News vender Forest Creek, 1872, watercolour, State Library Victoria

The so-called news vendor in this watercolour – shown mounted on a splendidly drawn horse and carrying a bag bulging with copies of The Argus newspaper (1848–1957) – is middle-aged with a bushy red beard, and bears a remarkable resemblance to known self-portraits of Gill. It would be in keeping with the artist’s sense of irony to show himself revisiting the goldfields, where he’d made his name as a painter exactly two decades earlier.