Believed to be the earliest known photograph of canoe building in Australia, Murray River, 1862.
The process involved removing a large slab of bark from a tree which is then laid on the ground and propped up all around its edge with sticks.
Stones and chunks of wood were placed in the middle of the slab of bark to weigh it down in the middle to give it shape. A fire is then lit under and on top of the bark to heat the sap and to make the bark pliable while the canoe is further manipulated into its desired shape then left to dry.
Photo by George Burnell.
PROVENANCE OF IMAGE:
George Burnell was living in Castlemaine, Victoria. He failed at gold-digging and was working in a hay and corn store in 1861 when he purchased a complete photographic outfit. Burnell’s friend E.W. Cole suggested that they set up a photography business together. Burnell and Cole bought a horse and cart, painted a sign which read 'Cole & Burnell, photographic artists, views & likenesses taken’, and set out to become travelling photographers. Burnell took the photographs, Cole processed them.
By Christmas 1861 they had reached Echuca on the Murray River. Burnell proposed travelling down the river to Adelaide, where he intended to open a photographic studio. They bought a flat-bottomed boat, refitted it, and spent the first four months of 1862 rowing and drifting the length of the river, taking views en route.
On 2 May 1862 they reached Point McLeay with a complete set of sixty albumen silver stereoscopic views of the River Murray (1862) which is held at the Art Galley of South Australia. Source: https://bit.ly/3ElFWoL
