Gold washing, at the Ovens, Victoria.

[1861-1862]. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image approximately 73 x 73 mm, flat yellow mount 83 x 165 mm; verso with printed label ’40. Gold washing, at the Ovens, Victoria. Ed. Haigh, Photo.’, and below this in manuscript the monogram and sequence number of the original owner ‘MAH. 72’; both prints, as well as the mount, are in fine condition.

A very early photograph documenting the Ovens Valley goldfields in northeast Victoria.  

No other example traced.

The English photographer Edward Haigh, who had studied with the Crimean War photographer Roger Fenton, arrived in Melbourne in January 1861. He opened a studio in South Yarra and spent over a year in the colony. Haigh specialised in stereoscopic photography and his views of Victoria, England and France won a first-class award at the 1861 Melbourne Exhibition. He returned to London in 1862, where his stereoviews of Melbourne and Victoria won a medal at the London International Exhibition that year.