1860's - 1900's Pics of Australia

[Teemore]

Isolation rules & regs (in Victoria) are keeping many of us just twiddling our thumbs, painting, gardening, detector maintenance all under control so thought I'd sort through my collection of stereoviews.
My collection dates from the mid 1860's through to about 1912, stereoviews were the original form of 3D we became familiar with (3D movies seem to have died out again), 3D viewing was a popular way of seeing far away places in a time when few could travel.
Cheers T.

Here's a few for starters .......

Mine at Broken Hill (NSW) ... Mining on the Tanjil River (Vic)..... Summit of Mt Wellingtion (Tasmania) ....... What looks like a group of Rowers at a picnic (Sth Aust).

Will scan and get others up tomorrow.

 

[Goldfreak]

I love those old photos. That one with the puddler is a ripper. As you look closer it just gets more and more interesting the way they have set it up. :Y:

 

[Mackka]

I remember an old puddler outside of Whroo from memory but my memory is fading.
Mackka

 

[davent]

Can anyone explain how a puddler works please?
Great pics, I love history!

 

[Tathradj]

Nice how those old silver plate photo's come up.
You can barely see any thing on them but when you scan them,
They look like they were taken yesterday.

 

[Teemore]

I love those old photos. That one with the puddler is a ripper. As you look closer it just gets more and more interesting the way they have set it up. :Y:

Yes, some interesting detail in that .... trolley/cart to get dirt to the puddler, the way they've damed the river, what looks like a couple of hand powered water wheels, assume to feed the sluices.

 

[Teemore]

Can anyone explain how a puddler works please?
Great pics, I love history!

Basically a crushing plant .... Circular depression, sometimes just dirt or lined with planks, occasionally something resembling concrete. these were filled with water, dirt, gravels or whatever were fed into it ..... usually a horse provided the power going around forever in a circle driving a crushing wheel that pulverised the material. This was then removed and panned/sluiced to get the gold. There are still heaps in the Vic goldfields in varying stages of decline .... sadly many believe that there's gold to be had by tearing them apart, they're protected (or should be).

 

[user 4386]

Can anyone explain how a puddler works please?
Great pics, I love history!

Basically a crushing plant .... Circular depression, sometimes just dirt or lined with planks, occasionally something resembling concrete. these were filled with water, dirt, gravels or whatever were fed into it ..... usually a horse provided the power going around forever in a circle driving a crushing wheel that pulverised the material. This was then removed and panned/sluiced to get the gold. There are still heaps in the Vic goldfields in varying stages of decline .... sadly many believe that there's gold to be had by tearing them apart, they're protected (or should be).

Not exactly a crushing plant - more an agitation plant to get stiff clay to break up and become finely suspended in water. Anyone who has tried to pan or sluice sticky heavy clay will know the problem - it will not "dissolve" (floculate) in the water but simply washes out of the pan or sluice with the gold still in the balls of clay. What the puddler did was constantly agitate the clay to get the fine clay particles into suspension, and the clayey water would be drained off, leaving things like quartz and gold behind. You would do this for a long time until their was a fair bit of the non-clay heavy material in the bottom of the puddler, then you would shovel it out and put it through your sluice or whatever.

There are a few actual circular depressions still around from what were called "Chilean Mills". These were quartz crushing plants. In that case instead of stirring mud, it was reef quartz that was crushed. a large stone wheel was revolved around and round in a circular trench, rotated by a horse. Lumps of quartz were thrown in and crushed and ground by the heavy rotating stone wheel. Periodically the circular trench would be cleaned out, and the crushed quartz sluiced etc. The base of the trench needed to be hard rock of course, unlike in a puddling machine, otherwise the quartz would be just pressed into the ground.

 

[Teemore]

Here's a few more.....

Part of the garden at Gingie Station (near Walgett/Brewarrina NSW I think), interesting that the owner came from Buninyong in Vic.

Paddle steamer Cato ready to cart wool from Gingie Station down the Darling/Murray to Adelaide. A cutting from the papers indicated the Cato needed to travel 1580 odd miles (approx.2500km) ... drought and low river levels sometimes meant a trip lasting many months.

Guest House in Sassafras Vic.

Timber tram track in Gippsland Vic. for carting sawmill timber.

Early Ballarat .. Sturt St, the trees in the centre plantation only just planted gives an idea of time (mid 1860's)

Early view of Albury.

Couple of views of Melb ..... Batmans Hill (roughly where Sthn Cross station is now) and the Yarra swamp, original Princes Bridge roughly in the Fed Square area.

Cheers T.

 

[Teemore]

A couple from yesteryear .....
A couple of BIG trees before chainsaws made cutting them down easy.
Walhalla gold town in Vic.
Street in Clare S.A.
Massive tree, Mt Wellington Tas
Castlemaine Vic. as it used to be c1860's
Cheers T

 

[silver]

I like how they make that central 3D image when you let your eyes relax into it. Alternatively you can hold the images close in front of your eyes so that each eye see's one seperate image.... then slowly pull the image out from your face until that third middle image eventuates.... then keep moving the image away from yourself until your eyes bring focus and clarity to the cental image in 3D.
Might take a few goes to get it.
Easy on a phone if you save the image and screenshot it as a full screen and turn off rotation.
Great images teemore. I think they had a special camera that took two side by side photos simultaneously.

 

[Teemore]

I like how they make that central 3D image when you let your eyes relax into it. Alternatively you can hold the images close in front of your eyes so that each eye see's one seperate image.... then slowly pull the image out from your face until that third middle image eventuates.... then keep moving the image away from yourself until your eyes bring focus and clarity to the cental image in 3D.
Might take a few goes to get it.
Easy on a phone if you save the image and screenshot it as a full screen and turn off rotation.
Great images teemore. I think they had a special camera that took two side by side photos simultaneously.

You summed it up pretty well, yes they had a special camera with 2 lenses (approx. eye width apart), each took a slightly different picture that when viewed gives the 3D effect, Fuji actually had one on the market a few years ago (digital).

Anyone familiar with the old Magic Eye images and able to see those 3D images should have no problem "free viewing" these stereoviews, I have several late 1800's stereo viewers that make the task easier (these weren't selected because of their 3D effect, some come up better than others).

Many are also worth MORE than their weight in gold ..... highest price I can remember is around $3,700.00 although most are in the $5 -$50 range with the average for more desirable ones around $150 -$250, just same many are probably just junked when our oldies possessions are "cleaned up".

Cheers T.

 

[MegsyB007]

Wow! That first pic is Yarragon in Gippsland, Vic. My relatives were pioneers there, and still live there to this day! Wish they had people's names on the pic, that could be my relos in it. I know that one of them had a bullock team that moved cut timber around when they were clearing the road through there (now the Princes Highway), and probably when they were clearing the land for properties too. Those trees were massive! Hard yakka - they were tough people.

Thanks for posting Teemore!

Cheers,
Megsy

 

[casper]

I like how they make that central 3D image when you let your eyes relax into it. Alternatively you can hold the images close in front of your eyes so that each eye see's one seperate image.... then slowly pull the image out from your face until that third middle image eventuates.... then keep moving the image away from yourself until your eyes bring focus and clarity to the cental image in 3D.
Might take a few goes to get it.
Easy on a phone if you save the image and screenshot it as a full screen and turn off rotation.
Great images teemore. I think they had a special camera that took two side by side photos simultaneously.

Thanks for posting the pics Teemore...
Silver, It's called "free view stereo" ie stereo viewing with out apparatus. It's been a hobby of mine for years and I still make my own stereo views. The ones posted are not suitable for "free view stereo" so I've re configured one of the photos for us all to enjoy. The technique requires practice.... display the pic on your computer screen, fix your gaze on the pair of photos BUT without concentrating specifically on either of the two images, now relax and then go "cross eyed" you will now see THREE photos, now concentrate your vision on the CENTER one, and this is the tricky part - relax and hold your gaze on the the CENTER pic and it will POP to a 3D VIEW, the 2 outside images will be blurry and after a while you will hardly notice them. With practice it will become easier and you will be able to hold the 3D image for an extended time and look around in the picture just like you looking at a view thru a window. You will need to find the most comfortable image size and viewing distance or it will be difficult and uncomfortable to make it work and "hold' the view. Practice makes perfect as they say

 

[goldtrapper]

Wow, that one is awesome. Thanks.
If you get your focus right on the top one you can keep scrolling down to the bottom one.

 

[just starting]

I swear i saw something move in the pics. And i think you are right. It needs practice to see what you are seeing.

 

[casper]

Wow, that one is awesome. Thanks.
If you get your focus right on the top one you can keep scrolling down to the bottom one.

It is awesome - puts you right there doesn't it! 'tis the next best thing to a time machine. The pic with the 2 axe men has exceptional depth.

Question:- when you "cross-eye view" Teemore's stereo pic 2, and then cross-eye view the stereo pic in my post, which one works for you and you get a 3D view?

check out this https://www.jrsdesign.net/stereo-photography/free-viewing-test

 

[Gpx5000]

That's fantastic, they were pretty smart back then.
Thanks for posting. :Y:

 

[Guest]

my eyes hurt :argh:

 

[reefer]

my eyes hurt too!...couldn't get any 3D ...Ido need a cataract job done...maybe that's why...perhaps if I have 2-3 more whiskies... layful: