Introduction

The Place Now Called Victoria

Rural Victoria

Ned Kelly

A Jewel in the Crown

Marvellous Melbourne

Victorians at War

Victorian Stories

Rural Victoria

Within a decade of its invention, photography began to be used to record the changing nature of life in rural Victoria. From the mid-19th century, photographers set up studios and travelled throughout the colony, taking portraits and selling views. These scenes depict the natural environment and Aboriginal life as well as the towns and industries that have developed since the first European settlers spread north, west and east from Port Phillip.



As amateur photography developed, the family album emerged alongside the postcard and the professional view to record many aspects of daily life on the land, such as pride in a successful crop or the regular struggle with bushfire and flood.

The State Library of Victoria continues to collect and commission photographs that depict aspects of life in rural Victoria, including agriculture, industry, the growth of country towns, domestic life and leisure, from yesterday through to today.


Illustration
George Black, The Old Curiostiy Shop, Ballarat, c1899