Art and History

In all my books on nineteenth century Australian history I have used lots of pictorial material (drawings, paintings, black and white photographs, etc) as a way of enhancing the stories about people, places and events. As a writer I consider that I am fortunate to have access to so much pictorial material from the nineteenth century. One of the colonial artists whose work I value and have used in my books is S T Gill. Gill arrived in South Australia in 1839 at the age of 21 and travelled extensively recording many scenes and events until his death in Melbourne in 1880. He spent a considerable amount of time on the Victorian goldfields and as a result produced a large number of goldfield paintings.

The painting below by Gill was one of his that I used in my book: The Stag Diary - Passage to Colonial Adelaide 1850.