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Joseph Jenkins was a Welsh itinerant labourer in late 1800s Victoria. These images provide a glimpse into the lives of 'swagmen', a character mythologised in Australian cultural memory.
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Joseph Jenkins was a Welsh itinerant labourer in late 1800s Victoria. These images provide a glimpse into the lives of 'swagmen', a character mythologised in Australian cultural memory.
Can you reuse this media without permission? No (with exceptions, see below)
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This media item is licensed under "All rights reserved". You cannot share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) or rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) this item, or use it for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright owner. However, an exception can be made if your intended use meets the "fair dealing" criteria. Uses that meet this criteria include research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting news; enabling a person with a disability to access material; or professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney, or trademark attorney.
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Courtesy of State Library Victoria
"At Ballarat I visited Mr Roberts the photographer, and asked him to take my portrait…"
wrote Joseph Jenkins in March 1871.
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During 1874 Joseph was taken ill and spent nearly two months at this hospital in Maryborough. Even while he was sick in hospital he continued to write in his journal.
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Castlemaine was a thriving gold mining town in the 1850s and 1860s when Joseph Jenkins lived and worked in the area. Jenkins stayed at this hotel during one of his visits to Castlemaine.
Photograph: albumen silver carte-de-visite.
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Joseph Jenkins moved around Victoria, working as an agricultural labourer. Many men were required to harvest grain and hay before these tasks were mechanised.
This photograph was taken near Lake Bolac in Victoria.
Negative: glass.
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In 1875 Joseph worked at Spray Farm on the Bellarine Peninsula:
"I find that the working hours are three or four shorter every day than where I was before, also the living is ten times better, in fact this place is too good for an unfortunate man like myself..."
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Maldon at the time that Joseph Jenkins lived and worked there.
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Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
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Castlemaine was a thriving gold mining town in the 1850s and 1860s when Joseph Jenkins lived and worked in the area.
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All rights reserved
This media item is licensed under "All rights reserved". You cannot share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) or rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) this item, or use it for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright owner. However, an exception can be made if your intended use meets the "fair dealing" criteria. Uses that meet this criteria include research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting news; enabling a person with a disability to access material; or professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney, or trademark attorney.
Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
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Courtesy of State Library Victoria
Can you reuse this media without permission? No (with exceptions, see below)
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One of a series of postcards showing swagmen and other characters of the Victorian bush.
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During his time in Australia Joseph Jenkins did a variety of different forms of manual labour including wood cutting and clearing, similar to the work of these men in the forests of Gippsland.
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This is a wood engraving published in The Illustrated Australian News.
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One of a series of postcards showing swagmen and other characters of the Victorian bush.
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Swagmen or swaggies have been a feature of the Australian rural environment since before Joseph Jenkins hitched his swag in the 1860s.
As unemployed or itinerant workers, they moved around the country following available work. These images depict the unchanging life of the swaggie at different times over the last 100 or more years.
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Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
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The swagman was sometimes known as a 'sundowner'.
Victorian Collections acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work.