of paper) of a row of business buildings on a rocky, sloping hillside, with a view across to residences and open land. Businesses from left to right (up the slope): J.E. Bishop, Coach Builders; Straughair Duncan, Engineers, Blacksmiths & Farriers; Straughair Duncan, Beechworth Foundry; Wholesale & Retail Est. 1855 (?), Family Store Mackenzie; T. Pratten, Grocer - ?? & ?? Dealer,

    3053 (obverse)

  • Back of photographic paper showing repeating pattern of Agfa wordmarks in diamond-shapes and hand-written pencil marks: 1997.2642 ; refer to 1997 2650 ; 3056 ;

    3053 (reverse)

  • Black and white photograph of a row of business buildings on a rocky, sloping hillside, with a view across to residences and open land. Businesses from left to right (up the slope): J.E. Bishop, Coach Builders; Straughair Duncan, Engineers, Blacksmiths & Farriers; Straughair Duncan, Beechworth Foundry; Wholesale & Retail Est. 1855 (?), Family Store Mackenzie; T. Pratten, Grocer - ?? & ?? Dealer,
  • Uncropped black and white photograph (top half of paper) of a row of business buildings on a rocky, sloping hillside, with a view across to residences and open land. Businesses from left to right (up the slope): J.E. Bishop, Coach Builders; Straughair Duncan, Engineers, Blacksmiths & Farriers; Straughair Duncan, Beechworth Foundry; Wholesale & Retail Est. 1855 (?), Family Store Mackenzie; T. Pratten, Grocer - ?? & ?? Dealer,
  • Back of photographic paper showing repeating pattern of Agfa wordmarks in diamond-shapes and hand-written pencil marks: 1997.2642 ; refer to 1997 2650 ; 3056 ;

Historical information

Taken around 1858, depicting a row of five business buildings on a rocky, sloping hillside at New Town, with a view across to residences and open land. Businesses included, Joseph E. Bishop, Coach Builders; Straughair Duncan, Engineers, Blacksmiths & Farriers; Straughair Duncan, Beechworth Foundry; Wholesale & Retail Est. 1855, Mackenzie Family Store ; and T. Pratten, Grocer. Eleven men may be seen outside the Foundry building. The Mental Hospital can be seen in the background.

Mark Straughair and John Duncan, established the Beechworth Foundry, Newtown in 1858 and went on to build an important industry, employing around sixteen men, after acquiring Alexander Roger's New Ford Street Foundry in the late 1860s. Making and repairing mostly mining and agricultural machinery for the Ovens District and a Beechworth brewery, the business continued to function after Straughair's death in 1882, up until the death of Duncan in 1896, when the business folded.

Significance

This photograph is historically significant because it shows the development of the businesses in Beechworth from the early establishment of the town.

Physical description

Black and white rectangular photograph printed on photographic paper

Inscriptions & markings

Reverse:
[Agfa wordmarks: diamond-shaped watermarks for Agfa photographic paper]
1997.2642/
refer to/ 1997 2650/
3056

Subjects

References

  • "Beechworth: A Titan's Field" by Carole Woods ISBN/ISSN: 0 949905 25 9 Information about Beechworth history from 1840s, concentrating on the nineteenth century. Page 120-121 information about expansion of small industries in Beechworth during the 1860s, including those of Joseph Bishop (Coach building), Mark Straughair and John Duncan (Engineering and Beechworth Foundry). p164 Years of deaths for Straughair and Duncan, plus reopening of Foundry by W.H. Phillips in 1905.

Other parts of this item

TOP
Back to top