Pearl diving deckhands, c1950. While the diver is submerged the deckhands oversee the air supply and the tender communicates with the diver through pulls on the lifeline. Don Boota, Joe Guivarra and Sammy Bowder on the Phyllis, c1950. Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

Henry Dan, also known as Seaman Dan from Thursday Island, ready for helmet-and-corselet diving on the Paxie, 1956. The corselet has an 11 lb weight at the front and 14 lb weight at the back to facilitate descent. Photograph by courtesy of Henry Dan, Collection of Regina Ganter

Photograph by courtesy of Henry Dan, Collection of Regina Ganter

Georgie Wallis and Sammy Bowder cleaning pearl-shell on the deck of Keith Bradford’s Phyllis, c1950. Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

Photograph by courtesy of Pedro Guivarra, Collection of Regina Ganter

Bully Drummond showing an unusually large coral-encrusted pearl-shell, 1949. After the war the re-entry of Japanese divers was controversial and Torres Strait Islanders were able to demonstrate their skill and daring as deep-sea divers. Drummond is wearing a hair net and cut-up blanket under the diving dress. Photograph by courtesy of Ken Corn, Collection of Regina Ganter

Photograph by courtesy of Ken Corn, Collection of Regina Ganter

The pearling fleet leaves Kushimoto, 1953. The first post-war pearling fleet was farewelled from Kushimoto in 1953. For the people of Kushimoto, sending this fleet to Australia seemed like the resumption of an old tradition. However, the entry of the Japanese fleet into what Australia now claimed as sovereign territory followed protracted negotiations, because Australia sought to assert the new international doctrine of sovereignty over its ‘continental shelf’. The Japanese government eventually acknowledged Australia’s territorial claim and agreed to catch quotas and size limitations.

Photograph by courtesy of Shishio Takai, Collection of Regina Ganter

Pearling became the largest industry in far north Queensland in the 1890s and had a massive impact on coastal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Gold regions Australia, 1850s

21 October 2010
21 October 2010

Collection of the National Library of Australia

Australian gold regions, 1850s. From Atlas of Australia with all the gold regions, engraved by Sidney Hall, J. Bartholomew and W. Hughes, Edinburgh, A.C.Black, 1850s.

This Atlas produced in Edinburgh from 1850s, shows the major gold deposits in Victoria and New South Wales, with some areas in Moreton Bay (part of New South Wales and North Australia).

Illustration from a prospectus of the Brilliant Gold Mining Company, Charters Towers, 1899. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 33797

Workers and their families, Mount Craven Mines Eidsvold, 1889. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 23777

Croydon Mining Exchange, c1895. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

Collection John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 44856
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